AI Search Visibility Tracker — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & Perplexity Brand Mentions

Find out whether AI assistants recommend your brand. Enter your brand and the questions your customers ask. The Actor asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity (Claude is optional) and tells you, for every answer, whether your brand was mentioned, where it ranked against your competitors, how it was described and which websites the AI cited. You also get a free share-of-voice summary per engine. You don't need any API keys or accounts.

Why this Actor

• 4 AI engines in one run: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, with 23 selectable models. Every prompt is asked once per engine, so you can compare engines side by side.
• From $0.0045 per answer on Gold ($0.008 on Free): a standard-model answer costs $0.008 on the Free plan, $0.005 on Bronze and $0.0045 on Silver, Gold and higher ($8 / $5 / $4.50 per 1,000). The default run (2 prompts × 3 engines) costs $0.056. No start fee, no monthly subscription: you pay per answer. Apify platform usage is billed separately by Apify (at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005).
• 38 fields per answer, including a stable row id: mention, position among brands, list rank, excerpt, sentiment, "recommended" flag, 0–10 visibility score, share of voice, cited sources, whether your site and each competitor's site were cited, and the full answer text.
• Two more tools in the same Actor: a mentions database of real stored ChatGPT and Google AI Overview answers that name your brand or website ($0.002 per answer + $0.13 per lookup), and AI keyword volume with a 12-month trend ($0.515 per 1,000 keywords).
• Analysis is free and instant: brand detection, sentiment and scoring run locally on each answer. No extra AI calls are charged.

What is not included: live Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode answers (our Google SERP Scraper covers both), and built-in dashboards or alerts. See Not included for the full list.

Compared with alternatives

Typical run: 10 prompts × ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity = 30 AI answers. Prices are shown for the Free plan and, in brackets, the Gold plan.

Alternative	Price per AI answer	Typical run (30 answers)	Claude	Live Google AI Overview
Most-used AI brand monitor in the Store (~240 users)	$0.08 (same on Gold)	$2.40 ($2.40)	✓	✗
5-platform AI rank tracker (~110 users)	$0.05 ($0.04 on Gold) + $0.001 per run	$1.50 ($1.20), + $0.25 ($0.20) for its optional aggregated report	✓	✓
LLM visibility & citation tracker with live web search in every check (~110 users)	$0.09 (same on Gold)	$2.70 ($2.70)	✓	✗
Per-question bundle (~4 variants × 5–7 fixed engines per question, ~110 users)	$0.30 per question ($0.18 on Gold)	$3.00 ($1.80) for 10 questions	✗	✓
Flat per-run brand analysis, ChatGPT + Gemini only (~110 users)	one $0.30 fee per run ($0.15 on Gold), + Apify platform usage	$0.30 ($0.15) per run; its listing does not say how many prompts or answers one analysis covers	✗	✗
This Actor	$0.008–$0.012 ($0.0045–$0.0093 on Gold), + Apify platform usage	$0.28 ($0.18); $1.48 ($1.38) with live web search on for ChatGPT and Gemini	✓	✗ (use our SERP scraper)

Platform usage: the flat per-run brand analysis and this Actor both bill Apify platform usage to the user on top of their event prices (here, at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005); the other four listings do not. Prices from public Apify Store listings, checked September 2026. Where the others are ahead: the flat per-run brand analysis costs $0.15 per run on Gold, less than our $0.18 for 30 answers, though it covers only ChatGPT and Gemini (the same 10 prompts on ChatGPT + Gemini cost $0.16 on Free and $0.09 on Gold here); two of the others include live Google AI Overview answers, the per-question bundle rewrites each question into several variants for you, and one runs live web search in every check. Here you choose each engine and model yourself, web search is optional (Perplexity always searches), and the share-of-voice summary row is free.

