Ahrefs is one of the most established SEO platforms, founded in 2010. Ahrefs is known for its industry-leading backlink database, keyword research, site audits, and rank tracking, used by SEO professionals worldwide. In 2025, Ahrefs launched Brand Radar to track how brands appear across AI-generated answers, adding AI visibility to its existing SEO toolkit.
If you're evaluating AI visibility tools, here's a detailed breakdown of how Ahrefs works, what Ahrefs costs, and how Ahrefs compares to Mentionable.
How does Ahrefs track AI visibility?
Ahrefs tracks AI visibility through Brand Radar, a feature within the broader Ahrefs SEO platform. Brand Radar monitors brand mentions across 6 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. The Brand Radar page now also lists Claude. Ahrefs maintains a database of 451M+ prompts (US) that users can browse for discovery, and Ahrefs also supports custom prompt tracking (from $50/month).
Ahrefs Brand Radar expanded beyond AI search to include YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit mention tracking, sold as a separate $199/month module. Ahrefs provides a broader view of brand visibility across multiple channels, not just AI search engines.
Ahrefs Brand Radar covers 6 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. That's solid coverage of the major AI search interfaces where users are actively searching.
Brand Radar is sold as a paid add-on within Ahrefs. The Lite, Standard and Advanced plans include only 5, 10 or 20 tracked AI prompts. Access to the full AI index costs $199/month per AI platform (83 prompts per day, 2,500 checks per month), or about $699/month for all platforms.
How much does Ahrefs cost in 2026?
Ahrefs Starter costs $29/month (monthly billing only) for 1 project. Ahrefs Lite costs $129/month ($108 billed annually) for 5 projects. Standard costs $249/month ($208 annually) for 20 projects. Advanced costs $449/month ($374 annually) for 50 projects. Enterprise costs $1,499/month for 100 projects, billed annually.
AI visibility is not fully included in these prices. Lite, Standard and Advanced include only 5, 10 or 20 tracked AI prompts. The Brand Radar AI index is a paid add-on at $199/month per AI platform, or about $699/month for all platforms. Custom prompts start at $50/month.
| Plan | Price (monthly / annual) | Projects | Tracked AI prompts | Full SEO suite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/month (monthly only) | 1 | Not included | Yes |
| Lite | $129 / $108 per month | 5 | 5 | Yes |
| Standard | $249 / $208 per month | 20 | 10 | Yes |
| Advanced | $449 / $374 per month | 50 | 20 | Yes |
| Enterprise | $1,499/month (annual) | 100 | Custom | Yes |
Brand Radar AI index add-on: $199/month per AI platform, about $699/month for all platforms.
The key consideration with Ahrefs pricing: every plan includes the full SEO suite (backlinks, keywords, site audits, rank tracking). If you only need AI visibility tracking, you're paying for tools you may not use.
What does Ahrefs do well?
Ahrefs has built a genuinely best-in-class SEO toolkit. Ahrefs' backlink database, keyword research, site audit, and rank tracking features are trusted by the SEO industry. For teams that need traditional SEO alongside AI visibility, Ahrefs consolidates everything in one platform.
Ahrefs Brand Radar's 451M+ prompt database is massive. Users can discover prompts their audience is already asking across AI platforms, rather than guessing which prompts to track. Ahrefs' data quality has been trusted by SEO professionals for over a decade.
Ahrefs Brand Radar also tracks YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit mentions. For brands that want a unified view of visibility across AI search and social platforms, Ahrefs covers more channels than most AI visibility tools.
Ahrefs' 6 AI platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode) provide solid coverage of the major AI search interfaces where users are actively searching.
Ahrefs vs Mentionable: full feature comparison
Ahrefs and Mentionable both track AI visibility, but Ahrefs is a full SEO platform where Brand Radar is one feature, while Mentionable is a dedicated AI visibility stack.
