AEO tracker: know if AI names you.
An AEO tracker measures whether answer engines, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI, mention your brand when people ask them questions in your category. It runs prompts on a schedule and records if you appear, where, and next to whom, so you can tell whether your answer-engine work is landing.
The short version
- An AEO tracker checks, on a schedule, whether AI assistants name your brand in their answers.
- The useful signals are presence, position, sentiment and which competitors show up alongside you.
- You can start by hand with a prompt list before paying for a dedicated tool.
- Tracking tells you the score; it does not move it, so pair it with upstream work.
- The fastest way to move the number is being useful in the Reddit threads AI reads, early.
What an AEO tracker does
The job of an AEO tracker is to turn a vague worry, “are we showing up in AI answers?”, into something you can look at. It does that by asking the assistants the questions your buyers ask, over and over, and keeping the receipts.
Run one prompt once and you learn very little; a model’s answer wobbles from day to day. Run a fixed set on a schedule and a pattern appears: the questions where you always come up, the ones where you never do, and the competitors who keep turning up in your place.
One answer is an anecdote. A hundred answers over a month is a trend you can act on.
What is worth measuring
Not every number is worth chasing. A handful tell you almost everything you need.
- Presence. Does your brand get named at all for a given question? The blunt yes-or-no is the foundation.
- Prominence. Are you the first option mentioned or an afterthought near the end?
- Framing. How does the answer describe you? A grudging aside is not the same as a warm recommendation.
- Company you keep. Which competitors appear alongside you, and how often they are chosen over you.
That last one shades into a broader measure, how big your slice of the answers is against everyone else’s. We treat it on its own in AI share of voice.
By hand or with a tool
You do not need to buy anything to begin. The choice is really about how much of the tedium you want to automate.
| By hand | With a tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | A spreadsheet of prompts. | Connect engines, load prompts once. |
| Effort each run | You paste and record every answer. | It runs and logs automatically. |
| Coverage | A handful of prompts, realistically. | Many prompts across several engines. |
| Best for | Getting started and small brands. | Ongoing tracking at scale. |
Start by hand to learn what is worth tracking, then automate once the prompt list stabilises.
For the wider tooling picture, the round-up of AI visibility tools and the list of answer engine optimization tools lay out the options.
Tracking tells you; it does not move you
This is the part tool marketing tends to skip. A tracker is a thermometer, not a treatment. It tells you the number is low; it does nothing to raise it. To move the number you have to change what the engines read, and for recommendation questions that means the discussions where real people compare options.
Reddit sits at the centre of that. It is one of the most-cited domains in AI answers, so a shift in what a thread recommends can show up in what an assistant says weeks later. Which is why a tracker pairs so naturally with catching those threads live.
our board wants better numbers and I want less setup pain. what analytics platform do other founders here trust without a data team behind it?
→ Worth a genuine reply
A Reddit monitoring tool tells you the moment a thread like that opens, so a person can be useful in it while it is still forming the recommendation your tracker will later measure. The measuring side lives on AI citation monitoring.
How to start tracking
A workable first version takes an afternoon and no budget.
- 1
Write your prompt list
Draft ten to twenty questions a buyer might ask an assistant on the way to choosing something in your category.
- 2
Run them across engines
Put each prompt to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI, and paste the answers into a sheet.
- 3
Log the signals
For each answer note whether you appear, roughly where, how you are described, and which rivals show up.
- 4
Repeat and compare
Run the same list weekly and watch the trend, not any single day’s result, then decide whether to automate.
The honest limits
Measuring a moving target has real caveats, and a good tracker owns them rather than papering over them.
What tracking can’t tell you
- Answers vary. The same prompt can return different results across sessions and regions, so treat any single run with caution.
- Numbers are directional. You get a useful trend, not a precise market share; do not over-engineer the decimals.
- It is a symptom, not a cause. A low score tells you to do more upstream work; it does not do that work for you.
- subding is not a tracker. It watches Reddit and flags the thread the moment your terms come up. It scores nothing about AI answers, and it never posts on Reddit for you.
Used well, a tracker keeps you honest about whether the effort is paying off. Just remember which end of the pipe it sits on: it reports the weather, it does not change it.
Questions, answered straight
What is an AEO tracker?
An AEO tracker is a tool, or a habit, that checks whether answer engines mention your brand when people ask questions in your category. It runs a set of prompts across assistants on a schedule and logs whether you appear and how you are described.
How does AEO tracking actually work?
You define the questions buyers ask, send them to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI at regular intervals, and record the answers. Over time the log shows whether you are named, how often, and which rivals are named beside you.
Can I track AEO for free?
Yes, to a point. Keep a spreadsheet of prompts and run them by hand each week; it is tedious but real. Paid tools automate the runs and the logging across more prompts and engines, which is where they earn their keep.
What should an AEO tracker measure?
Whether you appear at all, roughly where in the answer, how you are characterised, and which competitors share the answer with you. Presence and share against rivals matter more than any single vanity number.
Does an AEO tracker improve my visibility?
No. A tracker measures; it changes nothing on its own. To move the number you have to do the upstream work, clear answers, credible third-party mentions and genuine presence in the sources these engines read.
How often should I run an AEO tracker?
Weekly is plenty for most brands, since answers shift gradually. Run it more often around a launch or a big campaign when you expect the picture to change and want to catch the movement.
Measure it, then go and move it
A tracker is worth having, but it only reports the score. The score moves when you show up usefully in the Reddit threads AI reads, and subding is what tells you those threads are live.
See what every plan includes on the pricing page.