What data you get

One row per prompt × AI engine (rowType: "answer"):

Field	Type	Example
prompt	string	What is the best CRM software for a small business?
promptType	string	unbranded (or branded if the prompt names your brand)
promptGenerated	boolean	false (true when created from a topic)
engine / engineName	string	chatgpt / ChatGPT
model / modelVersion	string	gpt-4.1-mini / gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14
mentioned	boolean	true
answerStatus	string	ok (or empty / noResponse: charged answer without text, see Pricing)
mentionCount	integer	3
mentionPosition	integer	1 (rank among all tracked brands by first appearance)
listRank	integer	1 (item number in the AI's numbered or bulleted list)
excerpt	string	1. **HubSpot CRM** – Free to start, very easy to use…
sentiment / sentimentScore	string / number	positive / 1 (−1 to 1)
recommended	boolean	true ("I recommend", "best choice", …)
visibilityScore	number 0–10	10
shareOfVoice	number 0–1	0.6 (your share of all brand mentions in the answer)
brandDomainCited / brandCitationPosition	boolean / integer	true / 1
competitorsMentioned	array	["Salesforce", "Pipedrive"]
brandsInOrder	array	["HubSpot", "Salesforce", "Pipedrive"]
competitorMentions	array	[{ "name": "Salesforce", "mentioned": true, "mentionCount": 1, "position": 2, "domainCited": false }]
citationCount / citedDomains	integer / array	2 / ["hubspot.com", "g2.com"]
citations	array	[{ "position": 1, "title": "HubSpot pricing", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing", "domain": "hubspot.com" }]
webSearchRequested / webSearchUsed	boolean	false / false
followUpSearches	array	web searches the AI ran, when it searched
answer / answerLength	string / integer	full answer text / 545
webSearchCountry / webSearchCity	string	US / null
answeredAt / scrapedAt	ISO date	2026-09-27T16:16:13.000Z
brand / rowType	string	HubSpot / answer
id	string	62a8ca3184f069b6 (stable: same brand + prompt + engine + model + run date → same id)

domainCited (per competitor) and brandDomainCited are true when one of the answer's cited sources is that brand's website. If you give a domain ("Pipedrive | pipedrive.com"), it is matched exactly, subdomains included. If you give only a name, the cited site's main name must equal the name without spaces (Salesforce → salesforce.com).

Plus one free summary row (rowType: "summary", also saved as SUMMARY in the key-value store) with mention rate, share of voice, average position, average sentiment, average visibility score, answers recommending or citing you, each competitor's mention rate and share of voice, and the 10 most-cited domains. You get these numbers for the whole run and per engine (byEngine).

How to use

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console and go to the Input tab.
2. Enter your Brand name and, optionally, your Website domain (used to detect when AI answers cite your site).
3. Add a few Competitors (name, domain, or Name | domain.com).
4. Add the Prompts your customers ask AI assistants. No prompts yet? Leave the list empty and enter a Topic in the Advanced section, and 5–10 natural questions are generated for free.
5. Set Maximum cost per run if you want a hard budget, then click Start.
6. Rows show up in the Output tab in the "Brand visibility per answer" view. Export them as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.
7. To track changes over time, save the input as a task and add a weekly Schedule.

Input you can paste:

{
    "brandName": "HubSpot",
    "brandDomain": "hubspot.com",
    "competitors": ["Salesforce", "Pipedrive", "Zoho CRM | zoho.com"],
    "prompts": [
        "What is the best CRM software for a small business?",
        "Which CRM is easiest to use for a startup sales team?"
    ],
    "engines": ["chatgpt", "gemini", "perplexity", "claude"]
}

API (curl)

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cheapapi~ai-search-visibility-tracker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"brandName":"HubSpot","brandDomain":"hubspot.com","competitors":["Salesforce","Pipedrive"],"prompts":["What is the best CRM software for a small business?"]}'

JavaScript (apify-client)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('cheapapi/ai-search-visibility-tracker').call({
    brandName: 'HubSpot',
    brandDomain: 'hubspot.com',
    competitors: ['Salesforce', 'Pipedrive'],
    prompts: ['What is the best CRM software for a small business?'],
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
for (const row of items.filter((i) => i.rowType === 'answer')) {
    console.log(row.engineName, row.mentioned, row.mentionPosition, row.sentiment);
}

