🔍 AI Brand Monitor — Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini + Claude

AI Search Brand Monitor is an Apify Actor for teams that want to track how a brand appears in AI search responses across Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. It accepts a required brand name, plus optional domain, aliases, competitor brands, platform selection, query templates, custom queries, and response detail settings. Each output record represents one brand x query x platform check and includes mention status, mention count, share of voice, mention position score, citations, competitor mentions, sentiment, model used, and the check timestamp. You can use it through Apify and through Apify MCP for structured, repeatable brand visibility checks.

Best fit and connected workflows

This Actor fits workflows where you want query-level visibility data for a brand across AI search systems. It is a strong match for:

• GEO audits across Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
• Weekly brand monitoring for mention rate, citation rate, and mention position score.
• Share-of-voice analysis against configured competitor brands.
• Content-impact reviews before and after a launch, update, or campaign.
• AI agent workflows that need one record per check and compact output for downstream parsing.

It also connects cleanly to related Apify Actors when you want a follow-up workflow step. After discovery, the verified downstream Actor AI Overviews Tracker - Brand Visibility in AI Answers can continue with detail data when you have a returned public URL or ID. For a search-focused follow-up, the sibling Actor AI Search Visibility Tracker - AEO & Citation Audit fits a nearby workflow when its contract matches your next AI step.

Practical scenario

Maya, a marketing manager at a SaaS company, wants to see how her product appears when people ask AI tools for AI content software recommendations. She enters her brand name, domain, a few aliases, and competitor brands in the same category. The Actor returns records with brand_mentioned, brand_mention_count, brand_share_of_voice, mention_position_score, is_cited_as_source, cited_url, competitor_mentions, and sentiment. Maya sees that the brand appears on one platform but comes in after competitors on another. Her next action is to review the underperforming queries, refine the content that feeds those answers, and rerun the Actor on a schedule to compare the next dataset with the current one.

Input

Input fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
brandName	string	Yes	Primary brand, company, product, or tool name to monitor.
brandDomain	string	No	Primary website domain used to detect when the brand is cited as a source.
brandAliases	array of strings	No	Alternate names, acronyms, or handles searched alongside the primary brand name.
competitors	array of strings	No	Competitor brands to track as co-mentions, up to 10.
platforms	array of strings	No	AI platforms to query: perplexity, chatgpt, claude, gemini. Defaults to Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
queryTemplates	array of strings	No	Template categories such as best_tools, alternatives, recommendations, reviews, comparisons.
customQueries	array of strings	No	Exact prompts to submit to the AI platforms.
querySelectionMode	string	No	Choose custom_only to run only customQueries and ignore all template defaults; use templates_only for template checks, or templates_and_custom to combine both.
maxQueriesPerPlatform	integer	No	Maximum number of unique queries per platform.
responseFormat	string	No	detailed or concise. Controls how much AI response text is stored.
industry	string	No	Brand industry or category used to make template queries more specific.
webhookUrl	string	No	Optional HTTPS URL for a completion webhook.
demoMode	boolean	No	Runs a health check without AI API calls.

Focused input example

To run only your own prompts, set querySelectionMode to custom_only. This ignores template categories even when the form shows their defaults:

{
  "brandName": "Ahrefs",
  "platforms": ["perplexity"],
  "customQueries": ["Which SEO tool has the best backlink database?"],
  "querySelectionMode": "custom_only",
  "maxQueriesPerPlatform": 1
}

For a combined audit, use the template fields as before:

{
  "brandName": "Ahrefs",
  "brandDomain": "ahrefs.com",
  "brandAliases": ["Ahrefs", "ahrefs.com"],
  "competitors": ["Semrush", "Moz"],
  "platforms": ["perplexity", "chatgpt", "gemini"],
  "queryTemplates": ["best_tools", "alternatives", "recommendations"],
  "maxQueriesPerPlatform": 3,
  "responseFormat": "detailed",
  "industry": "SEO"
}

Output

One record is returned for each brand x query x platform combination.

Field	Type	Description
run_id	string	Apify run ID that produced the record.
platform	string	AI platform that generated the response.
query	string	Exact query or prompt submitted.
query_category	string	Template category or custom.
brand_name	string	Monitored brand name.
brand_mentioned	boolean	Whether the brand or any alias appears in the response.
brand_mention_count	integer	Total number of times the brand name or aliases appear.
brand_share_of_voice	number	Brand mentions divided by brand plus competitor mentions.
mention_position_score	integer	How early the brand appears, on a 1-10 scale.
mention_context	string or null	Excerpt around the first brand mention.
is_cited_as_source	boolean	Whether the brand domain appears in cited sources or footnotes.
cited_url	string or null	Specific citation URL that belongs to the brand domain.
cited_urls	array of strings	All cited URLs returned in the response.
total_sources_cited	integer	Total number of cited URLs.
sentiment	string	positive, neutral, or negative.
competitor_mentions	array of strings	Competitors mentioned in the same response.
competitor_mention_count	integer	Total competitor mention count in the response.
ai_response_summary	string	First part of the AI response stored for review.
model_used	string	Specific model version queried.
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of the check.

