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Free ChatGPT visibility tools: what's actually free in 2026, compared

As of September 2026, most "free ChatGPT visibility tools" are one-time graders or time-boxed trials. Trakkr, once the best-known free-forever tracker, now offers only a 14-day trial that requires a card. Of the tools we re-checked, one third-party tracker still has a free plan that keeps running (Mangools' AI Search Watcher Free: 5 prompts, weekly), and Google, Microsoft, and GA4 offer free first-party reports that measure parts of AI visibility. This guide compares every real free option and the measurement traps behind the numbers. Start Free

Published 2026-05-25 · Updated 2026-09-26

Questions this guide answers

Are there free tools to check brand visibility in ChatGPT?
What is the best free ChatGPT visibility tracker?
Is there a free ongoing ChatGPT brand tracker?
Does Trakkr still have a free plan?
Do free ChatGPT visibility checkers actually query ChatGPT?
How can I monitor my brand in ChatGPT for free?
Can I check ChatGPT brand mentions without paying?

Direct answer

Yes, you can check your brand's visibility in ChatGPT for free in September 2026, but almost nothing free will track it for you over time. The free options split into five groups that do different jobs. Sort by the job first, then pick the tool.

The biggest change since we first published this guide: Trakkr no longer has a free plan. As of September 2026, its pricing page lists a 14-day free trial that requires a card, then Growth at $100/mo. Of the tools we re-checked on Sep 26, 2026, the only third-party tracker with a free plan that keeps running is Mangools' AI Search Watcher Free, and it is small: 5 prompts, updated weekly.

Disclosure: SolCrys publishes this guide, and our free audit is one of the options below. We are not a neutral source. Every vendor fact here was re-checked on the vendor's own pricing or product page on Sep 26, 2026, and is stated as of September 2026. Plans and engine lists change often, so re-check before you rely on one.

Free ongoing tracking (third-party): Mangools AI Search Watcher Free (5 prompts, 1 monitor, weekly updates, no credit card). No other tool we checked offers a free plan that keeps running on a schedule.
Free first-party reports: GA4's AI Assistant channel (referral sessions from ChatGPT and other assistants), Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance (citations in Copilot and Bing AI), and Search Console's generative AI report (impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode). Free and ongoing, but none shows whether ChatGPT names your brand.
Free one-time graders and checkers: HubSpot AI Search Grader, Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker, Semrush AI Visibility Checker, Mangools AI Search Grader, and the SolCrys free audit. One scan, one report.
Free trials on paid platforms: Trakkr, HubSpot AEO, Profound, Scrunch, Otterly, Rankscale, LLMrefs, and others. Useful for evaluation; they expire by design.
Manual spot-checks and DIY scripts: prompt ChatGPT yourself or script the OpenAI API. Free in license cost, expensive in time, and easy to get wrong.

The one distinction that decides everything: tracker vs grader vs trial

"Free ChatGPT visibility tool" is several products wearing one label. Get this right and everything below is easy.

A tracker runs a fixed prompt set on a schedule and shows you a line moving over time. A grader runs once and hands you a snapshot score. A trial is a paid tracker with an expiry date. A first-party report from Google, Microsoft, or GA4 measures an outcome (an impression, a citation, a referral visit) rather than whether ChatGPT named you. The common mistake is treating a grader's one-time score as a tracker's baseline, then wondering why you can't see whether anything changed. A single ChatGPT check is one sample of a moving target, not a measurement.

If you only remember one thing: a one-time grade tells you whether AI visibility is a problem worth caring about; only a tracker tells you whether your work is fixing it.

Every genuinely free option, compared

These are the third-party tools with a free path that isn't a trial. The last column is the one most lists omit: what the free tier does under the hood, and where that limits the number you get back.

Checked on each vendor's own page on Sep 26, 2026. Omnia's free checker, which was in the June version, is still live at useomnia.com: it runs 10 category prompts per engine on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode and needs an email address.

