Your Clients Are Asking About AI Search
If you run an SEO or digital marketing agency in 2026, you've heard the question: "Are we showing up in ChatGPT?"
It's no longer a fringe concern. Gartner projects a 25% drop in traditional search traffic by 2026. BCG reports that AI-powered search is reshaping how consumers discover brands. And according to Forbes and eMarketer, over 40% of Gen Z already prefer AI search over traditional engines.
For agencies, this creates both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge: traditional SEO tools don't track AI search visibility. The opportunity: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a new service you can offer to existing clients — using the same SEO expertise you already have.
But first, you need the right platform. And the landscape has become crowded fast, with over $200 million raised across GEO startups in the last 18 months alone.
What We Compared
We evaluated five of the most relevant GEO platforms for agency use. Our criteria focused on what actually matters when you're managing multiple client brands:
- AI engine coverage — How many platforms are tracked, and at what cost?
- Multi-client management — Can you run separate campaigns per client?
- Team collaboration — User seats and sharing capabilities
- Pricing transparency — What you actually pay vs. what's gated behind enterprise tiers
- Actionability — Does the platform help you act on insights, or just observe?
- Regional fit — European data handling, language support, local presence
The Platforms at a Glance
| Platform | Headquarters | Realistic Monthly Cost | AI Engines Included | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | New York, US | $399–1,499+ | 3 (base), 10+ (Enterprise) | Enterprise brands with large budgets |
| Peec AI | Berlin, DE | €169–209+ (with add-ons) | 3 base + paid extras | Multilingual European brand tracking |
| Otterly.AI | Persenbeug, AT | $29–489 | 5 base + add-ons | Budget-conscious solo marketers |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | Boston, US | $99/domain (add-on) | 2–3 | Teams already using Semrush |
| Aurora | Zurich, CH | CHF 19–499 | 6 (all tiers) | Agencies managing multiple brands |
Profound: The Enterprise Powerhouse
Profound has raised $155 million and reached a $1 billion valuation, making it the most well-funded player in GEO. Their Conversation Explorer draws on hundreds of millions of real user prompts from licensed consumer panels — giving brands genuine search volume data for AI queries. They run 15 million+ prompts per day across 10+ AI engines, and their Agent Analytics shows how LLM crawlers interact with your website.
They also hold SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, which matters for clients in healthcare and financial services.
What agencies should know: Profound's Starter plan costs $99/month but only tracks ChatGPT. To get ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, you need the Growth tier at $399/month. Full engine coverage (including Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI) is Enterprise-only with custom pricing. Agency-specific plans start around $1,499/month. Managing multiple clients means multiple subscriptions at enterprise rates. For a mid-sized agency in Zurich or Munich with six clients, costs escalate quickly.
Reviews also note a steep learning curve — the platform is data-rich but can feel complex. And an application process may be required before you can even start.
Best for: Large enterprise brands with dedicated GEO budgets who need real AI search volume data and compliance certifications.
Peec AI: The Multilingual Contender
Berlin-based Peec AI has raised $29 million (including a $21M Series A led by Singular) and built an impressive multilingual engine supporting 115+ languages. Their investment thesis explicitly focuses on Europe's 27 markets — they understand GDPR, multi-market campaigns, and the complexities of non-English AI search.
Their research uncovered a fascinating insight: when users ask ChatGPT questions in German, nearly half of ChatGPT's background research happens in English. This kind of language-specific analysis is unique in the market.
Peec uses UI scraping (simulating real browser sessions rather than API calls) to capture exactly what users see in AI search results. This method ensures high fidelity to the actual user experience.
What agencies should know: Peec's Starter plan at €89/month includes only three AI engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Adding Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, or Grok costs €80–120 per month each. Full AI engine coverage effectively raises the monthly cost to €169–209 or more.
Multiple reviews consistently highlight a core limitation: Peec excels at showing what is happening with your brand in AI search, but offers limited guidance on what to do about it. There's no technical analytics on how AI bots crawl your website, and no attribution data linking AI mentions back to actual website traffic. Full API access is also gated behind the Enterprise plan.
Best for: Brands and agencies operating across many European language markets who primarily need monitoring across multilingual AI search.
Otterly.AI: The Austrian Budget Option
Otterly has an interesting DACH angle: they're headquartered in Persenbeug, Austria, founded by Thomas Peham (former VP of Marketing at Storyblok), Josef Trauner, and Klaus-M. Schremser (serial entrepreneur with exits to Atlassian). Unlike the venture-backed competition, Otterly is bootstrapped — which means they're focused on sustainability rather than growth at all costs. They were named "Top-Rated GEO Tool in Germany" by OMR Reviews, a strong signal for DACH credibility.
