# AI Search Visibility Tracker - Brand & Competitor Monitor (`benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker`) Actor

Track how AI engines mention your brand. Runs your prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity & Gemini and returns mentions, competitor share of voice & cited sources.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Benedict Mendoza](https://apify.com/benedictmendoza) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, SEO tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $50.00 / 1,000 prompt checks

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## AI Search Visibility Tracker — ChatGPT, Perplexity & Gemini Brand Monitor

**Track how AI search engines talk about your brand.** This Actor runs your target prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini (with live web search), then returns structured data on every answer: whether your brand was mentioned, how prominently, which competitors appeared, and which sources the AI cited.

AI search is where your customers are now. More than half of product research questions are asked to AI assistants instead of Google — and if ChatGPT recommends your competitor when someone asks *"what is the best \[your category] tool?"*, you lose the customer without ever knowing the conversation happened. Traditional rank trackers can't see any of this. This tracker can.

### What does this AI visibility tracker do?

For every prompt × engine combination, you get one structured result row:

- **Brand mentioned?** — exact mention count and character position of the first mention
- **Brand rank** — was your brand named first, second, third among all tracked brands in the answer?
- **Competitor mentions** — per-competitor mention counts for share-of-voice analysis
- **Citations** — every source URL the AI engine cited, and whether **your own website** was one of them
- **Full answer text** — so you can audit exactly what the AI said
- **Run summary** — overall visibility %, per-engine visibility %, and share of voice across your competitor set

### Why track brand mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini?

- **Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)** is the new SEO. Brands are optimizing content to be cited by AI engines — but you can't optimize what you don't measure.
- **AI answers change constantly.** A prompt that mentions you today may recommend a competitor next week. Weekly tracking catches regressions early.
- **Citations are the new backlinks.** Knowing *which* sources AI engines cite for your category tells you exactly where your content or PR needs to appear.
- **Agencies**: run this Actor per client, feed the dataset into your reporting stack, and sell AI-visibility monitoring as a service — without paying per-seat SaaS prices for every client.

### How to use it

1. Enter your **brand name** (plus aliases and your domain for citation detection)
2. Add your **competitors**
3. Add the **prompts** your buyers actually ask ("best CRM for small business", "top project management tools 2026", …)
4. Pick the **engines** and run

Schedule it weekly with Apify Schedules to build a visibility time series, or call it from the API / MCP to feed your own dashboards, Clay tables, n8n flows, or agent pipelines.

### Example output

```json
{
  "prompt": "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
  "engine": "chatgpt",
  "brandMentioned": true,
  "brandMentionCount": 3,
  "brandRank": 2,
  "competitorsMentioned": { "Obsidian": 1, "Evernote": 2, "Coda": 0 },
  "brandCited": true,
  "citations": [{ "url": "https://..." }],
  "answerText": "..."
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event: a small Actor start fee plus a fixed price per **prompt check** (one prompt on one engine). No subscription, no seats, no prompt quotas — 50 checks costs the same whether you run 1 brand or 20 clients. Compare that to AI-visibility SaaS plans starting at $29–299/month per brand.

### FAQ

**Which AI engines are supported?**
ChatGPT (with web search), Perplexity, and Gemini (with web search). More engines — including Google AI Overviews — are on the roadmap; open an issue to vote.

**Can I use my own LLM account?**
Yes — paste your own OpenRouter API key in the input and checks run on your account.

**How is "visibility" calculated?**
Visibility % = share of successful checks where your brand (or an alias) was mentioned at least once, overall and per engine.

**Can I run this on a schedule?**
Yes. Use Apify Schedules (e.g. every Monday) and each run appends fresh rows — that gives you brand-visibility trend data over time.

**Does it work for local/non-English brands?**
Yes — prompts are sent as-is, so ask in any language your customers use.

**Is this GEO / LLM SEO / AI SEO monitoring?**
Yes — this is the same category of data sold by AI-visibility SaaS tools (prompt tracking, AI brand monitoring, generative engine optimization measurement), delivered as a pay-per-use Actor with full structured output.

### Support

Found a bug or want another engine, sentiment scoring, or Slack alerts? Open an issue in the **Issues** tab — issues are answered quickly and feature requests shape the roadmap.

# Actor input Schema

## `brandName` (type: `string`):

The brand, product, or company you want to track in AI answers.

## `brandAliases` (type: `array`):

Alternative names, spellings, or the product names of the brand (improves mention detection). One per line.

## `brandDomain` (type: `string`):

Your website domain (e.g. notion.so). Used to detect when AI engines cite your site as a source.

## `competitors` (type: `array`):

Competitor brands to compare against. The tracker reports whether each competitor is mentioned and how often. One per line.

## `prompts` (type: `array`):

The questions your potential customers ask AI engines. Each prompt is sent to every selected engine. Example: 'What is the best note-taking app for teams?'

## `engines` (type: `array`):

Which AI search engines to query.

## `openrouterApiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional: bring your own OpenRouter API key to run checks on your own LLM account. Leave empty to use the built-in one (included in the per-check price).

## `maxPromptChecks` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on total checks (prompts x engines) per run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "brandName": "Notion",
  "brandAliases": [
    "notion.so",
    "Notion AI"
  ],
  "brandDomain": "notion.so",
  "competitors": [
    "Obsidian",
    "Evernote",
    "Coda"
  ],
  "prompts": [
    "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
    "Which productivity tools should a startup use in 2026?"
  ],
  "engines": [
    "chatgpt",
    "perplexity",
    "gemini"
  ],
  "maxPromptChecks": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `checks` (type: `string`):

One row per prompt x engine: brand mentions, rank, competitor mentions, citations, full answer text.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Overall visibility %, per-engine visibility, and share of voice across tracked brands.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "brandName": "Notion",
    "brandAliases": [
        "notion.so",
        "Notion AI"
    ],
    "brandDomain": "notion.so",
    "competitors": [
        "Obsidian",
        "Evernote",
        "Coda"
    ],
    "prompts": [
        "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
        "Which productivity tools should a startup use in 2026?"
    ],
    "engines": [
        "chatgpt",
        "perplexity",
        "gemini"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "brandName": "Notion",
    "brandAliases": [
        "notion.so",
        "Notion AI",
    ],
    "brandDomain": "notion.so",
    "competitors": [
        "Obsidian",
        "Evernote",
        "Coda",
    ],
    "prompts": [
        "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
        "Which productivity tools should a startup use in 2026?",
    ],
    "engines": [
        "chatgpt",
        "perplexity",
        "gemini",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "brandName": "Notion",
  "brandAliases": [
    "notion.so",
    "Notion AI"
  ],
  "brandDomain": "notion.so",
  "competitors": [
    "Obsidian",
    "Evernote",
    "Coda"
  ],
  "prompts": [
    "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
    "Which productivity tools should a startup use in 2026?"
  ],
  "engines": [
    "chatgpt",
    "perplexity",
    "gemini"
  ]
}' |
apify call benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,benedictmendoza/ai-search-visibility-tracker"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/EItTVVs0GnwXQHkqk/builds/Ls8s5gf3RyFCCTt4t/openapi.json