Tool	What's free	Engines (free tier)	How it gets the data	Account	Honest caveat
Mangools AI Search Watcher Free	Ongoing tracking: 5 prompts, 1 monitor, weekly updates	The same 8 models as Pro, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, and Claude	Checks each prompt 2 times per update	Free account, no card	5 prompts is a spot sample, and weekly data misses short swings; Pro is $34.90/mo billed annually for 500 prompts
SolCrys free audit	One-time structured audit, saved to a free workspace (10 ChatGPT prompts, 1 Deep Analysis, 1 Content Audit)	ChatGPT	10 buyer-intent prompts run through ChatGPT; answers parsed for brand mentions and cited sources	Email verification, no card	ChatGPT only; checks are on demand, not scheduled; no sentiment in the free audit; daily and multi-engine tracking are paid
HubSpot AI Search Grader	One-time grade	ChatGPT (GPT-5.4 mini), Perplexity, Gemini	HubSpot's grader page says all three models answer from their training data	None	Reads your base-model footprint, not the live ChatGPT Search answer a buyer sees
Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker	One-time preview, no limit on brands	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode	Search-backed prompts from Ahrefs' Brand Radar index	None	You see Ahrefs' prompt set, not your buyers' exact questions; coverage can be thin for brands with little search demand
Semrush AI Visibility Checker	3 free checks a day	ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode	Runs prompts across AI platforms; reports a score, mentions, citations, top cited pages, and a competitor comparison	None for 3 checks a day	Repeatable but not tracking, and no recommendations; tracking is the $99/mo AI Visibility Toolkit, which has no free trial
Mangools AI Search Grader	One-time grade	3 models without an account; 7 with a free account	Queries small API models such as GPT-5 Nano and Claude Haiku 4.5	Optional free account	Fast and broad, but small API models are not the ChatGPT app

Free first-party reports: ongoing, trustworthy, and partial

The most reliable free numbers come from the platforms themselves. They are free, they keep running, and nobody is estimating anything. They are also partial by design: none of them tells you whether ChatGPT names your brand in an answer. Use them as the outcome layer next to whatever mention tracker you choose.

Report	What it measures	What it can't tell you	Available since
GA4 "AI Assistant" channel	Sessions referred by ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and other assistants, when a referrer is passed	Mentions without a click; excludes Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	May 13, 2026
Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance	Citations and grounding queries in Copilot and Bing AI; citation share added Jun 16, 2026	Clicks, and anything about ChatGPT	Feb 10, 2026 (public preview)
Search Console "Search generative AI performance"	Impressions in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	Clicks, CTR, queries, and anything about ChatGPT	All sites since Aug 31, 2026

Free ongoing tracking: one small option left

If you want a free line that moves over time rather than a one-off score, the field has shrunk. Trakkr's free-forever tier is gone: as of September 2026, its pricing page lists a 14-day trial with a card required, then Growth at $100/mo for 1 brand, 50 prompts, and 8 models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It is a capable paid tracker; it is no longer a free one.

The one free ongoing tracker we found is Mangools AI Search Watcher Free: 5 prompts, 1 monitor, weekly updates, and each prompt checked twice per update, with no credit card. The double check is a small but real nod to answer variability. The limits are real too. Five prompts can't represent a category, weekly data misses short swings, and Mangools documents that its grader queries API models such as GPT-5 Nano, so confirm which models the Watcher uses before treating it as a read on live ChatGPT Search.

Our own free workspace sits in between: 10 saved ChatGPT prompts you can re-check on demand, free, with no card. That is repeatable, but it isn't scheduled tracking. Daily runs start on paid plans.

Free one-time graders and checkers: useful, with sharp edges

These are the "enter your brand, get a score" tools. They are real and they are free, but each is a lead magnet for a paid product, and each free number carries a fidelity caveat worth knowing before you quote it in a deck.