At $29/month for the Lite plan, they've attracted over 20,000 marketing professionals and earned G2 High Performer status, ranking #10 on G2's 2026 Best Software Awards. Their GEO Audit tool scores pages across 25+ AI-visibility factors, and their "Share of AI Voice" metric is a clean way to benchmark against competitors.
Otterly tracks five AI platforms at base (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Copilot), with Gemini available as an add-on.
What agencies should know: The $29 Lite plan is limited to 15 prompts — useful for testing, but not for client work. The Standard plan at $189/month with 100 prompts is the realistic starting point for agencies, while Premium ($489/month, 400 prompts) covers more serious multi-client setups.
Otterly doesn't track Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, or Meta AI at any tier. The platform is built more for individual marketers than for complex agency workflows with separate client environments and white-label reporting.
Best for: Solo consultants or small agencies who want an affordable, Austrian-built entry point into GEO monitoring.
Semrush AI Toolkit: The Add-On Approach
If your agency already runs on Semrush, their AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/month per domain, on top of your existing Semrush subscription) keeps everything in one ecosystem. Semrush One starts at $199/month (50 tracked prompts, 500 keywords) and includes geo-specific AI responses for different markets.
What agencies should know: The per-domain pricing model becomes expensive with multiple clients. Six client domains means six times $99 on top of your base Semrush subscription. The AI engine coverage is narrower than dedicated GEO platforms, and the depth of AI-specific analytics doesn't match tools purpose-built for this category.
Best for: Agencies deeply embedded in Semrush who want basic AI visibility without adopting a new platform.
Aurora: Built for Agency Economics
Full disclosure: this is our platform. We built Aurora because we saw the gap between enterprise tools that cost thousands per month and lightweight trackers that weren't designed for managing client work.
Here's what we focused on:
All six AI engines at every tier. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot — all included from the CHF 19/month Light plan upward. No add-on fees, no per-engine surcharges. When you pitch a client, you can promise comprehensive AI search coverage without worrying about hidden costs eating into your margin.
Multi-campaign architecture for client management. The Pro plan (CHF 199/mo) includes 3 campaigns with 200 prompts — enough for a small agency managing its first GEO clients. Expert (CHF 499/mo) scales to 10 campaigns with 500 prompts. Each campaign represents a different client brand, with its own prompts, competitors, and tracking configuration.
Unlimited users on Pro and above. No per-seat pricing. Your SEO team, account managers, and even clients can have dashboard access without inflating costs.
Daily automated tracking at every tier. Not weekly. For agencies that need to show clients month-over-month trends, daily data points create far more granular and compelling reports.
Competitor monitoring included. Track how each client brand compares against their competitors in AI search — a natural upsell conversation that often pays for the platform many times over.
Swiss-based, DACH-focused. Aurora Intelligence AG is headquartered in Zurich, with roots at the University of St. Gallen. For agencies in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, this means local support, European data handling, and a team that understands the DACH market firsthand. Our customers include agencies like Xeit AG and Jung von Matt Impact — teams that were already doing SEO and needed a credible GEO tool to expand their offering.
The Agency Business Case
The real question isn't which platform has the most features. It's which platform lets you sell GEO as a service profitably.
Consider the economics: A Pro plan at CHF 199/month gives you 3 client campaigns with unlimited users. If you charge each client CHF 300–500/month for AI search visibility monitoring and optimization recommendations, the tool pays for itself with a single client. Clients two and three are margin.
At the Expert tier (CHF 499/mo, 10 campaigns), the math becomes even more compelling — ten clients paying CHF 300+ each generates CHF 3,000 or more in monthly revenue from a CHF 499 investment.
The pitch to your clients writes itself: "Your brand is either visible when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity about your industry — or it isn't. We can show you exactly where you stand, and help you improve."
That's a conversation every SEO agency in the DACH region should be having right now.
Quick Decision Matrix
| If you need... | Consider |
|---|---|
| Real AI search volume data from user panels | Profound ($399+/mo) |
| 115+ language tracking across European markets | Peec AI (€89+/mo + add-ons) |
| A budget-friendly entry point for solo use | Otterly.AI ($29+/mo) |
| AI visibility as an add-on to existing Semrush | Semrush AI Toolkit ($99/domain) |
| Multi-client management with full AI engine coverage at agency-friendly pricing | Aurora (CHF 199/mo Pro) |
The Bigger Picture
The GEO market is moving fast. Over $200 million has been invested in these tools in the past 18 months. The category isn't a fad — it's the next layer of search optimization.
Agencies that add AI search visibility to their service offering now will have the same kind of head start that early SEO adopters had 15 years ago. The question isn't whether to start — it's which tool fits your specific workflow, your clients, and your margins.
