Ahrefs Brand Radar Review 2026: Pricing, Data and Semrush Compared

Ahrefs Brand Radar is Ahrefs' AI visibility tool: it shows how often a brand is mentioned and cited in AI answers, using an index of 481M+ prompts built from Google's People Also Ask questions, plus custom prompts you track yourself. As of October 16, 2026, one AI platform index costs $199 a month, all platforms cost $699, and every paid Ahrefs plan includes 5 to 20 tracked prompts.

This review covers how Brand Radar collects its data, what each metric really measures, what it costs, where it falls short, and how Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit compares. We make 99Visibility, which overlaps with both tools on part of the job, so every Ahrefs and Semrush figure below comes from their own pages.

What Ahrefs Brand Radar is and how it collects data

Brand Radar sells two different things under one name, and the difference matters more than the price.

• AI Visibility Index. Pre-collected answers you can search for any brand, product or category with no setup, with history back to 2025. Ahrefs takes "People Also Ask questions from keyword queries in its keyword index" and enters them into "the web version of each chatbot using its default model," without stored user data (Ahrefs help center, September 3, 2026).
• Custom Prompts. Questions you define, tracked from the day you add them, daily, weekly or monthly per platform.

Platform	AI Visibility Index	Custom Prompts	Refresh
Google AI Overviews	Yes	Yes	Every few days
Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot	Yes	Yes	Index question sets re-tested monthly; custom daily to monthly
Claude	No	Yes, at 8 checks per update	Custom daily to monthly
Grok	Collection "temporarily unavailable"

Ahrefs also bundles Search Demand and Web Visibility indexes, plus YouTube, Reddit and TikTok indexes that are free while in beta.

Ahrefs Brand Radar pricing (October 2026)

What you buy	Monthly price	What it includes
Ahrefs Lite / Standard / Advanced	$129 / $249 / $449	5 / 10 / 20 tracked AI prompts (150 / 300 / 600 checks a month), plus the SEO toolset
Custom prompt packages	Basic $50, Growth $100, Scale $250	2,500 / 7,000 / 25,000 checks a month; overage $0.020 / $0.015 / $0.010 per check
Brand Radar AI, one platform index	$199 per index	The AI Visibility Index for that platform
Brand Radar AI, all platforms	$699	Every index, plus 2,500 custom prompt checks a month

Sources: Ahrefs pricing and the Ahrefs help center, opened October 16, 2026. Brand Radar can be bought on its own, which comes with an Ahrefs Free account, and visitors in Europe see euro prices.

What a "check" is

Ahrefs bills custom prompts in checks: "Tracking one prompt on one platform in one location uses 1 check." Five prompts on one platform, daily, is 150 checks a month. Claude uses eight checks per update, so tracking it daily costs eight times as much as tracking ChatGPT.

The metrics, and what each one actually measures

Ahrefs defines its metrics plainly on its AI visibility metrics page. Read them carefully before you report them to anyone.

• Mentions: counted once per AI response that names the brand, however many times it appears.
• Citations: a page counts when it is cited at least once; a domain counts once however many of its pages are cited.
• Found in: pages AI retrieved "whether or not it cites them." Ahrefs notes "AI does not cite all the pages it checks." This is the metric most tools lack.
• Impressions: "the sum of Google search volumes for prompts where the brand appears." This is Google search demand, not a count of people asking a chatbot.
• AI Share of Voice: your share of impressions against tracked brands, which Ahrefs says "can change a lot depending on how you've set up the entities."

So an Ahrefs "impression" is an estimate built from Google volume. No AI platform publishes how often its users ask a given question, so no tool can give you that number.

Where Brand Radar is strong

• Research with no setup. Look up any competitor or category instantly, with history. Prompt trackers only know what you told them to ask.
• Retrieved versus cited. "Found in" shows where AI read your page but did not credit it, which points at pages worth improving.
• SEO data in the same account. Keyword, backlink and site audit data sit next to the AI data.
• A low-cost way in. If you already pay for Ahrefs, 5 to 20 prompts are included, and Ahrefs lists Bot Analytics, free while in beta, on its Brand Radar page.

Where Brand Radar falls short

• Small brands are underrepresented. Ahrefs says the index "may have limited coverage for brands with little or no search volume," because it is built from its keyword database. Those are the brands most worried about AI visibility.
• Monthly chatbot data. The ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot indexes refresh once a month, so a fix you ship this week shows up next month at the earliest. Use custom prompts for anything you need to watch closely.
• PAA questions are not chatbot prompts. They are what people type into Google. And OpenAI says ChatGPT search "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" anyway (OpenAI help center).
• No accuracy check. Ahrefs' help pages describe mentions and citations, not whether the answer stated your price, founder or features correctly.
• Claude is expensive to track. Custom prompts only, at eight checks per update.