SolCrys free audit: the structured ChatGPT read

Our free audit runs 10 buyer-intent prompts through ChatGPT, parses each answer for brand mentions (yours and competitors') and cited source URLs, and returns one report with your mention rate, competitor share of voice, and top cited sources, in about 5 minutes. It is free, with email verification and no credit card. It does not return sentiment, and it does not cover Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, or Claude; those are on paid plans. The report is saved to a free workspace with 10 ChatGPT prompts, 1 Deep Analysis, and 1 Content Audit. Start Free

HubSpot AI Search Grader: the most generous no-account check

HubSpot's grader (hubspot.com/aeo-grader) is free, one-time, and needs no account, though you fill in a short form to see the full results. HubSpot says it checks GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity, and Gemini, and that all three answer from their training data. That makes it a fair read on your base-model footprint and a weak read on what a buyer sees in ChatGPT Search today. HubSpot's ongoing product, HubSpot AEO, is $50/mo ($45/mo billed annually) for 25 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, with a free trial that needs no card and no HubSpot subscription.

Ahrefs and Semrush free checkers: watch the prompt set

Both SEO suites ship a free checker as a funnel into paid AI modules. Ahrefs' checker needs no account and runs search-backed prompts from its Brand Radar index across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Its strength is breadth and real search demand behind every prompt. Its limit is that you see Ahrefs' prompts, not your buyers' exact questions, and Ahrefs notes on its Brand Radar page that coverage can be limited for brands with little search volume. Paid Brand Radar starts at $50/mo for Custom Prompts and $199/mo for the AI Visibility Index.

Semrush, part of Adobe since Apr 28, 2026, lets you run its checker 3 times a day without an account across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The free report includes a 0–100 score, mentions, citations, top cited pages, and a competitor comparison, but no recommendations. Ongoing tracking is the $99/mo AI Visibility Toolkit (25 tracked prompts), which has no free trial.

Mangools AI Search Grader: the widest free model set

Mangools' grader covers 3 models without an account and 7 with a free account. It queries small API models (for example GPT-5 Nano, Claude Haiku 4.5, and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite), which is what makes it fast and free, and also why it isn't measuring the ChatGPT app. Use it for breadth across models, not as a proxy for ChatGPT Search.

Free trials on the paid platforms

Most paid platforms offer a trial. Trials are functional but calibrated to convert: a small prompt set, a subset of engines, or a time box. Use them when you are already in a buying cycle, not as a standing free tier. Terms below are as listed on each vendor's pricing page in September 2026. For the paid field, see Best Tools to Track Brand Visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Platform	Free path	What the trial covers	Price after
Trakkr	14-day trial, card required	1 brand, 50 prompts, 8 models, daily	Growth $100/mo
HubSpot AEO	Free trial, no card	25 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini	$50/mo ($45/mo billed annually)
Profound	7-day free trial	50 prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews; limited AI Marketer credits	Enterprise, custom-quoted (agency plans are sold separately)
Scrunch (Sitecore)	7-day trial, card required	Core: 125 prompts, 5 site audits a month, 5 user licenses; ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot	Core $250/mo
Otterly	Free trial	Lite: 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot	Lite $29/mo; Gemini, AI Mode, and Claude are add-ons
Rankscale	7-day Pro trial	Credit-based tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and more	Essentials from $20/mo; Pro $99/mo
LLMrefs	7-day trial	500 prompts with weekly reports	$79/mo (listed as a limited-time price)

Why "free" can mean "misleading": the fidelity problem

A free number is only worth as much as the method behind it. Four traps make some free ChatGPT checks misleading, and most lists don't name them.

None of these makes the free tools useless. They make the free number something to read with the method in mind, which a one-time grade can't give you and a scheduled tracker can.

