Definition · AI visibility
What is AI visibility?
By Maya Ellison, content lead · Updated 19 September 2026
In short
AI visibility is how often AI engines mention your brand when people ask about what you do, and a MentionChecker check measures it: how often you were mentioned, who was mentioned instead, and which websites the answers cited. Generative engine optimization, answer engine optimization and LLM SEO are names for the work of raising it. Your first check is free.
Know where you stand in AI search.How we checked
Every fact on this page about the check, the report and History is read from MentionChecker as it is on 19 September 2026. The game-title counts on this page are from one question, cosy puzzle games with no ads, that we asked the six AI engines on 18 September 2026, from the United States and again from the United Kingdom, counted from the names each answer listed. Where the page says what ChatGPT does, it cites OpenAI's help page, read on 19 September 2026.
The screenshots are MentionChecker's setup page, and the report and History for a speaker brand.
Every price and credit count on this page comes from the same list the checkout uses.
How is AI visibility measured?
With a MentionChecker check: enter your website, pick the AI engines and a country, and read the report. Your first check is free. MentionChecker is a pay-as-you-go AI visibility checker. It asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot the questions people ask about what you do, and tells you whether your brand is mentioned in the answers.
- Enter your website at mentionchecker.com. MentionChecker reads it and proposes about a dozen questions people ask about what you do, so a puzzle game gets the questions players ask and a payroll service gets the questions an employer asks. Approve them, edit them, add your own or import a list.
- Pick the AI engines you want in the check, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity unless you change the pick, and the country the questions should be asked from, and run it.
- Read the report. How often the answers mentioned you, every answer word for word with your name marked, who was mentioned instead and how they rank, and the websites the answers cited.
The headline is the mention rate, 45% of 51 answers on the report above, and the three numbers under it are the AI visibility score: Mentioned, share of voice and average rank, each counted from answers you can open on the same report.
What is generative engine optimization?
Generative engine optimization, GEO for short, is the work of getting your brand into the answers the AI engines generate, the way search engine optimization is the work of getting your pages into search results. A MentionChecker check is where it starts.
The work is on pages. ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI engine: you type a question and it answers in text. OpenAI's help page says an answer that used web search may include citations, that a website must let its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in to be eligible for ChatGPT's search results, and that placement is not guaranteed (Searching the web with ChatGPT, read on 19 September 2026). So GEO means getting onto the pages the answers cite, the ones your report lists as citations ranked by how many answers cited each, and making your own website say plainly what you do, where, and for whom.
What is answer engine optimization?
Answer engine optimization, AEO, is the same work: people ask an AI engine a question and read its answer, and the work is getting your brand into that answer. The measure is whether it is there, question by question.
On a MentionChecker report the Every question panel is that measure: each question the check asked, which AI engines answered it, and how many of those answers mentioned you. A question at 0 of 4 is where the AEO work is, and the answers under it say who was mentioned instead.
What is AI search optimization?
AI search optimization is the same work: AI search is asking an AI engine instead of typing into a search box, and the optimization is getting your brand mentioned in what it answers. It is counted one AI engine at a time, because the AI engines do not give the same list. On 18 September 2026 we asked six AI engines for cosy puzzle games with no ads from the United States: ChatGPT listed eight games, and not one of them was on any of the other five AI engines' lists.
So a MentionChecker check asks every AI engine you pick the same questions, and the report counts the answers together and shows them apart, and History shows one line per AI engine as well as the total.
Are GEO, AEO and LLM SEO the same work?
Yes. AI visibility, LLM visibility and AI search visibility are three names for the measure. Generative engine optimization, answer engine optimization, AI search optimization, LLM SEO and ChatGPT SEO are five names for the work of raising it.
| AI visibility | How often the AI engines mention your brand when people ask about what you do. Measured as Mentioned, share of voice and average rank on a MentionChecker report. |
|---|---|
| LLM visibility | AI visibility under another name. Measured by the same three numbers. |
| AI search visibility | AI visibility named for the channel. Measured by the same three numbers, one AI engine at a time. |
| Generative engine optimization (GEO) | The work of raising it. Measured by the same check before the work and after it. |
| Answer engine optimization (AEO) | The same work, named for the answer people read. Measured by the same check, question by question. |
| AI search optimization | The same work, named for the channel, asking an AI engine instead of a search box. Measured by the same check, one AI engine at a time. |
| LLM SEO | The same work under another name. Measured by the same check. |
| ChatGPT SEO | The same work for one AI engine. Measured by a check with ChatGPT selected. |
What changes between one check and the next?
Which answers now mention you, which no longer do, and who moved. History compares the latest check with the one before it on the answers both checks cover, so a check that asked more questions is compared on the shared ones. Mentioned, share of voice and average rank each carry their movement against the check before, and What changed lists every answer that flipped, with its AI engine and its question.
A repeat runs the same check daily, weekly or monthly from your balance, and each report reads against the one before: that is AI visibility tracking.
What does a MentionChecker check cost?
One question on one AI engine, asked once, is one credit. Credits last 12 months and there is no subscription. Every pack is listed on the pricing page.
| What | Credits |
|---|---|
| 25 questions on one AI engine, for example | 25 |
| The same 25 on the four AI engines a check asks by default | 100 |
| The smallest pack, $9 | 50 |
| Your first check, free, no card: 5 questions on ChatGPT and Gemini | 10 |
Prices read on 19 September 2026 from mentionchecker.com/pricing.
