Research · Monthly index
Which AI visibility companies do AI engines recommend? The AEO Vendor Visibility Index, October 2026
By Cloute · Published October 1, 2026
The short answer
In October 2026, across 444 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity to 37 questions buyers ask about AEO and AI visibility tools, the most-named vendors were Profound (32.9% of answers), Semrush (32.2% of answers), Otterly.AI (25% of answers), Yext (23.9% of answers), Peec AI (22.1% of answers). Which vendor an engine names depends heavily on the engine: no vendor led on all four.
AI answers read
buyer questions about AEO and AI visibility
AI engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity
The ranking
| Vendor | All engines | Named first | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | 32.9% | 20% | 16.2% | 38.7% | 48.6% | 27.9% |
| Semrush | 32.2% | 7.2% | 23.4% | 38.7% | 36% | 30.6% |
| Otterly.AI | 25% | 2.5% | 10.8% | 31.5% | 36% | 21.6% |
| Yext | 23.9% | 7.2% | 21.6% | 16.2% | 43.2% | 14.4% |
| Peec AI | 22.1% | 1.1% | 11.7% | 28.8% | 30.6% | 17.1% |
| BrightLocal | 17.1% | 2.9% | 18.9% | 11.7% | 31.5% | 6.3% |
| Birdeye | 16.4% | 4.5% | 14.4% | 13.5% | 13.5% | 24.3% |
| Local Falcon | 12.4% | 2.5% | 8.1% | 13.5% | 15.3% | 12.6% |
| AthenaHQ | 12.2% | 0.9% | 5.4% | 21.6% | 11.7% | 9.9% |
| Ahrefs | 10.1% | 0.2% | 7.2% | 18.9% | 8.1% | 6.3% |
| First Page Sage | 10.1% | 6.5% | 4.5% | 9.9% | 12.6% | 13.5% |
| SE Ranking | 9.7% | 0% | 6.3% | 14.4% | 9% | 9% |
| Scrunch | 9% | 0.2% | 6.3% | 20.7% | 3.6% | 5.4% |
| Thrive Agency | 9% | 6.5% | 3.6% | 14.4% | 5.4% | 12.6% |
| SOCi | 8.8% | 1.1% | 5.4% | 7.2% | 20.7% | 1.8% |
| Uberall | 8.1% | 1.4% | 9% | 4.5% | 10.8% | 8.1% |
| Searchbloom | 7.2% | 5.2% | 1.8% | 10.8% | 5.4% | 10.8% |
| Rankscale | 6.8% | 0% | 0.9% | 9.9% | 8.1% | 8.1% |
| HubSpot | 6.1% | 0.7% | 1.8% | 8.1% | 4.5% | 9.9% |
| Siege Media | 5.6% | 2% | 4.5% | 5.4% | 6.3% | 6.3% |
| Whitespark | 5.2% | 0.7% | 5.4% | 3.6% | 9% | 2.7% |
| NoGood | 4.3% | 1.1% | 2.7% | 7.2% | 4.5% | 2.7% |
| Writesonic | 4.3% | 0.2% | 4.5% | 6.3% | 0.9% | 5.4% |
| Conductor | 4.1% | 0.7% | 2.7% | 5.4% | 1.8% | 6.3% |
| BrightEdge | 3.6% | 0% | 0% | 4.5% | 7.2% | 2.7% |
What the index shows
- The engines disagree. A vendor that leads on one engine can be rare on another, so a single-engine check says little about how a category is presented to buyers.
- Gemini and Claude list more vendors per answer (about four on average) than Perplexity (about three) or ChatGPT (about two), so shares on Gemini and Claude run higher for everyone.
- Questions about local and multi-location businesses pull in local marketing platforms: Yext was named in about two thirds of those answers, BrightLocal in about half, and Birdeye and Local Falcon in about 45%.
- Industry questions pull in that industry's own platforms: Dealer.com and DealerOn each appeared in roughly three in ten answers to the dealership questions.
How the index is built
- 37 questions of the kind buyers ask: best AEO agencies, AI visibility tools for local and multi-location businesses, Profound alternatives, industry and city questions.
- Each question was put to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity through their APIs with live web search on, three times, with no conversation history.
- Each answer was searched for every vendor name on a fixed list. Share is the percentage of all answers that name the vendor.
- Cloute is excluded from the ranking because Cloute publishes the index.
- The index is re-run monthly on the same questions so editions can be compared.
Limitations
- API answers can differ from the consumer apps, which may add personalisation or location.
- Name matching can miss vendors referred to indirectly and can count generic words that match a name; matches were reviewed for the leading vendors.
- Three runs per question per engine is enough to show large differences, not small ones.
Questions people ask
Which AEO company do AI engines recommend most?
In October 2026, Profound, named in 32.9% of answers across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, followed by Semrush (32.2%) and Otterly.AI (25%).
How often is the AEO Vendor Visibility Index updated?
Monthly, on the same questions and engines.
Why is Cloute not in the ranking?
Cloute publishes the index, so it excludes itself to keep the ranking neutral.
How to cite this research
Cloute (October 2026). AEO Vendor Visibility Index. https://cloute.ai/research/aeo-vendor-visibility-index
The underlying data is open under CC BY 4.0: github.com/luked9/cloute-ai-visibility-research.
About Cloute. Cloute is an AI visibility company for local businesses. It measures how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews recommend a business against its local competitors, and works every month to move it to the top.