The short answer
Ahrefs Brand Radar is the AI visibility layer bolted onto the Ahrefs suite, and based on our research it does what it promises: brand mentions, competitor comparisons, and citation data from AI answers, inside the platform your SEO team may already live in. The thing to understand is the cost structure. The AI Visibility Index runs $199/mo (83 prompts/day, 2,500 checks/mo, overage at $0.02 per check) and covers all platforms, with usage metered in checks and heavier platforms consuming more checks per update (Claude burns 8 per update). Ahrefs' help pages now describe standalone purchases, so the old rule that a paid Ahrefs base plan is mandatory no longer holds for the Index itself, though Custom Prompts packages (from $50/mo) still require one. That makes Brand Radar an easy add for teams already deep in Ahrefs, and a more legitimate standalone option than it used to be, though dedicated AEO trackers still start at $95/mo. For the full landscape, see our guide to the best AEO tracking tools.
A note on method up front: we run our own client tracking on Peec AI daily, but we do not use Brand Radar hands-on. This review is based on our research, vendor documentation, and user reviews, and we flag the difference wherever it matters.
What Ahrefs Brand Radar does
Brand Radar is Ahrefs' answer to the question every marketing team started asking in the last two years: what do AI assistants say about us? It measures your brand's presence in AI-generated answers, benchmarks that presence against competitors, and surfaces the pages and domains being cited, using the large-scale index infrastructure Ahrefs already operates for its SEO products.
The core reports, per Ahrefs' documentation, cluster around three jobs:
- Brand visibility in AI answers. How often AI platforms mention your brand within the topics and categories you care about, trended over time. This is the headline metric for any Answer Engine Optimization program.
- Competitive share. The same visibility lens applied to the competitors you name, so you can see who owns the answers in your category and how the shares move.
- Citation and source analysis. Which pages and domains AI platforms draw on, which is the data that tells you where the battle is actually fought.
That third job matters more than most buyers expect, and it is worth pausing on because it is the reason we take any tool in this category seriously or not. In our own tracking data across three verticals, a brand's own website accounts for only 2 to 6 percent of the sources AI engines cite in its category, while third-party editorial, community, and reference sites account for 26 to 59 percent. A tool that only counts mentions is watching the scoreboard and ignoring the field. Brand Radar's citation reporting, like Peec's and Profound's, points at the field.
The structural difference between Brand Radar and the dedicated trackers is the data model. Prompt-based tools like Peec AI run your specific prompt set on a schedule and report on those exact questions. Brand Radar works from Ahrefs' indexes of AI platform answers, which trades some prompt-level precision for breadth and for something the dedicated tools cannot offer: your AI visibility data living in the same interface as your rankings, backlinks, and site audits.
Ahrefs Brand Radar pricing (2026): the stack math
Here is where this review earns its keep, because the model changed twice in 2026: first away from per-platform indexes, and now away from the mandatory base subscription. As of September 2026, it works like this. Confirm current numbers with Ahrefs before buying; this category reprices constantly.
| Component | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AI Visibility Index | $199/mo | 83 prompts/day, 2,500 checks/mo, overage $0.02/check; all platforms, check-metered |
| Custom Prompts | from $50/mo | $50 per 2,500 checks, $100 for 7,000, $250 for 25,000; requires a paid Ahrefs plan |
| Ahrefs base subscription | Optional for the Index | Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449; help pages now describe standalone Index purchases |
| Free base-plan allowance | Included | Every paid base plan except the new Starter: Lite 150, Standard 300, Advanced 600 checks/mo |
Three things to understand about this model.
All platforms, metered in checks. The old per-index model, where each AI platform cost $199/mo separately, is gone, and so is the interim setup where you picked a subset of platforms inside the plan. The $199/mo AI Visibility Index now covers all platforms (AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, and Grok, though Grok data collection is currently paused) and meters what you actually run: 83 prompts per day, 2,500 checks per month, then $0.02 per check in overage. The catch is that platforms consume checks at different rates: Claude consumes 8 checks per update, so broad coverage of a large prompt set drains the meter faster than the headline capacity suggests. Dedicated AEO trackers meter by tracked prompt count per tier; Brand Radar meters by checks.
The base subscription is no longer the automatic prerequisite. Earlier in 2026, Brand Radar was strictly an add-on: no Ahrefs plan, no Brand Radar, and the honest entry price included a base plan on top of the Index. Ahrefs' help pages now say standalone purchases are available, which removes that floor for the Index itself. Two wrinkles remain: Custom Prompts packages still require a paid Ahrefs plan, and one help article still describes the older $199 single-platform / $699 all-platform structure, so treat the marketing page as current and confirm the purchase path on your own account before budgeting.
