Free AI Visibility Audits:9 Checks Compared (2026)

What does a free AI visibility audit actually check?

The name covers three different tests, and it pays to know which one you are running:

• Live answer checks run buyer questions with web search on and record whether you are named or cited. This is closest to what shoppers see.
• Training-data checks ask a model what it already knows about your brand. Useful for perception, slower to change.
• Site checks test whether AI crawlers can reach and read your pages. They don't ask any engine about you.

We compared nine free options on what they test, the engines they ask, the effort to get a result and whether the result repeats. We checked each tool's own page on October 13, 2026. Stride publishes this page and is ranked by fit.

How do the nine free checks compare?

Facts last verified October 13, 2026. Prices and plan limits change often; each vendor's pricing page is linked so you can check today's numbers.

Which free checks are worth running?

1. Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker

Best for: the widest free read with no signup.

Enter a brand name and Ahrefs queries ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews with search-backed prompts. The report shows total mentions, mentions by platform, the top 5 topics and the top 5 cited domains. It runs on Brand Radar data.

Limits: Ahrefs calls it a limited preview. See Ahrefs' free checker.

2. Stride free audit

Best for: brands that want buying questions plus a fix list.

Stride's free audit runs up to 20 buying-intent questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and reports six signals: mention rate, citation rate, sentiment, top-pick position, engine coverage and share of voice. It also checks your homepage's robots.txt and llms.txt for GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and ClaudeBot, and looks for Product, FAQPage and Organization schema. It takes about two minutes, with no account and no card.

Limits: the score shows at once, but the question texts, answer excerpts and fix details need an email. Technical checks cover the homepage only, not the whole site. Paid plans are on our pricing page.

3. HubSpot AI Search Grader

Best for: understanding how AI describes your brand.

HubSpot's grader scores a brand out of 100 across sentiment, presence quality, brand recognition, share of voice and market position, with a written interpretation. It asks GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity and Gemini; HubSpot says ChatGPT and Gemini answer from training data and Perplexity from live search.

Limits: one-time, and the full report needs a form. See HubSpot's AI Search Grader.

4. Mangools AI Search Grader

Best for: checking a brand against competitors across several models.

Mangools generates prompts from your brand and niche description and reports visibility, average position in the top 20 and an AI Search Score. Without an account it runs ChatGPT, Mistral Small and Llama 3.3; a free account adds DeepSeek, Claude and Gemini.

Limits: usage is limited, and the page says seven models while its FAQ lists six. See Mangools' grader.

5. Siftly AI Visibility Checker

Best for: a score you can recount yourself.

Siftly reads your homepage, asks 8 discovery questions on ChatGPT and Claude through their APIs, and scores the share of answers that name you. It shows a per-platform breakdown and your top competitor. Siftly also has a free plan with 10 prompts on two engines, refreshed weekly.

Limits: two engines, and Siftly notes that API answers differ from the consumer apps. See Siftly's free checker.

6. Trakkr AI Site Grader

Best for: finding out whether AI crawlers can read your site.

Trakkr fetches your site as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot, reads your titles, headings and schema, checks robots.txt and llms.txt, and polls a model with no search to see what it knows about you. It's free with no signup and takes about 60 seconds. Its AI Query Scanner separately reads Search Console for AI Mode queries.

Limits: a site check, not a buyer-question audit. See Trakkr's AI Site Grader.

7. XFunnel free audit

Best for: a one-time look across four engines.

XFunnel's pricing page lists a free Starter tier: a one-time audit of 50 search queries on ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity in one language and region. HubSpot announced an agreement to acquire XFunnel on October 31, 2025.

Limits: the site's buttons now lead to "Get updates", so availability is unclear. See XFunnel's pricing page.

8. LLMrefs free tools

Best for: single technical checks.

LLMrefs offers free tools including an AI crawlability checker, a query fan-out generator, a Reddit threads finder and a ChatGPT prompts database. A free account needs no card.

Limits: we found no free brand visibility report today; tracking starts at $79 a month with a 7-day trial. See LLMrefs' free tools.

9. SE Ranking

Best for: SEO teams that want to trial AI tracking inside an SEO suite.

We found no standalone free AI visibility checker on SE Ranking's free tools page today. Its free route is a 14-day trial with no credit card, and the AI Search add-on tracks AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Limits: a trial, not a free check. See SE Ranking's pricing page.

How should you read a free audit result?

Treat the score as a question, not a verdict. Then look at three things:

1. Who was named instead of you. Those brands are your real AI competitors, and they may not match your SEO competitors.
2. Which pages were cited. A cited roundup or forum thread is a page you can get onto; a cited competitor guide is a page you can out-write.
3. Whether crawlers can reach you. A blocked GPTBot or ClaudeBot in robots.txt is the cheapest fix you'll find. Our AI readiness checks cover this on every paid plan.

When is another free check the better choice?

If you want the most engines with no email, Ahrefs. If your question is how AI describes your brand, HubSpot's grader. If you only want to know whether crawlers can read the site, Trakkr's Site Grader. If you'd like a small free tracker that keeps running, Siftly's free plan.

When is Stride's free audit the better choice?

When you want buying questions rather than brand-name prompts, plus a fix list. The audit runs the questions a shopper asks, shows who is named instead of you, and checks the crawler and schema basics on the same page. For the ongoing view, see our monitoring tools roundup.

Two quick scenarios

A founder checking before a board meeting. They want one number and a list of who beats them, today, with no signup. Ahrefs' checker fits.

A DTC brand's marketing manager. They need to know which buying questions name competitors and what to fix first. Stride's free audit fits: buying questions on three engines, the brands named instead, and homepage crawler checks.

Frequently asked questions

Are free AI visibility checks accurate?

They are directional. Most run a small fixed set of questions once, and AI answers change from day to day, so a single result is a snapshot. Use a free check to find out whether you have a problem, then track the same questions over time before you act on small differences.

Which free AI visibility check covers the most engines?

As of October 2026, Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker queries ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews with no signup. Mangools' grader runs six models, but three of them need a free Mangools account.

Do free AI visibility checks need an email address?

Some do. Ahrefs' checker and Trakkr's AI Site Grader need no signup. HubSpot's AI Search Grader asks you to complete a form for the full report. Stride's free audit needs no account or card, and an email opens the full report.

What is the difference between a training-data check and a live answer check?

A training-data check asks a model what it already knows about your brand, with no web search. A live answer check runs the questions buyers ask with search on, which is what shoppers see. HubSpot says its grader's ChatGPT and Gemini results come from training data and Perplexity from live search.

What should I do after a free AI visibility audit?

Pick the five to ten buyer questions where a competitor is named and you are not. Check which pages the engines cite for them, fix or publish the page that answers the question best, and re-run the same questions after it is crawled.