Why not do the work and see what happens?
Because the check after the work only means something against a check before it.
| What differs | The work without a check | A MentionChecker check before and after |
|---|---|---|
| What you know at the start | Nothing counted | How many answers mention you, and who else they mention |
| Which pages to get onto | A guess | The websites the answers cited, ranked |
| Who is ahead of you | The names you happen to notice | Every name the answers mentioned, ranked, with yours marked |
| A month later | Nothing to compare against | Mentioned up or down, and by how many answers |
| What a change looks like | Nothing you can point at | The answers that flipped, word for word |
| Showing someone | A screenshot of one chat | A link anyone can open, or a PDF |
If you are not going to do any of the work, there is nothing to measure twice, and one check still tells you where you stand today. Every line on the right is one report, from $9, and your first check is free.
What do people ask about getting mentioned by AI engines?
Is ChatGPT SEO different from AI visibility?
No. ChatGPT SEO is the work of getting your brand into ChatGPT's answers, and your ChatGPT visibility is the measure of it, so the two differ only in scope: ChatGPT SEO is one AI engine, and AI visibility covers all six a MentionChecker check can ask. There is a guide to checking your ChatGPT visibility, and a check with ChatGPT selected, run before the work and again after it, is how you know whether the work moved anything.
Are LLM visibility and AI search visibility the same as AI visibility?
Yes. LLM visibility and AI search visibility are AI visibility under two other names: whether the AI engines mention your brand when people ask about what you do. The three names are used for one measure: ask the questions people ask, and count the answers that mention you. A MentionChecker report gives that as Mentioned, share of voice and average rank, each counted from answers you can open on the same report.
What is a GEO audit?
One check, read as a report. A GEO audit is where a brand stands in the AI engines' answers before any work starts: how often it is mentioned, who is mentioned instead, and which websites the answers cited. A MentionChecker check is that audit, with every answer kept word for word, and the same check run again after the work is the second half of it. The AI visibility score page says how each number is counted.
Is AI visibility the same as SEO?
No. SEO is the work of getting your pages into search results, measured in rankings and clicks. AI visibility is whether your brand is in the AI engines' answers, measured in mentions, in the websites the answers cited, and in your place among the names the answers gave. A MentionChecker report lists the websites every answer cited, so you can see which of your pages, and which of anyone else's, are on that list.
How do I improve my AI visibility?
Get onto the pages the answers are built from, then make your own website say plainly what you do, where, and for whom. Your MentionChecker report lists those pages as citations, ranked by how many answers cited each, and the names mentioned instead of you, so the work starts from the report and not from a guess. OpenAI's help page says placement in ChatGPT's search results is not guaranteed (Searching the web with ChatGPT, read on 19 September 2026), so run the same check again and read what moved.
Which AI engines count for AI visibility?
The six a MentionChecker check can ask: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. A check asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity unless you change the pick, and every AI engine you add costs one more credit for each question. Your first check asks ChatGPT and Gemini. The report counts the answers together and shows them by AI engine as well, so a gain on one and a loss on another are both on the page.
Does AI visibility differ by country?
Yes. On 18 September 2026 ChatGPT listed eight cosy puzzle games from the United States and nine from the United Kingdom, and not one name was in both. A MentionChecker check asks from the country the people you serve are in, preselected from your web address, and a brand checked from two countries gets one report and one History series per country, so every movement is read against the check before it in the same country.
How often should I check AI visibility?
Run one check, then the same check after the work, and decide from what moved. A repeat can run daily, weekly or monthly from your balance, with every report read against the one before, and what it costs a month is shown before you pick it. Nothing renews and no card is charged on a schedule: a repeat spends credits you already bought, one check at a time, and pauses when the balance is short.
Can I check my AI visibility for free?
Yes. Your first check is free and needs no card: 10 credits, which is 5 questions on ChatGPT and Gemini, asked once. After that one question on one AI engine is one credit: a check of 25 questions on the four AI engines a check asks by default is 100 credits, and the smallest pack is 50 credits for $9. Credits last 12 months and nothing renews.
What is a mention, and what is a citation?
A mention is an answer with your brand in it. A citation is a page listed under an answer as one the AI engine read (Searching the web with ChatGPT, read on 19 September 2026). A MentionChecker report counts mentions into Mentioned and share of voice, keeps every citation under the answer it came with, and ranks the websites cited across the whole check on the sources list, with your own site marked. The AI citation checker page shows both views of that list.
Is AI visibility only for software companies?
No. The questions people ask an AI engine are about what you do: a puzzle game gets the questions players ask, a payroll service the questions an employer asks, and a speaker brand the questions people ask before choosing speakers. MentionChecker proposes the questions from your website, so the check fits what you do, and you can edit them, add your own or import a list before anything runs.
Does MentionChecker do the GEO work for me?
No. MentionChecker measures. It does not change what the AI engines say and does not write anything for you. The report tells you whether you are mentioned, who is mentioned instead, and which websites the answers cited, which is the list the work starts from, and the same check run again shows what moved. An agency doing the work can hold one brand per client in one account and share every AI visibility report by link.
Know where you stand in AI search.The About page says what MentionChecker is, and the page for AI assistants lists what it is and is not.