Illustrative output record

{
  "run_id": "abc123XYZ",
  "platform": "perplexity",
  "query": "What are the suitable SEO tools like Ahrefs for 2026?",
  "query_category": "best_tools",
  "brand_name": "Ahrefs",
  "brand_mentioned": true,
  "brand_mention_count": 3,
  "brand_share_of_voice": 0.667,
  "mention_position_score": 2,
  "mention_context": "...Ahrefs remains the top choice for SEO professionals due to its extensive backlink database and accurate keyword difficulty scores. It's particularly strong for...",
  "is_cited_as_source": true,
  "cited_url": "https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-tools/",
  "cited_urls": [
    "https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-tools/",
    "https://semrush.com/",
    "https://moz.com/"
  ],
  "total_sources_cited": 8,
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "competitor_mentions": ["Semrush", "Moz"],
  "competitor_mention_count": 4,
  "ai_response_summary": "When it comes to SEO tools in 2026, Ahrefs continues to be the industry standard for backlink analysis and keyword research...",
  "model_used": "sonar",
  "scraped_at": "2026-03-28T14:30:00.000Z"
}

How it works

This Actor submits brand-focused queries to the selected AI platforms. By default, it uses Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini, with Claude available when explicitly selected for deeper audits. It evaluates each response for brand mentions, mention position, cited sources, competitor co-mentions, sentiment, and share of voice. The dataset is written one check at a time, and each check corresponds to one brand x query x platform event.

The output is designed for both human review and automation. The detailed response format keeps the first 800 characters of each AI response, while concise keeps the first 200 characters and trims mention context for a smaller record footprint. The Actor also supports demoMode for a health check and webhookUrl for downstream automation when an execution completes.

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay per event pricing on the Apify platform. The primary billed event is Brand Query Checked, and each brand x query x platform check is charged per event. Apify platform usage is billed separately according to the live Pricing tab in Apify Console, so review the current Pricing tab before planning larger runs.

Example: a run with one brand, three queries, and four platforms results in twelve checked events.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available as an Apify Actor usable through Apify MCP. The exact Actor identity is khadinakbar/ai-search-brand-monitor.

Tool purpose: execute structured AI search brand visibility checks and return one dataset record per brand x query x platform result, including mention, citation, and competitor context.

Use khadinakbar/ai-search-brand-monitor for the brand "HubSpot" across Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini using the default query templates. Return concise output and summarize which platform mentioned the brand first, which platforms cited the brand domain, and which competitors appeared in the same responses.

When used through MCP, the dataset output is the source of truth for interpretation. brand_mentioned shows whether the brand appeared in a response, mention_position_score shows prominence, brand_share_of_voice shows relative mention concentration within that response, and cited_url plus cited_urls show provenance when citations are present. run_id and scraped_at support execution grouping and trend comparison. If you want smaller records for agent consumption, set responseFormat to concise. When you plan broader platform coverage, each brand x query x platform pair is a billed event, so more queries or platforms means a larger event count.

Apify API example

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({
  token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN,
});

const run = await client.actor('khadinakbar/ai-search-brand-monitor').call({
  brandName: 'Ahrefs',
  brandDomain: 'ahrefs.com',
  competitors: ['Semrush', 'Moz'],
  queryTemplates: ['best_tools', 'alternatives', 'recommendations'],
  platforms: ['perplexity', 'chatgpt', 'gemini'],
  maxQueriesPerPlatform: 3,
  responseFormat: 'concise',
});

const items = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.items);

Best results and outcome guidance

Use brandDomain when citation tracking matters, and keep brandAliases aligned with the names your audience actually uses. Add competitors when you want co-mention and share-of-voice analysis. Choose querySelectionMode: "custom_only" with customQueries when you already have exact prompts to test and want no template queries. Use queryTemplates for recurring monitoring. For agent workflows, concise output keeps records smaller while preserving the same schema. For human review, detailed output keeps more response context.

If you are comparing runs over time, keep the platform set and query set consistent so changes in brand_mentioned, mention_position_score, brand_share_of_voice, and sentiment are easier to interpret.

Continue the workflow

• Then use AI Search Visibility Tracker — AEO & Citation Audit to extend 🔍 AI Brand Monitor — Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini + Claude research with a complementary monitor contract.
• Then use AI SEO Tracker - Technical & AI Search Audit to extend 🔍 AI Brand Monitor — Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini + Claude research with a complementary monitor contract.

Design note

I found that the live output contract returns one record per brand x query x platform combination, which makes the dataset straightforward to aggregate by platform or query category later.

FAQ

Which workflow should I use when I only want Perplexity results?
Set platforms to ["perplexity"]. That keeps the run focused on one AI search source.

Which input should I use for competitor co-mentions?
Use competitors when you want to track which competing brands appear in the same AI response as your brand.

When should I use custom queries instead of query templates?
Use customQueries when you already know the exact prompts you want to test. Set querySelectionMode to custom_only to disable template queries completely. Use queryTemplates for standard recurring monitoring.

How do I keep records smaller for agent workflows?
Set responseFormat to concise. The schema stays the same, while the stored response text is shorter.

Which actor should I use after this one if I have a returned public URL or ID and need detail data for selected AI records?
Use the verified downstream Actor AI Overviews Tracker - Brand Visibility in AI Answers.

How do I extend this into a search-focused audit workflow?
Use the sibling Actor AI Search Visibility Tracker - AEO & Citation Audit when you want the next step to stay in a search-oriented contract.

Responsible use

Use this Actor for legitimate brand visibility monitoring, GEO analysis, and content strategy work. Keep your queries aligned with the policies of the AI platforms you query, and review returned results with the understanding that AI-generated responses can vary by platform, model, and time. For larger or recurring monitoring programs, schedule runs thoughtfully so your event count matches your reporting needs.