Tools guide

The best free AI visibility tools in 2026, and what each one really checks

By the Peekl team · Last reviewed: September 27, 2026

Part of our series on Choosing an AI visibility tool. The reference guide is the AI visibility tools comparison.

The free AI visibility tools worth using are the ones that put real questions to an AI assistant and show you the answers: whether it named you, who it named instead and which websites it cited. Many free checkers do something else. Some score your own website and call it AI visibility, some ask the model what it remembers without searching the web, and some show answers from a stored database of prompts rather than your customers' questions.

This guide compares 15 free tools by what they actually do, plus two well-known trackers that only offer a trial, what the free version includes and what it asks of you. Every fact comes from each tool's own page, read on 27 September 2026; we did not run the checkers for this guide. Peekl's free check is one of them, so we say so and list it first. For paid tools, see the AI visibility tools comparison; for what a full audit adds, see what an AI visibility audit includes and costs.

Illustration of free AI visibility tools compared: four browser windows side by side, each with a search bar, one of them highlighted, under a small price tag.

Key takeaways

Only some free tools ask the assistant live. Nine of the 15 say they put questions to ChatGPT or Gemini and record the answers, two of them without saying how; four score your website instead, one asks what the model remembers, and one reads a stored prompt database.
A website score is not an AI visibility check. It tells you whether AI crawlers can read your site, not whether an assistant names you.
Free checks are small by design: one assistant, one to a dozen questions, one run. They show whether you are named at all, not a reliable rate.
Only two free tools ask for your trade and your town, which is what a local customer's question contains: Peekl and KellyWM.
Otterly and Peec AI have no free checker; their free option is a trial of the paid tracker.

Four kinds of free AI visibility tool

Free AI visibility tools fall into four kinds: tools that ask the assistant live, tools that read a stored prompt database, tools that ask the model what it remembers, and tools that score your website. They look alike from the outside, a box for your brand or website and a result in under a minute, but the kind decides what the result means.

Kind	How it works	What the result tells you	Examples
Asks the assistant live	Writes or takes questions, puts them to ChatGPT or Gemini and records the answers	Whether the assistant named you today, who instead, and often which sites it cited	Peekl, KellyWM, Geoptie, Meev, LLM Pulse, PromptRush
Reads a prompt database	Shows real AI answers already collected for a large set of prompts that mention your brand	How often your brand shows up in answers to common prompts, not to your customers' questions	Ahrefs
Asks what the model remembers	Asks each model how it sees your brand from its training data, without web search	Your reputation in the model's memory, not what it says when a customer searches	HubSpot AI Search Grader
Scores your website	Reads your own site's signals: crawler access, schema, structure	Whether AI crawlers can read and quote your site, not whether you are named	SearchScore, SEOcrawl, AEO Engine, Arobis checker

The free AI visibility tools, compared

The table lists what each tool's own page says, read on 27 September 2026, and each tool name links to the page we read. Peekl is ours and sits in the first row; the others follow by method, not as a ranking. Where a page does not state something, the cell says so.

Tool	Assistants	Method	Free version	Sign-up
Peekl (ours)	ChatGPT or Gemini, your pick	Asks live	12 customer questions for your trade and town, once, one check per business	Quick sign-in, no card
KellyWM	Gemini, with live web search	Asks live	Your customers' questions for a business, city and trade; count not stated	None
Geoptie	ChatGPT, including ChatGPT Search	Asks live	One query per check	None
Meev	Gemini	Asks live	5 buyer prompts, one score	None for the score; sign-up to see the prompts
LLM Pulse	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews	Asks live	A sample of category prompts, one snapshot	Email; report sent by email
PromptRush	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode	Asks live	Score and competitors; sources and answers with a free account	Work email
Indexly	Gemini	Says it asks live	Free; limit not stated	Not stated
SearchScore AI (searchscore.ai)	ChatGPT	Says it asks live	Free; limit not stated	Not stated
Hikoo (French)	ChatGPT and Gemini	Asks live, plus a site audit	One analysis a day	Email only for the detailed report
Ahrefs AI visibility checker	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode	Prompt database	Top 5 results per section, any brand	None
HubSpot AI Search Grader	GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity, Gemini	Model memory	One score out of 100	Form for the full results
SearchScore (searchscore.io)	Gemini, with sibling pages per engine	Website score	A score and a fix list for any URL	None; email for the full list
SEOcrawl	ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity	Website estimate	One domain per report	None
AEO Engine	Gemini, with sibling pages per engine	Website score	A readiness score	Business email
Arobis checker	ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity	Website score	A score and a fix plan	Contact form for the plan
Otterly, Peec AI	Several, on paid plans	Trial of a paid tracker	No free checker	Account for the trial

Free tools that ask the assistant live

These are the closest to what a customer sees. Peekl asks twelve questions worded for your trade and town on the assistant you pick, ChatGPT or Gemini, once, and shows whether you were named, the first two competitors named instead and the first websites cited. KellyWM does something similar on Gemini only, with live web search, and says itself that ChatGPT and Perplexity are not queried. Geoptie runs a single ChatGPT query and reports whether you were mentioned and in what position.