One run is a screenshot, not a measurement. ChatGPT answers vary run to run. SparkToro's January 2026 study of 2,961 runs found less than a 1-in-1,000 chance that an AI tool returns the same brand list in the same order twice, and it recommends visibility percentage across prompts run multiple times instead. In our own repeated runs, the set of sources cited for the same prompt changes from day to day as well.
"Which ChatGPT?" matters. A brand can be visible in the base model (parametric memory, no citations) and invisible in ChatGPT Search, which draws on third-party search providers (OpenAI's help center links Microsoft's privacy statement), OpenAI's crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User), and on-demand page fetches, or the reverse. A free tool that queries a mini-model or reads training data is measuring something different from the answer your buyer sees. Ask every vendor, including us, which ChatGPT surface and model a free check uses.
The vendor's prompt set is not your buyers' prompt set. Index-based checkers run the vendor's own prompt library. That is good for breadth and benchmarking, but if your buyers ask long, specific questions, a generic index can overstate or understate you. Custom prompts you control are the fix, and they usually cost money.
A single blended "AI visibility score" hides separate signals. Mention rate (are you named), citation rate (are your URLs the source), share of voice (your slice vs competitors), and how you're described are independent measurements with different fixes. Any tool, free or paid, that collapses them into one number hides where your problem is.

DIY: scripting your own check against the OpenAI API

Engineering-led teams can build a minimum tracker quickly. The API call is the easy part; prompt-set curation, response parsing, and storage are the work. Four tradeoffs are worth stating plainly:

What you save: the license, which runs from about $20/mo for the cheapest entry tiers to several hundred dollars a month for mid-market plans (September 2026 list prices).
What you absorb: API costs, build time, ongoing prompt-set curation, and parsing edge cases: ChatGPT spells competitor names inconsistently and embeds links in varied formats.
The non-obvious catch: the OpenAI API is not the ChatGPT app. A plain API call returns a base-model answer with no live citations. OpenAI's web search tool in the Responses API adds inline URL citations, which gets you closer, but the result still isn't guaranteed to match what a buyer sees in ChatGPT.
Right use: engineering teams that want full control of prompts and storage and have an owner for maintenance. Wrong use: a marketing team that needs something live this quarter.

Which free path matches which job

The fastest route to a starting point: match the job to the path, not the other way round.

Job to be done	Right free path	Why
I want a free line that keeps moving over time	Mangools AI Search Watcher Free	The only free ongoing third-party tracker we found; 5 prompts, weekly
I want outcome numbers I can trust	GA4 AI Assistant channel, Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance, Search Console	First-party, free, and ongoing; partial by design
I want a structured one-shot read on ChatGPT	SolCrys free audit	10 buyer prompts: mention rate, competitor share of voice, and cited sources in about 5 minutes
I want the most generous no-account grade	HubSpot AI Search Grader	Free and repeatable; remember it reads training data for ChatGPT
I want breadth across engines on real search demand	Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker	Search-backed prompts across 6 AI surfaces
I'm already evaluating a paid platform	That platform's trial	Trials are built for exactly this
I have engineering and want full control of prompts and storage	DIY script	Maximum flexibility, real maintenance cost

When free stops being enough

Free tools answer one question well: "is AI visibility a real channel for my category?" They can't answer the 4 that come next.

Is my mention rate trending up or down over the last 30 days, across engines?
Do Gemini and Perplexity name a different competitor set than ChatGPT?
Which prompts am I losing share of voice on this week?
Which content change would move the answer, and did it?

