AI citation checking, answered
Straight answers to the questions people ask about checking — and improving — how AI platforms talk about a business. Every number here comes from our own published measurements.
What is an AI citation checker tool?
An AI citation checker tests whether AI platforms — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok — actually name a business when people ask for what it does. It submits the questions customers really type, reads every answer, and records whether the business was cited, and who was named instead. Because platforms don't answer the same question the same way twice, a meaningful check asks repeatedly and reports a rate with a confidence range, not a single yes or no.
How do I check my business's AI search visibility?
Ask the platforms the questions a new customer would ask — both your business name and 'who should I hire for …' questions — and record every answer. Citation Checks automates this: a free check runs 7 real customer questions once across all five platforms in about two minutes, and the full report runs 30 questions three times each, up to 450 answers, with a rate and 95% range per question.
What does AI citation checking cost?
A basic visibility check should cost nothing — ours is free, no account required. A full measurement with sampling, confidence ranges, competitor analysis and fixes runs $749 once (re-check included, 30-day refund) or $249/mo monthly. Monitoring dashboards in this category charge $29 to several hundred per month; agencies quote audits in the low thousands.
AI visibility check vs traditional SEO — what's the difference?
Traditional SEO optimizes where a page ranks in a list of links. AI visibility is about whether an assistant's composed answer names your business at all — there is no page two. The inputs overlap (crawlable site, clear identity, third-party listings), but the measurement is different: you have to sample the answers themselves, repeatedly, because they change between runs. That is what a citation check does and a rank tracker cannot.
Can a service guarantee my business shows up in AI answers?
No — and anyone who guarantees a specific AI answer is guessing. Nobody outside the platform companies controls what a model says. What can honestly be promised is measurement: where you stand now, exactly what to change, and a re-measurement on the same questions afterward that shows what moved and what stayed within noise. That is the promise we make, and the report names at least one competitor being recommended in your place or you don't pay.
What is the best AI business citation service for a small business?
Pick by what you need: continuous dashboards (Otterly, Peec, Scrunch, Profound, from ~$29/mo) chart trends for marketing teams; agencies bundle strategy with implementation at agency prices. If you want one rigorous answer — who gets named instead of you, on which questions, with the fixes written so you can hand them to your own AI — that is what Citation Checks sells, measured across all five major platforms with confidence ranges shown.
How often should I re-check my AI search visibility?
After you change something, and quarterly otherwise. Our measurement across repeat runs found 77.5% of business/question/platform combinations were strictly always- or never-mentioned — the number moves when something structural changes, not day to day. Re-measuring on the same frozen question set is what makes a before-and-after honest.
Why does my business show up in Google but not in ChatGPT?
Ranking in Google and being named in a composed AI answer are different systems. AI platforms draw discovery answers heavily from directories, review sites and forums — in our measurement of 100 local businesses, Yelp appeared in more answers than any other source, and platforms differ (Perplexity leans on Reddit, Gemini on official registries). A business can rank well and still be absent if its identity is thin where the platforms actually read. About 8% of small-business sites also block AI crawlers outright without knowing it.
See where your business stands: the free check asks 7 real customer questions across all five platforms, in about two minutes. The full report — up to 450 samples, with every fix written as a prompt for your own AI — is $749 once or $249/mo.