Python (apify-client)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("cheapapi/ai-search-visibility-tracker").call(run_input={
    "brandName": "HubSpot",
    "brandDomain": "hubspot.com",
    "competitors": ["Salesforce", "Pipedrive"],
    "topic": "CRM software",
})
summary = client.key_value_store(run["defaultKeyValueStoreId"]).get_record("SUMMARY")["value"]
print(summary["brandMentionRate"], summary["shareOfVoice"])

Use cases

• Generative engine optimization (GEO): measure how often AI assistants name your brand for buyer questions, and whether your content changes move the numbers.
• Competitor benchmarking: compare share of voice, position and sentiment against up to 20 competitors, per engine.
• Source and PR strategy: see which domains the AI cites (review sites, media, your own pages) and where you should be present.
• Weekly monitoring: schedule the same prompts and chart mention rate and visibility score over time.
• Agency reporting: run one task per client and send the summary row to a spreadsheet or dashboard.
• Market research: use the mentions database and AI keyword volume to find which questions people actually ask AI about your category.

Advanced options

All of these are in the collapsed "Advanced" sections of the input form.

Option	Default	Meaning
What to run (mode)	visibility	Brand visibility check, Mentions database lookup, or AI keyword volume.
Topic (topic)	–	Used only when Prompts is empty: generates natural buyer questions from templates, free.
Number of generated prompts (promptCount)	8	5–10. From 8, questions that name your brand are added after the neutral ones.
Other names of your brand (brandAliases)	–	Extra spellings or product names that count as a mention.
AI engines (engines)	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity	Add Claude, or remove any.
ChatGPT model (chatgptModel)	GPT-4.1 mini	Also GPT-4o mini, GPT-5 mini/nano (standard); GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5.1, GPT-5.2, o4-mini (premium).
Gemini model (geminiModel)	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Also Flash-Lite (standard); 3 Flash preview (plus); 2.5 Pro, 3.1 Pro preview (premium).
Claude model (claudeModel)	Claude Haiku 4.5	Also Sonnet 4.5/4.6, Opus 4.5/4.6 (premium).
Perplexity model (perplexityModel)	Sonar	Also Sonar Pro, Sonar Reasoning Pro (premium).
Live web search (webSearch)	off	Lets ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude browse and cite sources. Perplexity always searches. Adds a web-search event.
Always search the web (forceWebSearch)	off	Forces a search every time (ChatGPT GPT-4o/GPT-4.1 models and Claude).
Search from country / city (webSearchCountry, webSearchCity)	–	Localizes web search, e.g. GB / London or DE / Berlin (two-letter code or English country name). ChatGPT and Claude support both, Perplexity country only, Gemini neither.
Max answer length (maxAnswerTokens)	1,024	256–4,096 tokens. Each started 1,024 tokens counts as one answer event. Reasoning and Pro models use at least 1,024.
Temperature (temperature)	engine default	Number 0–2. Leave empty to get what real users see. Ignored by reasoning models.
Top-p (topP)	engine default	Number 0–1. Ignored by reasoning models.
System message (systemMessage)	–	Optional role instruction, max 500 characters. Using a system message or conversation history counts as one more answer event per answer (the AI provider bills the extra text).
Conversation history (conversationHistory)	–	Up to 10 earlier messages (max 500 characters each) to simulate follow-up questions. +1 answer event per answer (shared with the system message).
Include full answer text (includeFullAnswer)	on	Turn off for smaller datasets. The excerpt is always kept.
Parallel requests (maxConcurrency)	6	1–20 answers requested at the same time.
Targets to look up (mentionsTargets)	your domain or brand	Mentions database: domains or names, up to 20 per run.
Also look up competitors	off	Runs a separate mentions lookup for each competitor.
AI platform (mentionsPlatform)	all	ChatGPT and Google AI Overview, or only one of them.
Where a domain must appear	anywhere	Anywhere, in cited sources, or in the web results the AI looked at.
Where a name must appear	anywhere	Question, answer, brands named in the answer, or the AI's follow-up searches.
Keyword matching	whole words	Or partial match.
Include subdomains	on	For domain targets.
Minimum AI search volume	0	Only questions asked at least this often per month.
Only answers based on web search	off	Only answers where the AI searched the web.
Only answers seen since	–	Date (YYYY-MM-DD).
Sort by	most asked first	Or least asked, most recently seen, first seen.
Max answers per target (mentionsMaxResults)	100	1–10,000.
Extra filters (experts)	–	Up to 8 raw conditions, e.g. [["ai_search_volume", ">", 1000]].
Keywords (keywords)	–	AI keyword volume: up to 10,000 keywords per run.
Country / Language (country, language)	US / en	For the mentions database and AI keyword volume, e.g. GB / en, DE / de, TR / tr.