| Feature | Ahrefs | Mentionable |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $29/month (Starter, no AI prompts); Brand Radar AI add-on $199/month per platform | €79/month (Growth) |
| LLMs covered | 6 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode), Claude now listed on the Brand Radar page | All 7 (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview), included on every plan |
| Pricing model | SEO plan (5 to 20 AI prompts) + Brand Radar AI add-on per platform | Fixed monthly price with a credit pool: 1,500 (Growth), 3,000 (Pro), 5,000 (Agency) credits |
| Prompt generation | 451M+ prompt database for discovery | Suggests up to 40 prompts from your URL |
| Competitor intelligence | Brand mention tracking | Auto-extracted, normalized, ranked per LLM and per prompt |
| Source/citation tracking | Not specified | Tracks all cited domains, highlights your site vs competitors |
| AI traffic analytics | Not available | Google Analytics 4 integration shows sessions from ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI sources |
| Sentiment analysis | Not specified | Positive/neutral/negative per prompt per LLM |
| Page generation | AI Content Helper (AI writing assistant) | Writes the missing page for any prompt where the LLMs never cite you: markdown + JSON-LD, built from the sources they cite instead (150 credits, every plan) |
| Citation verification | Not available | Paste the published URL back and Mentionable reports whether the LLMs start citing that page |
| AI assistant in the dashboard | Ask Ahrefs (built-in AI assistant, in beta on Lite plans and above) | Included on every plan: reads your project data, explains it and links to the page where you act |
| MCP integration | Available (Ahrefs MCP for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) | Yes (Pro and Agency plans) |
| One-shot white-label GEO audit | Not available | Available on Agency plan (shareable client report under your brand) |
| Full SEO suite | Yes (backlinks, keywords, audits) | Not available |
| YouTube/TikTok/Reddit | Yes (Brand Radar module, $199/month extra) | Reddit threads cited by AI engines (no YouTube or TikTok) |
| Free trial | Limited free account | 7 days, no credit card |
| Best for | SEO teams needing a full toolkit | Solopreneurs, growing brands, and agencies needing client-ready deliverables |
Why choose Mentionable over Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a full SEO suite where Brand Radar is one feature among many. If you only need AI visibility tracking, you are paying for backlink analysis, keyword research, site audits, and rank tracking you may never use. Mentionable is purpose-built for AI visibility, so every feature serves that goal directly.
- Page generation. Knowing you are absent is not the same as fixing it. Mentionable writes the page: for any tracked prompt where the LLMs answer without mentioning the brand, it drafts a full markdown page plus JSON-LD, built from the pages those engines cite instead, with the facts only the brand owner can supply flagged rather than invented. The user publishes it, pastes the URL back, and Mentionable reports from the next scan whether the LLMs start citing it. 150 credits per page, on every plan.
- Purpose-built for AI visibility. Ahrefs is a full SEO suite where Brand Radar is one feature. Mentionable is focused entirely on AI visibility tracking with all 7 AI engines, giving users a dedicated dashboard without paying for SEO tools they may not need.
- AI visibility included in the price. Ahrefs plans include only 5 to 20 tracked AI prompts, and the full Brand Radar AI index costs $199/month per platform on top. Every Mentionable plan is a fixed monthly price with a credit pool: Growth (€79/mo, 1,500 credits), Pro (€149/mo, 3,000 credits) and Agency (€299/mo, 5,000 credits, unlimited projects, all 7 AI engines). A scan costs 1 credit on six engines and 15 on Claude, and any overage is capped by a spending limit you set.
- Automatic prompt generation. Instead of browsing a 451M+ prompt database, Mentionable scans the user's URL and suggests up to 40 relevant prompts to choose from.
- Full AI visibility stack included. Competitor intelligence, source tracking, sentiment per result, Reddit signals, and AI traffic analytics through Google Analytics 4 are all built in from the Growth plan.
- AI assistant in the dashboard. Every Mentionable plan includes an AI assistant. You ask a question in plain words, such as why a competitor gets cited more often, and it answers from your project's data, then links to the page where you act. It never uses credits. See the AI assistant.
- MCP integration. Like Ahrefs, Mentionable has an MCP server, letting users query their AI visibility data directly from Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, or Claude Code. Available on the Pro and Agency plans.
- White-label GEO audit (Agency). The Mentionable Agency plan includes a shareable client report under your brand: competitor ranking, personas, competitor matrix, prompt coverage, recommendations, content ideas, and top sources, with each section easy to hide. Built for consultants and agencies who need a deliverable, not a dashboard.
Start tracking your AI visibility across 7 AI engines with Mentionable's 7-day free trial, no credit card required.
Which tool fits your needs?
Ahrefs makes sense if:
- You already use Ahrefs for SEO and want AI visibility in the same dashboard
- You need backlink analysis, keyword research, and site audits alongside AI tracking
- You want access to Ahrefs' 451M+ prompt database for discovery
- You need YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit brand monitoring in one platform
- Your team runs full-scale SEO operations and can leverage the full Ahrefs suite
Mentionable makes sense if:
- You only need AI visibility tracking, not a full SEO suite
- You want a fixed monthly price with credits spent only on AI visibility
- You want AI-generated relevant prompts instead of browsing a database
- You need competitor intelligence, source tracking, and page generation in one tool
- You want an AI assistant that explains your data and tells new team members where to start
- You want MCP access (Pro and Agency) to query your AI visibility data from Claude Desktop, Cursor, or ChatGPT
- You are an agency or consultant needing a one-shot white-label GEO audit
- You are a solopreneur or growing brand looking for a complete AI visibility stack starting at €79/month
Ahrefs and Mentionable both help brands understand their AI visibility. Ahrefs is a full SEO platform with Brand Radar as one feature among many, best suited for SEO teams that need the complete toolkit. Mentionable is a dedicated AI visibility platform with automatic prompt generation, competitor intelligence, source tracking, page generation, and AI traffic analytics, at a lower price point for teams focused specifically on AI visibility.
