Check which brands ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google recommend.

AI visibility is how often an AI assistant names your brand when a buyer asks it for a recommendation, and which sources it cites when it does. It differs from a search ranking. ChatGPT may name you without linking to you, and Perplexity may cite a review site that names your competitor first.

Ask the question the way your buyer would, in their language, and from their country when the tool allows it. Ask every engine the same words. Then record three things for each answer.

• Which brands it names, and in what order.
• Which sources it cites, if any.
• Whether your brand appears, and what the answer says about it.

A mention is your brand named in the answer. A citation is a link the engine shows as its source. Rank is the order of the names. Perplexity gave all three here. It named QuickBooks Online first, then Xero, Zoho Books, FreshBooks and Wave, and cited 10 sources. ChatGPT ranked the same five brands in a different order, with Wave third. The tool reported web search off and returned no citation list, though the answer text showed source pills such as Fit Small Business. Google gave links, not picks. Zoho held the top ad and the #1 result, and QuickBooks and Xero ranked with their own pages.

The sources are the part you can act on. Perplexity cited NerdWallet, CNBC, PCMag, Investopedia and others, and PCMag and CNBC also rank in the Google top 10. A brand that is missing from these answers can start by getting reviewed fairly on the pages the engines already read.

The market changes the answer. Asked the same question from Indonesia on 19 October 2026, the engines put local brands first, Kledo on Perplexity and Accurate Online on ChatGPT. Run the check from each country you sell in.

A tracker runs a set of prompts on a schedule and charts the results. That suits a brand that reports on AI visibility every month. A one-off check suits the questions that come first. Does any engine name us at all? Which competitor wins, and which sites does the engine cite? This run answered those for $0.0232, before any subscription.

If you later want a trend, ask your agent to repeat the same prompt each week and keep the answers. At this run's prices that is about $0.02 a week for three engines. Tracker plans vary, so check current pricing before you compare.

The named Perplexity tool rejected the request with HTTP 400 and cost nothing. The agent switched to the routed tool, tap.ai-search.perplexity.answer. A routed tool picks one of several providers, and the catalog lists the range of their prices, here $0.0060 to $0.0147. This call was served by the pricier provider, whose own charge varies a little from call to call, and settled at $0.0149. The receipt shows what the call actually settled at. Tools with a single provider, like the ChatGPT step here, settle at their listed price.

AI answers change between runs, accounts and days. This page is one dated sample from 20 October 2026, not a score. Three calls failed and cost nothing. The named Perplexity tool and the Gemini tool rejected the request with HTTP 400. ChatGPT returned HTTP 502 when asked with a country, then answered without one, so its answer is not tied to the US. Ask a few times and on different days before you draw a conclusion.