What paid tracking adds

SolCrys Starter ($99/mo) adds daily tracking of 20 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Pro ($399/mo) tracks 60 prompts on any 4 of ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude, with 40 Deep Analyses and 10 Content Audits a month and Answer Accuracy on up to 15 prompts (as listed September 2026). The part free tools can't reach is everything after Measure in the loop, Measure → Diagnose → Execute → Verify: a Deep Analysis or Content Audit turns a lost prompt into a specific recommended action, your team approves and ships it, and SolCrys reruns the same frozen prompt set and re-audits the page so you can see whether the answer moved. Before-and-after results are observations, not proof of cause. Most free tools stop at Measure. For the paid field, see Best Tools to Track Brand Visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Get started

The fastest structured free read is the SolCrys audit: enter your domain, verify your email, and get 10 ChatGPT prompts analyzed in one report you keep, in about 5 minutes. Start Free

Want a free line that keeps moving? Set up Mangools' free Watcher alongside it, and turn on GA4's AI Assistant channel and Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report. Ready for daily multi-engine tracking and the action layer? See SolCrys pricing.

Sources

FAQ

Is there a genuinely free ongoing ChatGPT visibility tracker?

Barely. As of September 2026, Trakkr's free-forever plan is gone (a 14-day trial with a card, then $100/mo). The only third-party free ongoing tracker we found is Mangools' AI Search Watcher Free: 5 prompts, weekly updates, no card. Free first-party reports (GA4's AI Assistant channel, Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance, and Search Console's generative AI report) run continuously but don't show whether ChatGPT names your brand. Everything else free is a one-time grade or a trial.

Does Trakkr still have a free plan?

No. As of September 2026, trakkr.ai/pricing lists no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial that requires a card, then Growth at $100/mo (1 brand, 50 prompts, 8 models, daily) or Scale at $500/mo (10 brands). If you relied on its free tier, Mangools' free Watcher is the closest free replacement, at a much smaller scale.

What is the best free one-time ChatGPT visibility check?

Two stand out for different reasons. HubSpot's AI Search Grader is the most generous: free, no account, repeatable. HubSpot says its results come from training data, so it reads your base-model footprint rather than the live ChatGPT Search answer. The SolCrys free audit is the most structured for ChatGPT specifically: 10 buyer prompts returning mention rate, competitor share of voice, and cited sources in about 5 minutes, with email verification and no card.

Do free ChatGPT visibility checkers actually query ChatGPT?

Some do, some approximate. HubSpot says its grader's ChatGPT results come from training data via GPT-5.4 mini; Mangools' grader uses small API models such as GPT-5 Nano; Ahrefs runs its own search-backed prompt index. None of those is necessarily the answer a buyer sees in ChatGPT Search, which draws on third-party search providers, OpenAI's crawlers, and live page fetches. Ask every vendor, including us, which ChatGPT surface and model a free check uses before you quote the number.

Can I track my brand in Gemini and Perplexity for free too?

Partly, as one-time checks: Ahrefs', HubSpot's, and Mangools' graders include Gemini, and Ahrefs and HubSpot include Perplexity. Free ongoing multi-engine tracking on your own prompts barely exists; Mangools' free Watcher is 5 prompts a week. Running daily scans across several engines has real cost, which is why paid plans exist. The SolCrys free plan is ChatGPT only.

Are manual ChatGPT spot-checks a substitute for a tracker?

For a one-off gut check, yes. For measurement, no. Manual checks can't average run-to-run variation, are easy to misread when competitors are named inconsistently, and don't aggregate over time. The structured parts of a real tracker (a fixed prompt set, consistent timing, and mention parsing) are what make the numbers comparable enough to act on.

Can I just script this against the OpenAI API myself?

If you have engineering capacity and an owner for maintenance, yes. The hard parts are curating a buyer-intent prompt set, parsing inconsistent brand mentions and link formats, and storage. One catch trips most teams: the OpenAI API is not the ChatGPT app. A plain API call returns base-model answers without live citations; OpenAI's web search tool adds URL citations but still isn't guaranteed to match what a buyer sees in ChatGPT.

Free ChatGPT visibility check

Try the full loop on your own domain, free

Most free checkers stop at a score. The free SolCrys workspace runs 10 ChatGPT prompts on your domain, shows who gets recommended instead, and hands you the first fix to ship.

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Free · No credit card · About 5 minutes

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