AI SEARCH GUIDES · PART OF THE AI VISIBILITY GUIDE
How to Check Your AI Visibility (Free Methods That Actually Work)
Published by: NBound Research · Last updated: July 2026 · Part of our complete guide to AI visibility
You can check your AI visibility for free in about an hour. Write the ten questions your buyers most plausibly ask, run them across at least three AI platforms in clean sessions, and record who gets named, in what order, and how. This guide walks through the full method step by step, then is honest about what a free check can and cannot tell you.
The five-step manual method
Step 1: Write the prompts your buyers actually use. Ten questions is enough for a first check. Use the formula a real buyer would: best or recommended, plus your service, plus your audience or location. For a specialist firm that looks like “best employee ownership advisers in the UK”, “recommended data governance consultancies for mid-size firms”, “who should I use for [service] in Ireland”. Add two or three where your firm should obviously be the answer, and two where a buyer compares approaches rather than firms. Do not write prompts you would like to rank for. Write what a stranger with a budget would type.
Step 2: Run them in clean sessions. AI assistants personalise. If you have asked ChatGPT about your own company before, it remembers, and your results will flatter you. Use a logged-out or incognito session where possible, switch memory off where it cannot be avoided, and never run the check from an account that has discussed your brand. Personalisation is the single most common way DIY checks produce false comfort.
Step 3: Cover at least three platforms. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini or Google AI Overviews is the minimum spread, with Microsoft Copilot worth adding for corporate buyers. Platforms disagree far more than people expect: only 11% of domains are cited by both ChatGPT and Perplexity on the same queries (Averi, March 2026). A one-platform check is not a small version of the answer. It is a different answer.
Step 4: Record it properly. A spreadsheet with five columns per prompt and platform: were we named (yes or no), position in the answer (first, shortlisted, buried), how we were described (recommended, neutral, caveated), who else was named, and the date. The “who else” column matters most. It is your first competitor share of voice data, and it usually contains a surprise.
Step 5: Repeat weekly for a month before concluding anything. AI answers vary by day and phrasing. The same prompt can name you on Tuesday and skip you on Thursday. One snapshot tells you almost nothing. Four weekly passes tell you whether a pattern is real. If a result matters commercially, confirm it moved twice before acting on it.
What a free check can and cannot tell you
| A FREE CHECK CAN TELL YOU | IT CANNOT TELL YOU |
|---|---|
| Whether you appear at all on your core buying prompts | Your trend over time, or whether a change is signal or noise |
| Which competitors dominate the answers you are missing from | Why you are absent: which sources AI reads and where you are missing from them |
| Roughly how AI describes you when it does name you | Reliable share of voice, which needs repeated runs at a scale spreadsheets cannot sustain |
| Whether you have a problem worth investigating | Which fixes would change the answer, and in what order |
To go past the left column you need one of two things. GEO software runs your prompt set daily across platforms and turns snapshots into trends: our research arm has tested and ranked the market in the best GEO software guide, with a full pricing breakdown. Or a professional audit adds the analysis layer on top: competitor share of voice, source analysis explaining why you are absent, and a prioritised fix plan. Our guide to what an AI visibility audit covers and costs explains exactly what you get at each price level.
FAQ
Common questions.
Is there a free AI visibility checker tool?
Several GEO software vendors offer free checkers that run a handful of prompts against your domain, and most paid platforms offer trials. They are useful as a quick smoke test, but they choose the prompts for you, which is the step that decides whether the result means anything. The manual method above takes about an hour and measures the questions your buyers actually ask.
How many prompts do I need to check?
Ten well-chosen prompts across three platforms is enough for a first read: thirty data points that will tell you whether you have a problem. A professional measurement runs 40 to 60 prompts repeatedly over weeks, because share of voice and trend data need volume that manual checking cannot sustain.
Why do ChatGPT and Perplexity give different answers?
They retrieve from different sources and weight them differently. Only 11% of domains are cited by both platforms on the same queries (Averi, March 2026). That is why a single-platform check misleads: each engine has its own view of your category, and your buyers are spread across all of them.
How often should I check my AI visibility?
Weekly during any period where you are actively working on it, monthly as a minimum otherwise. AI answers move constantly as models update and competitors publish, so a check from three months ago describes a landscape that no longer exists. This is why ongoing programmes use daily automated tracking rather than manual passes.
What should I do if my brand never appears?
First, know you are in the majority: 88% or more of B2B brands do not appear on their category prompts (Flow Agency, 2026). Absence is normal and fixable, but the fix depends on the cause: unclear entity signals, missing third-party coverage, or content AI cannot extract. Diagnosing which requires source analysis, which is audit territory rather than spreadsheet territory.
Found a gap? Now find out why it exists.
The AI Visibility Audit runs 50+ approved prompts across five platforms, maps competitor share of voice and the sources AI trusts, and delivers a prioritised fix plan. From £2,500, in 14 business days.
Get your AI Visibility Audit →Complete guide to AI visibility · Audit costs & components · Best GEO software 2026