Output example

Example output: an answer row (a real ChatGPT answer analyzed by the current code):

{
    "id": "62a8ca3184f069b6",
    "rowType": "answer",
    "answerStatus": "ok",
    "brand": "HubSpot",
    "prompt": "What is the best CRM software for a small business?",
    "promptType": "unbranded",
    "promptGenerated": false,
    "engine": "chatgpt",
    "engineName": "ChatGPT",
    "model": "gpt-4.1-mini",
    "modelVersion": "gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14",
    "mentioned": true,
    "mentionCount": 3,
    "mentionPosition": 1,
    "listRank": 1,
    "excerpt": "1. **HubSpot CRM** – Free to start, very easy to use and great for marketing teams. I recommend it for most small teams.",
    "sentiment": "positive",
    "sentimentScore": 1,
    "recommended": true,
    "visibilityScore": 10,
    "shareOfVoice": 0.6,
    "brandDomainCited": true,
    "brandCitationPosition": 1,
    "competitorsMentioned": ["Salesforce", "Pipedrive"],
    "brandsInOrder": ["HubSpot", "Salesforce", "Pipedrive"],
    "competitorMentions": [
        { "name": "Salesforce", "mentioned": true, "mentionCount": 1, "position": 2, "domainCited": false },
        { "name": "Pipedrive", "mentioned": true, "mentionCount": 1, "position": 3, "domainCited": false },
        { "name": "Zoho CRM", "mentioned": false, "mentionCount": 0, "position": null, "domainCited": false }
    ],
    "citationCount": 2,
    "citedDomains": ["hubspot.com", "g2.com"],
    "citations": [
        { "position": 1, "title": "HubSpot pricing", "url": "https://www.hubspot.com/pricing", "domain": "hubspot.com", "excerpt": null },
        { "position": 2, "title": "G2 reviews", "url": "https://www.g2.com/categories/crm", "domain": "g2.com", "excerpt": null }
    ],
    "webSearchRequested": false,
    "webSearchUsed": false,
    "followUpSearches": [],
    "answerLength": 545,
    "answer": "Here are some of the best CRM tools for small businesses:\n\n1. **HubSpot CRM** – Free to start, very easy to use and great for marketing teams. I recommend it for most small teams.\n2. **Salesforce** – Extremely powerful, but it can be expensive and complex for small teams.\n3. **Pipedrive** – …",
    "webSearchCountry": null,
    "webSearchCity": null,
    "answeredAt": "2026-09-27T16:16:13.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-28T09:00:00.000Z"
}

An answer that was charged but brought no text (answerStatus empty or noResponse) keeps the same fields: prompt, engine, model and search settings are filled, the analysis fields are null and the lists are empty, for example:

{
    "id": "e55481a24d2e6a69",
    "rowType": "answer",
    "answerStatus": "noResponse",
    "brand": "HubSpot",
    "prompt": "Which CRM is easiest to use for a startup sales team?",
    "engine": "gemini",
    "engineName": "Gemini",
    "model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "modelVersion": null,
    "mentioned": null,
    "mentionCount": null,
    "sentiment": null,
    "visibilityScore": null,
    "competitorMentions": [],
    "citationCount": 0,
    "citations": [],
    "webSearchRequested": false,
    "webSearchUsed": null,
    "answerLength": 0,
    "answer": null,
    "answeredAt": null,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-28T09:00:04.000Z"
}

(shortened: the other analysis fields are also null or empty.)

