Measuring AI visibility: monitoring subscription, one-time audit or asking ChatGPT manually?
There are three ways to find out whether AI assistants recommend a company. They differ less in quality than in purpose: continuous observation of many prompts, a documented baseline, or a quick impression. This comparison sorts the three approaches by cost, repeatability, evidence and effort – including the cases in which QueryHalo is not the right choice.
QueryHalo is a one-time AI visibility audit: 6 neutral buying questions go to 3 AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini) and all 18 answers are documented with the competitors they name. The website check is free; the full report costs €29 once (3 audits €59, 10 audits €149), usually takes 1–3 minutes and arrives as PDF and JSON.
The three approaches at a glance
| Criterion | Monitoring subscription | One-time audit (QueryHalo) | Asking ChatGPT manually |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Monthly, tiered by prompt quota; Otterly's pricing page lists from $29/month for 15 prompts to $489/month for 400 prompts | €29 once for 1 audit, €59 for 3, €149 for 10; no subscription | €0 on top of existing chat accounts |
| What is measured | Dozens to hundreds of prompts, daily, partly several channels incl. AI Overviews | 6 neutral questions × 3 models = 18 answers, competitors, website check across 8 criteria | As many questions as you ask – usually 1–3, rarely logged |
| Repeatability | Automatic, trend in the dashboard | On demand: same audit with the same inputs later, PDF per data point | Weak: different wording, history, personalization |
| Evidence | Dashboards, exports, citations depending on plan | All 18 answers in full in PDF and JSON | Screenshots, if you remember |
| Effort | Set up prompts, competitors, channels; ongoing maintenance | Enter URL, fill 4 fields, wait 1–3 minutes | About two hours for 18 clean answers, see the guide |
| Fits when … | You observe many brands or prompts permanently and have the budget | You need a documented baseline, pitch evidence or a before/after comparison | You want a first impression and know the limits |
Monitoring subscription: continuous observation of many prompts
Monitoring tools track a fixed set of prompts across several AI channels and show mentions, citations and competitors as a trend. Two providers whose public pages we checked on 3 September 2026:
Peec AI positions itself on its agency page as tracking mentions and citations across AI channels with unlimited client workspaces without per-seat fees, automated weekly reporting in the agency's branding and 7-day “pitch projects” for prospects (3, 10 or 25 active pitch projects depending on plan). According to its pricing page, plans are tiered by prompts (50, 150 or 350 prompts, 3 selectable models each, daily tracking); concrete prices were not retrievable as text on the pricing page, so we do not quote any.
OtterlyAI lists four plans on its pricing page: Lite from $29 per month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100 prompts, Premium $489 for 400 prompts and Enterprise from $1,000 per month, each with daily tracking across four AI search systems (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as paid add-ons).
Strengths: trend, breadth, several channels, team features. Limits: ongoing cost regardless of whether anything changes; set-up and maintenance of prompts; oversized for a single question (“are we recommended today?”). If you permanently observe ten brands, a subscription is the right category – not QueryHalo.
One-time audit: a documented baseline
A one-time audit answers one question at one point in time completely and with evidence. QueryHalo asks six neutral buying questions without the brand name to GPT, Claude and Gemini, documents all 18 answers with named competitors, checks the homepage against eight technical criteria and delivers a prioritized plan as PDF and JSON. Cost: €29 once, three audits €59, ten audits €149.
Strengths: no subscription, ready in 1–3 minutes, every number in the report traceable, PDF as evidence for management or a proposal. Limits: no trend without deliberate repetition, six questions instead of hundreds of prompts, no live web search, no AI Overviews, only the homepage's server HTML. For agencies the ten-pack is designed as a pitch tool – one audit per prospect, a second after the project.
Asking ChatGPT manually: fast but not reliable
Free and immediately available. The catch: answers vary between calls, chat history and memory features colour the result, and whoever writes their own company name into the question no longer measures a recommendation. For a first impression that is fine; for a decision or a client meeting it takes at least six neutral questions across three models with a log – about two hours of work. The guide explains how.
Decision aid
- You want to know once where you stand and hold evidence in your hand: one-time audit.
- You manage many brands and need weekly trends across several channels: monitoring subscription.
- You want an impression tonight and have two hours: manually, with a log.
- You are unsure: free website check, then a one-time audit; a subscription can always follow later.
Frequently asked questions
Does a one-time audit replace a monitoring subscription?+
No. An audit is a data point, a subscription is a time series. Whoever needs the trend over months should either plan regularly repeated audits or use a monitoring tool.
Why does QueryHalo compare only three models and no AI Overviews?+
Because the audit measures existing model knowledge without live web search; that is reproducible and inexpensive. AI Overviews and search citations are a different measurement that monitoring tools cover.
Are the facts about Peec and Otterly current?+
They come from the providers' public pages, retrieved on 3 September 2026, and can change. The providers' pricing pages are authoritative; the links are listed under sources.
Sources
- Peec AI – AI search visibility tracking for marketing agencies (https://peec.ai/for-agencies)
- Peec AI – Pricing (https://peec.ai/pricing)
- OtterlyAI – Pricing (https://otterly.ai/pricing)