Existing Ahrefs customers still get the better deal. Every paid base plan except the new Starter includes a free monthly check allowance (Lite 150, Standard 300, Advanced 600), and Custom Prompts are only available with a plan. So while a standalone buyer can now get the Index at $199/mo flat, the product is still clearly shaped around the existing Ahrefs customer, which is exactly who it fits best anyway.
For context, $199/mo sits above Peec AI's Starter ($95/mo) and below its Pro tier ($245/mo plus any per-model add-ons). Brand Radar's price competes in the mid-market. The question is whether the Ahrefs integration and the check-metered model fit how you track, which is exactly what the next comparison is for.
Total cost of ownership: Brand Radar vs Peec, Otterly, and Scrunch
The fairest way to compare tools with different pricing models is total cost of ownership for the coverage you actually need. Here is the September 2026 picture for a single brand, using published pricing:
| Tool | Advertised entry | Realistic monthly | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | $199/mo (AI Visibility Index) | $199/mo plus any Custom Prompts | All platforms on a 2,500 checks/mo meter; standalone purchase now described by Ahrefs' help pages; Custom Prompts (from $50/mo) require a paid Ahrefs plan |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | $95 to $495/mo | 3 AI models of your choice included per plan; extra models are paid add-ons; tier depends on prompt count |
| Otterly.ai | $29/mo | $189/mo plus add-ons | Standard plan plus paid add-ons for Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Mode at $9 to $149/mo each depending on plan |
| Scrunch AI | $250/mo annual | $250/mo annual ($300 monthly) | Starter: 3 seats, 350 custom plus 1,000 industry prompts; published at scrunch.com |
The pattern is worth reading closely. Brand Radar at $199/mo sits between Peec's $95 Starter and its Pro tier at $245/mo, and the removal of the mandatory base plan makes that an honest comparison at last. The check meter is the thing to model: all platforms are included, but heavier platforms consume more checks per update (Claude burns 8), so the effective capacity depends on your platform mix. Otterly looks cheapest at the entry, but note its own version of the add-on trap: Claude and Google engine coverage cost extra, which is worth reading about in our full Otterly.ai review. Scrunch occupies a different lane, brand and buyer-journey monitoring, at a now-published mid-market price.
The scenario that sweetens this chart: if you already pay for Ahrefs, your base plan (except the new Starter) includes a free monthly check allowance, Lite 150, Standard 300, Advanced 600, and you can add Custom Prompts packages from $50/mo, which standalone buyers cannot. That is the honest frame for existing Ahrefs customers, and it is why our verdict below still splits on exactly that line.
What Brand Radar is good at
Based on our research, vendor documentation, and user reviews, the strengths cluster where you would expect from Ahrefs:
- One platform for SEO and AI visibility. This is the pitch, and for the right team it is a real advantage. Your AI mention data, your rankings, your backlinks, and your site audits live in one login, one interface, one vendor relationship. No new tool to onboard, no new dashboard to teach stakeholders to read.
- Ahrefs-scale index infrastructure. Ahrefs has spent well over a decade building crawling and indexing at serious scale, and Brand Radar inherits that machinery. The breadth of the underlying data is a credible differentiator versus younger point solutions.
- Credibility with SEO teams and budget holders. Ahrefs is already an approved vendor in thousands of organizations. Adding a line item to an existing subscription is a far easier internal sell than procuring a new platform, and for many teams that friction difference decides the purchase.
- Category-level visibility, not just your prompt list. Because it is index-based rather than limited to the prompts you thought to track, Brand Radar can surface brand and topic visibility you did not know to look for. Prompt-based tools only answer the questions you ask them.
Ahrefs also publishes some of the best research in this space. The finding we cite constantly, that roughly 43.8 percent of pages cited by ChatGPT are listicle-style content (from an Ahrefs study of over a billion data points), shapes how we build content for AI visibility at AEO Labs. The company understands this problem domain deeply, and that shows in how Brand Radar is framed.
Where Brand Radar falls short
We keep this section to what is documented, and the trade-offs are structural rather than qualitative:
The check meter is the constraint to model. The 2026 restructure fixed the old per-index sting, but the new model meters usage: 83 prompts per day and 2,500 checks per month on the $199 Index, then $0.02 per check in overage, with Custom Prompts sold separately from $50/mo. Platforms also consume checks at different rates, with Claude at 8 checks per update, so a serious prompt set across several platforms burns the meter fast. Model your real volume and platform mix before assuming $199 is your number.
The purchase path is still in flux. Ahrefs' help pages now describe standalone purchases of the Index, but another help article still documents the older $199 single-platform / $699 all-platform structure, and Custom Prompts remain gated behind a paid Ahrefs plan. The direction of travel is clear; the documentation is not fully consistent yet, so verify what your own account is offered before you budget.