Example output: the summary row (shortened; the numbers are illustrative):

{
    "id": "f33d6b5c6bea92c7",
    "rowType": "summary",
    "brand": "HubSpot",
    "brandDomain": "hubspot.com",
    "prompts": 2,
    "engines": ["chatgpt", "gemini", "perplexity"],
    "answers": 6,
    "answersMentioningBrand": 4,
    "brandMentionRate": 0.667,
    "brandMentions": 9,
    "shareOfVoice": 0.41,
    "averageMentionPosition": 1.5,
    "averageSentimentScore": 0.62,
    "averageVisibilityScore": 6.17,
    "answersRecommendingBrand": 2,
    "answersCitingBrandDomain": 1,
    "competitors": [{ "name": "Salesforce", "answersMentioning": 5, "mentionRate": 0.833, "mentions": 7, "shareOfVoice": 0.32 }],
    "topCitedDomains": [{ "domain": "g2.com", "answersCiting": 3 }],
    "byEngine": { "chatgpt": { "answers": 2, "brandMentionRate": 1, "shareOfVoice": 0.5 }, "gemini": { "…": "…" }, "perplexity": { "…": "…" } }
}

Pricing

Typical cost: 10 prompts × ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity (30 answers) costs $0.28 on the Free plan and $0.18 on Gold; Apify platform usage is billed separately.

Apify Free plan: Apify does not pay developers for usage on its Free plan, so on the Free plan this Actor can be used for up to $0.25 of results per calendar month — enough to try it on a small input. When the allowance is used up, the run ends with a clear message (not an error). Any paid Apify plan removes the limit; prices are the same.

Pay per event. There is no start fee, and the run stops cleanly when it reaches your maximum cost per run. Your Apify plan's price is applied automatically. Apify platform usage is billed separately by Apify (at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005).

Answers the AI engine rejects (an error) are not charged. An answer the engine did produce but that came back empty, or that was lost in transit after the question was sent, is charged like a normal answer, because the AI provider bills it too; you get a row with answerStatus empty or noResponse so you can see it (it is left out of the summary).

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold and higher	When it is charged
answer-standard	$0.008	$0.005	$0.0045	$0.0045	Each answer from ChatGPT (GPT-4.1 mini, GPT-4o mini, GPT-5 mini/nano) or Gemini (2.5 Flash, Flash-Lite)
answer-plus	$0.012	$0.012	$0.010	$0.0093	Each answer from Perplexity Sonar (always web-searched, with sources), Claude Haiku 4.5 or Gemini 3 Flash
answer-premium	$0.05	$0.05	$0.05	$0.05	Each answer from a flagship or reasoning model (GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-5.x, o4-mini, Gemini Pro, Claude Sonnet/Opus, Sonar Pro/Reasoning Pro)
web-search	$0.06	$0.06	$0.06	$0.06	Per answer with live web search on: 1 event for ChatGPT and Gemini, 2 for Claude Haiku, 4 for Claude Sonnet/Opus. Never for Perplexity.
mentions-lookup	$0.13	$0.13	$0.13	$0.13	Each database search for one target (up to 1,000 answers), also when it finds nothing
mention	$0.002	$0.002	$0.002	$0.002	Each stored AI answer returned by the mentions lookup
keyword-batch	$0.015	$0.015	$0.015	$0.015	Each AI keyword volume request (up to 1,000 keywords), also when none of the keywords has data
keyword	$0.0005	$0.0005	$0.0005	$0.0005	Each keyword with AI search volume

Answer events cover answers up to 1,024 tokens. If you raise "Max answer length", each started 1,024 tokens counts as one more answer event (2,048 = 2 events). A system message or conversation history adds one more answer event per answer (1,024 tokens + history = 2 events).

The mentions database and AI keyword volume bill every search, so mentions-lookup and keyword-batch are charged even when nothing is found. If the connection is lost after a lookup or keyword request was sent, it is charged as if the requested answers or keywords had been delivered (it may already have been processed and billed), and it is not resent automatically.