Meev, LLM Pulse and PromptRush put a small set of category prompts to one or several assistants and return a score. Meev uses 5 prompts on Gemini and asks you to sign up to see them; LLM Pulse emails the report and calls it a directional baseline; PromptRush needs a work email and keeps the sources for a free account. Indexly and SearchScore AI say they query the assistant live but do not state how many questions or whether web search is on.

Why a website score is not an AI visibility check

Several free checkers read your own website and turn crawler access, schema and page structure into a score. That is useful to know, and it is honest when the tool says so: SearchScore's page says its free check reads your site's signals and that asking the engines is what its paid tracker does, and SEOcrawl's says the result is an estimate, not a live measurement.

But a readable website is only the start. Assistants recommend local businesses mostly from the directories, review sites and articles they find about them, not from the business's own site, so a perfect site score can sit beside zero mentions. If you want to know whether ChatGPT or Gemini names you, use a tool that asks them. For why the outside sources matter so much, see which websites AI trusts when it recommends a local business.

What a free check can and cannot tell you

A free check answers one question well: does this assistant name you today, for these questions? It cannot give you a reliable rate, because AI answers change from one run to the next, and it usually shows only the first competitors and sources. Geoptie's own page notes that ChatGPT responses vary between sessions, and KellyWM's calls a single check a snapshot, not a guarantee.

Treat a free result as a first read. If you are named in most answers, keep what you are doing and re-check in a few months. If you are rarely or never named, the next step is to find out why, either by hand with a spreadsheet or with an audit that asks more questions, more than once, on more assistants.

Free trials are not free tools

Some of the best-known names have no free checker at all. Otterly's free button leads to a trial of its paid tracker, and its own site gives two different trial lengths, 7 and 14 days. Peec AI offers a trial of plans from $95 a month and no free check that we could find. A trial is a good way to test a tracker, but it asks for an account and ends in a subscription decision. For what those subscriptions cost over a year, see what AI visibility tools cost.

Which free tool should a local business use?

A local customer asks for a trade in a town, so the useful free tools are the ones that ask that kind of question. Only two ask for your trade and town: Peekl, on ChatGPT or Gemini, and KellyWM, on Gemini. If your customers use ChatGPT, Peekl and Geoptie both ask it live; for Gemini, Peekl, KellyWM and Meev do.

For a brand-level picture across many engines, Ahrefs' free checker shows how often your name comes up in its prompt database, and LLM Pulse runs a sample of category prompts on five surfaces. Use a website score from SearchScore or SEOcrawl as a technical checklist, not as your answer. And whichever tool you use, run the same questions again after you make changes, because one reading is where the work starts, not where it ends.

Common questions

What is the best free AI visibility tool?

It depends on the question you need answered. To see whether ChatGPT or Gemini names your local business, use a tool that asks them live with your trade and town, such as Peekl's free check or KellyWM. For a brand-level picture across many engines, Ahrefs' free checker is broad. Website scores are a technical checklist, not a visibility check.

Is there a free AI visibility checker for ChatGPT?

Yes. Peekl's free check can run on ChatGPT, with twelve questions for your trade and town, and Geoptie runs one ChatGPT query. LLM Pulse and PromptRush include ChatGPT in a multi-engine snapshot.

Is there a free Gemini visibility checker?

Yes. Peekl's free check can run on Gemini, KellyWM asks Gemini with live web search, and Meev puts 5 prompts to Gemini. Some pages called a Gemini visibility checker score your website instead, so check how the tool works.

Are free AI visibility checkers accurate?

The ones that ask the assistant live show a real answer, but a single run is a snapshot because answers change between runs. Website scores and model-memory graders measure something else. Use a free check as a first read and repeat it before drawing conclusions.

Do free AI visibility tools need an account?

Some need nothing, some ask for an email or a work email, and some need a sign-in. Peekl needs a quick sign-in and no card, and allows one free check per business.

What does a free check leave out compared with a paid audit?

Usually more questions, repeat runs, more assistants, the full list of competitors and cited sources, and a ranked plan of fixes. Peekl's $99 audit, for example, asks fifteen questions three times each on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

See where you stand

Reading about AI search is useful; knowing your own place in it is what helps. A free Peekl check asks ChatGPT or Gemini, your pick, the questions your customers ask and shows whether it recommends you today, who it names instead, and how often. The full audit runs the same questions on all three assistants, Claude included.

Free, no card needed.