Ahrefs Brand Radar vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

	Ahrefs Brand Radar	Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Entry price	$199/mo per AI index; custom prompts from $50/mo; 5 prompts included in Lite ($129)	$99/mo per domain; Semrush One from $199/mo
Tracked prompts at entry	Checks-based (2,500 checks for $50)	25 prompts, daily; 50 more for $60/mo
Research any brand	481M+ prompt index	AI Visibility Overview for any domain, 300 AI analysis reports a day
Platforms	AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude via custom prompts	Mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity
Brand perception	Mentions, citations, share of voice	Share of voice, sentiment, key narratives and AI-generated recommendations
AI crawler checks	Bot Analytics (beta)	AI Search Health widget in Site Audit
Data refresh	AI Overviews every few days; chatbots monthly; custom daily to monthly	Research reports daily; Brand Performance weekly; prompt tracking daily
Free trial	No free trial, per Ahrefs' FAQ; the Brand Radar page offers a free visibility preview	None for the toolkit, per Semrush

Semrush sources: Semrush AI Visibility pricing and the AI Visibility Toolkit knowledge base, opened October 16, 2026. Semrush also sells Semrush One, which bundles SEO and AI visibility: Starter at $199 a month with 50 prompts and Pro+ at $299 with 100.

The short version: Brand Radar is the better research tool, with a far larger index and the retrieved-versus-cited split. Semrush is the cheaper tracker at $99 for 25 daily prompts, with more on sentiment and narrative. Both make the most sense if you already use the rest of the suite.

Does domain authority help a brand get cited by AI?

An older version of this post compared Ahrefs' and Semrush's authority scores with those of GEO startups. That comparison does not tell you anything about AI citations, and here is why.

Ahrefs defines Domain Rating as "the strength of a website's backlink profile compared to the others in our database" (Ahrefs). Semrush calls Authority Score "our compound metric," calculated from link power, organic traffic and spam signals (Semrush). Both are each vendor's own estimate, and no AI platform says it reads either.

Well-known brands do get mentioned more, but that is brand size, not a score you can raise to get cited. Google says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary" beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet (Google). Our guide to how LLMs prioritise information about brands covers what is actually known.

Semrush vs Profound

Semrush is a self-serve SEO suite with an AI toolkit from $99 a month and four platforms. Profound is an AI-only platform with a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise pricing covering up to nine engines, agents, SSO and SOC 2 (Profound pricing).

If you need a price today and already do SEO in Semrush, Semrush fits; if you need broad engine coverage and procurement-grade security, Profound does. Our breakdown of Profound pricing and why GEO tools cost $300+ goes further.

When to use Brand Radar, Semrush or a dedicated GEO tool

• You research competitors and categories: Ahrefs Brand Radar.
• You already pay for Semrush and want daily tracking cheaply: the Semrush toolkit.
• You are a small brand with little search volume: custom prompts in either tool, or a dedicated tracker, because a demand-built index may not include you.
• AI states your facts wrong or crawlers cannot reach you: neither suite describes an accuracy check against your own facts. Dedicated tools do; see our best GEO tools comparison, or our Semrush AI visibility alternative page for how 99Visibility differs.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ahrefs Brand Radar?

Brand Radar is Ahrefs' AI visibility tool. It tracks how brands, products and competitors are mentioned and cited in AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, using a pre-built index of 481M+ prompts and custom prompts you add, with Claude available through custom prompts.

How much does Ahrefs Brand Radar cost?

As of October 16, 2026, one AI platform index costs $199 a month and all platforms cost $699 a month, which includes 2,500 custom prompt checks. Custom prompt packages start at $50 a month, and paid Ahrefs plans from $129 include 5 to 20 tracked prompts.

Is Ahrefs free to use?

Ahrefs Free gives website owners limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit at no cost, and Ahrefs lists a free AI Visibility Checker among its free tools. Brand Radar itself is paid.

What are the cons of Ahrefs Brand Radar?

The index may have thin coverage for brands with little search volume, chatbot data refreshes monthly, and "impressions" are based on Google search volume rather than AI usage. It does not check whether AI states your facts correctly, and Claude costs eight checks per update.

Does Semrush have an AI visibility tool?

Yes. The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 a month per domain with 25 tracked prompts and mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. Semrush says it has no free trial, and Semrush One bundles it with the SEO toolkit from $199 a month.

To see whether AI gets your facts right and whether its crawlers can reach your site, run a free 99Visibility audit.