Worked examples

Run	Free plan	Gold plan
Default: 2 prompts × ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity (6 answers)	4 × $0.008 + 2 × $0.012 = $0.056	4 × $0.0045 + 2 × $0.0093 = $0.037
50 prompts × 3 engines (ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity, 150 answers)	100 × $0.008 + 50 × $0.012 = $1.40	100 × $0.0045 + 50 × $0.0093 = $0.915
50 prompts × all 4 engines (adds Claude Haiku, 200 answers)	$1.40 + 50 × $0.012 = $2.00	$0.915 + 50 × $0.0093 = $1.38
20 prompts × 3 engines, weekly for 4 weeks (240 answers)	4 × $0.56 = $2.24 per month	4 × $0.366 = $1.46 per month
10 prompts × ChatGPT + Gemini with live web search (20 answers)	20 × ($0.008 + $0.06) = $1.36	20 × ($0.0045 + $0.06) = $1.29
Mentions database, 1 target, 100 answers	$0.13 + 100 × $0.002 = $0.33	$0.33
AI keyword volume, 1,000 keywords	$0.015 + 1,000 × $0.0005 = $0.515	$0.515
1 prompt × ChatGPT with a system message (1,024 tokens)	2 × $0.008 = $0.016	2 × $0.0045 = $0.009
Mentions database, 1 target that no stored answer mentions	$0.13	$0.13

All examples exclude Apify platform usage, which Apify bills separately (at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005).

Integrations

• Make and Zapier: use the Apify app to start a run and pass the summary row (mention rate, share of voice) to the next step.
• Google Sheets: use the Apify Google Sheets integration, or export the dataset as CSV, to keep a weekly visibility log.
• Webhooks: add a webhook on "Run succeeded" to notify Slack or your own endpoint, for example when brandMentionRate drops.
• Schedules: run the same prompts daily or weekly in Apify Console. Every run keeps its own dataset, so you can compare runs.
• API and MCP: start runs and read results with the Apify API (examples above), or let an AI agent call the Actor through the Apify MCP server.

FAQ

Is there a limit on the Apify Free plan? Yes: up to $0.25 of this Actor's results per calendar month, enough to try it. Apify pays developers nothing for Free-plan usage while our data costs are real, so this keeps the Actor sustainable. Runs that reach the allowance stop cleanly and keep everything collected so far; the allowance resets on the 1st of the month. Any paid Apify plan has no limit.

Do I need OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or Perplexity API keys? No. The Actor asks the AI engines through its own paid access, and that cost is already included in the per-answer price. You only need an Apify account.

Is it legal? The Actor sends your questions to AI assistants and analyzes the answers, just as a person typing the same questions would see them. It does not log in to anyone's account or collect private data. You are responsible for how you use the results.

How fresh is the data? Visibility checks are live: every answer is generated when you run the Actor, and answeredAt shows the exact time. The mentions database contains stored answers with firstSeenAt and lastSeenAt dates. AI keyword volume is a monthly estimate.

Why did I get fewer results than expected? Answers the AI engine rejects are not delivered and not charged. Empty or lost answers get a row with answerStatus empty or noResponse (charged, see below). The run also stops when it reaches your maximum cost per run. The RUN_SUMMARY record in the key-value store lists skipped and failed answers. In the mentions lookup, strict filters or a small brand can return few stored answers.

Why was I charged for an answer without text, or for a lookup that found nothing? The AI providers and the answers database bill every request they process, also when the result is empty. So: an answer that came back empty (for example, a reasoning model used its whole length limit for thinking; raise "Max answer length") or was lost in transit after the question was sent is charged like a normal answer and shown with answerStatus empty or noResponse; a mentions lookup that finds no stored answers is charged mentions-lookup ($0.13); a keyword request where no keyword has data is charged keyword-batch ($0.015). A lost lookup or keyword request is charged as if the requested rows had arrived. RUN_SUMMARY shows the count as chargedWithoutAnswer. Errors (a rejected question, an unavailable model) are never charged. A system message or conversation history counts as one more answer event per answer because it is sent with every question and the AI provider bills it as input.