It is a suite feature, not a dedicated AEO workflow. Tools built solely for AEO tracking, like Peec, organize everything around the daily tracking loop: prompt sets, per-brand workspaces, competitor benchmarks, citation-source reports designed for client reporting. Brand Radar is one product inside a large SEO platform, and based on user reviews the workflow reflects that. For an agency running AI visibility as a service, that difference is felt daily.
No agency-shaped pricing. Peec's credit-based agency tiers with unlimited seats spread cost across many client brands. Brand Radar's model does not scale that way; the check meter does not care how many brands you monitor, but the workflow and packaging were not built around multi-client agency operations the way dedicated trackers are.
Who should use Ahrefs Brand Radar (and who should not)
A good fit if:
- Your team already runs on Ahrefs daily. Your base plan already includes a free monthly check allowance (Lite 150, Standard 300, Advanced 600), the AI Visibility Index is $199/mo of marginal spend, and your AI visibility data lands inside a workflow everyone already knows. This is the single strongest case for Brand Radar.
- You want SEO and AI visibility unified for stakeholders. One dashboard, one vendor, one report. For in-house teams answering to executives who already recognize Ahrefs charts, that continuity has real value.
- Your tracking volume fits the meter. If your prompt set sits comfortably inside 83 prompts a day and 2,500 checks a month after accounting for per-platform check consumption, the $199/mo Index is a clean, scoped purchase and the all-in math never gets ugly.
Not the right fit if:
- You are buying purely for AEO tracking with no Ahrefs commitment. Standalone purchase makes the $199/mo Index a fairer buy than the old bundled model, but you would still pay double Peec's Starter for tracking that is not the platform's center of gravity. Start with our best AEO trackers guide instead.
- You are an agency tracking multiple client brands. The credit pools, unlimited seats, and per-brand workspaces of a dedicated tracker are built for that job. See our Peec AI review for the tool we use ourselves.
- You are budget-testing whether AEO tracking matters for you at all. Otterly.ai starts at $29/mo, and there are worthwhile free AEO tools to establish a baseline before you spend anything.
How we evaluate
Full transparency on method: we do not use Brand Radar hands-on. This review is based on our research, Ahrefs' own documentation and published pricing, and user reviews, checked against how these tools are actually bought in 2026. What grounds our judgment of the category is daily practice: AEO Labs runs client AI-visibility tracking on Peec AI every day across multiple brands and verticals, which is where our proprietary citation data comes from, including the finding that a brand's own site is only 2 to 6 percent of AI-cited sources in its category. Our lens is consistent across every review we write: does the tool produce data an AEO program can act on, at a price the program can sustain? For Brand Radar, the answer depends almost entirely on whether Ahrefs is already in your stack, which is why we spent this review on the cost math rather than feature screenshots.
Watch: Ahrefs on Answer Engine Optimization
Ahrefs' own explainer is a genuinely good primer on why AI visibility measurement matters, and it doubles as a look at how the company thinks about the category Brand Radar competes in.
Key takeaways
- Ahrefs Brand Radar adds AI visibility tracking (brand mentions, competitive share, citation sources) to the Ahrefs suite, built on Ahrefs' index infrastructure.
- Pricing was restructured in 2026: the AI Visibility Index is $199/mo (83 prompts/day, 2,500 checks/mo, $0.02/check overage) covering all platforms on a check-metered basis, with heavier platforms consuming more checks per update (Claude burns 8). Custom Prompts start at $50/mo and require a paid Ahrefs plan.
- Ahrefs' help pages now describe standalone purchases of the Index, so the old minimum-stack framing that bundled a required base plan no longer applies; at $199/mo it sits between Peec AI's $95 Starter and $245 Pro plan.
- The verdict still splits on one question: existing Ahrefs customers get a low-friction add-on with free base-plan check allowances and Custom Prompts access; standalone buyers get a fair $199/mo price but a product shaped around the Ahrefs stack.
- Agencies and dedicated AEO programs are better served by prompt-based trackers; budget buyers should start with Otterly.ai or free tools before committing.
- Whatever you buy, insist on citation-source reporting. Our tracking shows a brand's own site is only 2 to 6 percent of what AI engines cite; the answers are won on third-party pages.
The stack question is not the strategy question
Whether Brand Radar, Peec, or any Profound alternative wins your tooling budget, remember what the tool does: it measures. It will tell you, with increasing precision, that AI engines are not citing you. It will not change that. Changing it takes answer-first content built for how AI engines read, structured data, and a deliberate campaign to earn citations on the third-party pages engines already trust.
If you want the baseline before you commit to any platform, an AI visibility audit from AEO Labs measures your citation share across engines, shows you which sources decide your category, and hands you the prioritized gap list. We will also tell you honestly whether your team's existing stack, Ahrefs included, already covers what you need, because the cheapest tracking tool is the one you do not have to buy twice.