Buyer’s guide
“Who runs AI visibility audits?” has four different answers, and they solve different problems. Here is the whole market in one place, honestly sorted, so you can match a type to how your team actually works before you talk to anyone.
Written by Synthesis Insights, which sits in one of these four categories and says which below. Prices are market bands as of September 2026; re-check before you buy.
The short version. There are four kinds of AI visibility service. Free checkers give you a quick score. Monitoring tools track your mentions over time for a monthly fee. Enterprise platforms add content and workflow tooling for large in-house teams. Done-for-you firms run the audit and hand you a plan. The dividing line that matters is whether you need a number to watch or a diagnosis to act on.
A quick automated check that runs a handful of queries or a technical scan and returns a score. Good for a first read on whether you have a problem at all.
Examples. Synthesis’s own AI Agent Readiness Check, and the free reports several tool vendors offer (for example Profound’s free AEO report).
Best for. A fast, no-cost sanity check before you spend anything.
Not for. A decision. A three-query score cannot tell you why you are missing or what to fix.
Self-serve software that re-runs a set of prompts on a schedule and charts whether your brand gets mentioned over time. You configure it and read the dashboard yourself.
Examples. Tools like Otterly (from about $29 a month), Scrunch, Evertune, Rankscale, and Semrush’s AI Toolkit.
Best for. An in-house marketing team that wants to watch the trend line and will act on it themselves.
Not for. Anyone who needs the diagnosis and the fix. A tool tells you a number moved, not why or what to do.
Larger software suites that add content tooling, analytics, and workflow on top of monitoring, aimed at big in-house teams with a dedicated owner.
Examples. Platforms like Profound, which serves mid-market and enterprise marketing teams.
Best for. A company with the headcount to run the platform and execute against it internally.
Not for. A small team that wants the work done rather than another dashboard to staff.
A person runs the measurement, benchmarks the competitor who wins, diagnoses the levers, and hands you a written plan. Some also execute it. This is the category Synthesis is in.
Examples. Firms like Avante Visibility, and Synthesis Insights.
Best for. A team that wants the answer and a prioritized plan, not a subscription to manage.
Not for. A buyer who only wants a raw tracking number and will do all the interpretation themselves.
| Type | Typical price (Sept 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free AI visibility checkers | Free | A fast, no-cost sanity check before you spend anything. |
| AI search monitoring tools (SaaS) | About $30 to $800 a month | An in-house marketing team that wants to watch the trend line and will act on it themselves. |
| Enterprise AEO platforms | Custom, quoted to the account | A company with the headcount to run the platform and execute against it internally. |
| Done-for-you audits and programs | Roughly $1,500 to $5,000 for a flat-fee audit; monthly programs from about $1,500 to $3,000 | A team that wants the answer and a prioritized plan, not a subscription to manage. |
Prices are typical market ranges as of September 2026, not quotes from any one company. Named tools and firms are examples of each category, listed to show the shape of the market, not ranked.
The label on the box matters less than four things underneath it. Hold any provider, tool or firm, against these:
Where we fit
To be straight about it: Synthesis Insights is in the fourth category. We run the measurement across the major assistants, find the competitor who is getting named instead of you, diagnose which of three levers is costing you the answer, and hand you a written plan your team can execute. It is founder-run, so the person who reads your result is the person who did the work.
It is the right fit for industrial and commercial manufacturers, and other companies whose buyers research a considered purchase before they talk to sales. It is the wrong fit if you only want a raw tracking number, in which case one of the monitoring tools above will serve you better and cheaper.
The method is not a claim you have to trust. We published it: the Industrial AI Visibility Benchmark ran the same instrument across 71 brands in six categories, and you can check any figure in it. If that is the kind of audit you want, the AI Visibility Audit page has the scope and the next step.
Common questions
The market splits four ways. Free checkers give a quick score. Monitoring tools (Otterly, Scrunch, Evertune, Rankscale, Semrush's AI Toolkit) track mentions over time for a monthly fee. Enterprise platforms like Profound add content and workflow tooling for large teams. And done-for-you firms, including Avante Visibility and Synthesis Insights, run the audit and hand you a plan. Which you want depends on whether you need a number to watch or a diagnosis to act on.
As of September 2026, self-serve monitoring runs about $30 to $800 a month depending on how many prompts and competitors you track. A flat-fee done-for-you audit typically lands between roughly $1,500 and $5,000, usually with a re-measure included. Monthly optimization programs start around $1,500 to $3,000. Enterprise platforms are quoted to the account. Nobody prices a standalone re-score; it is bundled into the audit or the retainer.
A tool if you have someone in-house who will read the dashboard and do the work. A done-for-you audit if you want the diagnosis, the competitor benchmark, and a prioritized plan handed to you. The honest test: a monitoring tool tells you a number changed. It cannot tell you why you are missing from the answer or what to fix first, which is the part that actually moves it.
There is no single best one, because they solve different problems for different buyers. The right question is which type fits your situation: free check, monitoring subscription, enterprise platform, or done-for-you audit. This page lays out the four so you can match one to how your team actually works before you talk to anyone.
Judge it on four things. Does it test across every major assistant, not one. Does it measure repeatedly, since AI answers vary between runs. Does it hand you evidence you can independently re-check, not a secret score. And is it clear about who executes the fixes, you or them. A provider that is vague on any of those is selling a number, not a result.