How do I control my budget? Set Maximum cost per run when you start the Actor. The Actor checks the price before it asks for each answer and never starts work it cannot pay for within that limit. Use the worked examples above to estimate a run.

Can I monitor visibility over time? Yes. Save your input as a task and add a weekly schedule. Every run asks the AI engines again, so every answer is new and is charged once. To see changes, compare brandMentionRate, shareOfVoice and averageVisibilityScore in the SUMMARY record of each run (for example with the Google Sheets integration). Answer rows carry a stable id (brand + prompt + engine + model + run date), so you can join the same prompt across runs. For the mentions database, the id of a stored answer stays the same in every run: keep the ids you have seen and filter them out downstream to get only new answers. AI answers vary from run to run. Track trends over several runs rather than relying on one answer. A low temperature makes answers more stable, but less like what real users see.

Why is live web search off by default? Without web search you see what the model itself "knows" about your brand. Live web search adds citations but costs more, because each answer then includes a live web search. Perplexity always searches, so the default run already includes cited sources.

How are sentiment and position calculated? Sentiment is a heuristic, not a trained model: it counts positive and negative words, with negation handling ("not good" is negative), in the sentences around each mention. It runs locally and costs nothing. We do not publish an accuracy figure, because we have not measured it against human labels. Treat it as a quick signal and check the excerpt when a result matters. mentionPosition ranks your brand among all tracked brands by first appearance, and listRank is the item number when your brand appears in a list.

Which export formats are available? JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML and RSS, from the Output tab or the API. The "Brand visibility per answer" and "Share of voice summary" views give you ready-made tables.

Where do I get help? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console. Include the run ID so we can look at the log.

Limitations

• Brand detection matches your brand name, the extra names you give, your domain and its main part (for example "hubspot" from hubspot.com). Very generic brand names (for example "Apple" used as a fruit) can produce false matches.
• A competitor given only by name is matched to cited sites by its main name (Salesforce → salesforce.com). If its website has a different name, add the domain (Zoho CRM | zoho.com).
• Sentiment and "recommended" are word-list heuristics with no measured accuracy figure. They can misread sarcasm, mixed verdicts or complex comparisons, so read the excerpt before acting on a single answer.
• Answers can differ from the consumer chat apps, which add personalization, memory and their own instructions.
• Some advanced settings are not supported by every engine: Gemini has no search location or forced search, Perplexity has no city, and reasoning models ignore temperature and top-p. The Actor then uses the engine default and logs a note.
• At most 200 prompts and 20 competitors per run. Model lists change often, and new models are added after testing.
• In the mentions database, stored ChatGPT answers cover the United States in English only. Google AI Overview answers cover many more countries. AI search volume figures are estimates.

Not included

• Live Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode answers. This Actor asks the AI assistants directly; Google's AI answers appear on the search results page. Use our Google SERP Scraper: it returns the AI Overview with every cited source and your domain's citation position, and has a separate Google AI Mode search type. This Actor's mentions database still covers stored Google AI Overview answers.
• Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok and DeepSeek. Only ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity are asked live.
• Automatic prompt variants. Each prompt is asked exactly as you write it. Add rephrased versions yourself, or use a topic to generate 5–10 questions for free.
• Dashboards, alerts and run-to-run comparison inside the Actor. Results go to a dataset and a SUMMARY record; use schedules, webhooks and the stable id to compare runs in your own tools.
• Classic keyword research and rankings. For search volume, difficulty and ideas use our Keyword Research Tool; for your domain's Google rankings, the Google SERP Scraper or Domain SEO Analyzer.

Privacy

The Actor only processes the brand names, domains and prompts you enter and the AI answers it receives. It does not collect personal data about individuals. Anything you put into prompts, the system message or the conversation history is sent to the AI engines as part of the question, so please do not include personal data there. Results are stored in your own Apify account, and you decide how long they are kept.