Promptwatch vs Wellows vs Semrush AI Toolkit vs Ahrefs Brand Radar (2026)
Two dedicated AI visibility platforms against two SEO-suite add-ons. Engines, prompt sources, refresh, crawler data, attribution and real setup costs, ranked one to four.
Quick verdict
Our ranking for tracking AI search visibility:
- Promptwatch. The most complete of the four: eleven engines, crawler logs, conversion attribution and an automated publishing agent.
- Wellows. The best value dedicated tool, with a sharp citation model and outreach targets, but no Claude, Copilot, crawler logs or attribution.
- Semrush AI Toolkit. The easiest add-on for one domain inside Semrush, though our pricing for it couldn't be re-verified this week.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar. Strong research inside Ahrefs, weak as a week-to-week tracker.
The split that matters is between products built for AI search and SEO suites that added an AI column. If AI answers are a channel you report on, start with one of the first two. If they're a curiosity next to your keyword work, the add-on you already own may be enough for now.
Two kinds of product
Semrush and Ahrefs added AI visibility to suites built for Google rankings and backlinks. That is their strength: no new login, and AI data next to keyword and link data. It's also their limit. Both lean on modeled prompts, Semrush with AI-generated approximations of user questions and Ahrefs with an index modeled from its keyword data, and neither documents what happens on your own site when an AI crawler visits.
Promptwatch and Wellows were built for AI answers from the start. Both track prompts you choose by collecting from the engines' real interfaces rather than relying only on APIs. From there they diverge: Wellows stays focused on citations and outreach, and Promptwatch extends into crawler logs, traffic and publishing.
The grid
Sources: Promptwatch's llms.txt (checked 21 October 2026), Wellows' pricing page and llms.txt (read 25 October 2026), and our directory listings for Semrush AI Toolkit and Ahrefs Brand Radar (24 October 2026).
| Promptwatch | Wellows | Semrush AI Toolkit | Ahrefs Brand Radar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Dedicated AI visibility platform | Dedicated, citation-first platform | Add-on to Semrush | Module inside Ahrefs |
| Entry | Free Explore; Essential $95/mo | Basic $29/mo | Last listed $99/mo per domain; not re-verified | Custom Prompts with paid Ahrefs plans; Index from $199/mo |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Llama, DeepSeek, Mistral, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini | AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity; Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek on Enterprise AIO | AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude on Custom Prompts only |
| Prompt source | Your prompts, with search volumes, difficulty, query fan-outs | Your prompts; no volume figures by design | AI-generated approximations; 25 prompts included | Your Custom Prompts (daily quota) or a 496M+ modeled index |
| Refresh | Prompt trends show what changed between checks; crawler logs in real time | Daily or weekly per project | Not published | Index retested monthly |
| Citation detail | Page, domain, Reddit, YouTube, offsite, citation trends | Explicit vs implicit, sentiment per cited page, outreach list | Mentions and links in AI answers | Mention share; YouTube and Reddit sources |
| AI crawler data | Agent Analytics logs and crawl-to-citation path | Not published | Not published | AI crawler activity reported; no crawl-to-citation path documented |
| AI-referred conversions | Visitor analytics via script or GTM | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Content | Content Agent publishes via review inbox (Business, Enterprise) | KIVA drafts, sent to WordPress for editing | Not published | Pivot to Ahrefs content tools |
| Multi-client | Agency plans from $199, unlimited projects | Unlimited projects and seats on every plan | +$99/mo per extra domain (last listed) | No per-client structure |
The add-ons, honestly
Semrush AI Toolkit earns its place through keyword-to-prompt mapping: you see which money keywords now resolve to AI answers you're missing from, in a tool your team already knows. The catch is the cost structure on our listing, which charges $99 a month per extra domain, $99 per extra user and $60 per 50 extra prompts, putting a ten-domain agency around $1,000 a month. Semrush's pricing page didn't show the toolkit when we checked on 24 October, so confirm those numbers before buying. Our listing also reports that Adobe acquired Semrush in April 2026.
Ahrefs Brand Radar is now more useful than it was at launch, because Custom Prompts come with paid Ahrefs plans: 5 daily prompts on Lite, 10 on Standard, 20 on Advanced. The AI Visibility Index on top (from $199 a month, $699 for all models) is research at scale, retested monthly. Our listing records an independent January 2026 test where the index reported 3 ChatGPT mentions against 123 found manually. It's directional data, and good for category questions.
Semrush ranks above Ahrefs here because it's the more practical day-to-day tracker for a single domain. Ahrefs is the better research tool.
The dedicated pair
Wellows costs the least of all four to start. Every plan runs all five of its engines with every feature and unlimited projects and seats. You buy a monthly balance of AI answers, from 1,800 on Basic to 36,000 on Scale at $497. Its citation model is the most practical in this group: explicit citations of your own pages, implicit citations through third-party pages that mention you, and an outreach list of cited pages that don't mention you yet. What it doesn't publish is the layer under the citations, which costs it the top spot.
Promptwatch covers the most ground. Beyond tracking eleven engines, Agent Analytics reads crawler logs from Cloudflare, CloudFront, Fastly, Vercel, Netlify, Akamai, Google Cloud CDN or custom HTTP and shows whether ChatGPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot fetched a page and whether it errored. Visitor analytics connect AI-referred sessions to conversions from Essential. On Business ($579) the automated Content Agent plans, writes and publishes to Webflow, Framer or WordPress through a review inbox. Every paid plan includes MCP and API access.
What a realistic setup costs
| Setup | Promptwatch | Wellows | Semrush AI Toolkit | Ahrefs Brand Radar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One brand, starter | Free Explore, then $95 Essential | $29 Basic (12 prompts daily on 5 engines) | $99/mo per domain, last listed | Included Custom Prompts on a paid Ahrefs plan (from $129/mo on our listing) |
| One brand, serious | $245 Professional (150 prompts, crawler logs) | $97 Standard or $249 Growth | Add-on plus $60 per 50 prompts | $199 to $699/mo for the Index on top |
| Ten clients | $199 Kick-off or $399 Growth agency plan | $249 Growth on one shared balance | About $1,000/mo on our listing | No per-client structure |
On sticker price alone Wellows wins every row, and that's a fair reason for it to sit at number two. The price gap narrows once you count what the higher figures include: crawler logs from Professional and on every agency plan, and visitor events with conversions from Essential.
Who should pick which
- Already pay for Semrush, one domain, light AI interest: turn on the AI Toolkit after checking current pricing.
- Already pay for Ahrefs, want category research: use Custom Prompts, and add the Index only for quarterly analysis.
- Small agency, many clients, citation reports and outreach: Wellows.
- Anyone who needs Claude or Copilot data without a sales call, needs to show what AI search is worth, or wants publishing handled: Promptwatch.
Final word
The suites tell you whether you show up in modeled answers. Wellows tells you which citations you're missing and who to contact. Promptwatch adds the last part: whether AI bots can reach your pages, which visits converted, and an agent that ships the fix. That's why it ranks first here. Keep your SEO suite for keywords and links, and run AI visibility on a platform built for it, starting with the free Explore plan at promptwatch.com.