HubSpot AI Search Grader Alternatives (November 2026): Free and Paid Options Compared
The best alternatives to HubSpot's AI Search Grader are the free checkers from Ahrefs and Semrush, if you want to see whether AI names you when people search, and HubSpot AEO, Otterly.AI or Peec AI if you want to track it over time.
HubSpot's grader measures something different. It asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini what they know about your brand from their training data, and scores the answer out of 100. It is not built to show whether they recommend you when a buyer asks for a tool, or which pages they read to answer.
The grader used to be called the AEO Grader (HubSpot's old /aeo-grader address now redirects to it), and it is a useful free first look. People look for alternatives when they want something the grader isn't built to give: buyer questions rather than brand questions, the sources behind the answers, more engines, or a number they can watch change. This page covers what the grader measures, the free and paid alternatives checked against each vendor's own page, and which one answers your question.
We sell a tool in this category too. LumenGEO is on the list, it is clearly marked, and it is not ranked first.
Reviewed & pricing current as of November 2026
Pick by the question you are asking. "How does AI describe my brand?" HubSpot's grader answers that. "Does AI recommend me when buyers search?" A free buyer-question checker: Ahrefs or Semrush. "Which pages is AI reading?" A checker that lists cited sources. "Is it getting better?" A tracker: HubSpot AEO, Otterly.AI or Peec AI.
What does HubSpot's AI Search Grader actually measure?
It scores how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini describe your brand, out of 100, across five weighted dimensions. You enter your company name, location, industry and product or service; the grader asks GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity and Gemini how they characterize the brand "based on their training data", and you complete a short form to see the full results. It is free, one-time, needs no HubSpot account and takes under two minutes.
| Dimension | Points | What it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | 40 | The tone the engines use about you |
| Presence quality | 20 | How deeply they discuss you, and from which sources |
| Brand recognition | 20 | How well they know you |
| Share of voice | 10 | Where you rank against competitors |
| Market competition | 10 | Leader, challenger or niche player |
From HubSpot's AI Search Grader page, 9 November 2026.
That makes it a brand-perception score. Sentiment alone is 40% of the grade, and the questions are about you, not about your category. A well-known brand with a mediocre product can score high; a small brand that ChatGPT already recommends for a niche query can score low.
Perception or recommendation: which do you need to know?
Most teams searching for an alternative want the second: when a buyer asks an AI engine for a tool like theirs, are they named, and who is named instead? That needs a different test. The engine has to answer real buyer questions, ideally with web search on, the way people use it today.
| HubSpot AI Search Grader | Buyer-question checker | |
|---|---|---|
| Asks the engines | What they know about your brand | Questions a buyer would ask |
| Source of the answer | Training data | A live answer, often with web search |
| Tells you | How you are described | Whether you are named, and who instead |
| Shows cited pages | Not in its listed outputs | Often (Ahrefs, Semrush, Omnia, LumenGEO) |
When we asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude five buyer questions about AI visibility tools on 8 November 2026, HubSpot was named in 3 of the 20 answers, against 12 each for Semrush and Ahrefs and 11 for Otterly.AI. HubSpot is one of the best-known names in marketing software, yet it was named in only 3 of these 20 answers.
| Tool | Named in (of 20 answers) |
|---|---|
| Semrush | 12 |
| Ahrefs | 12 |
| Otterly.AI | 11 |
| Peec AI | 10 |
| Profound | 8 |
| HubSpot | 3 |
| LumenGEO | 0 |
Method: 5 buyer questions (for example "What's the best AI visibility checker for small businesses?" and "Which are the top tools to check if ChatGPT recommends my brand?"), each asked once on each engine through DataForSEO's LLM API with web search on (GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Claude Sonnet 5.5). A tool counts as named if the answer mentions it by name. One run is a snapshot, not a ranking.
Free alternatives to HubSpot's AI Search Grader
These are free one-time checks, each read from the tool's own page on 9 November 2026. None of them is a full tracker; each is a first look, like HubSpot's.
Ahrefs free AI Visibility Checker
Best for: the widest free engine coverage with no signup.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode.
What it checks: your brand across prompts Ahrefs draws from real Google searches; the free version is a preview showing the top 5 results in each section, including the top 5 cited domains and pages.
Signup: none, and no card.
Versus HubSpot's grader: twice the engines and the sources behind the answers; no perception score. Results come from a prebuilt prompt database, so a small or new brand may see few or no results even if AI does name it.
Semrush free AI visibility checker
Best for: a quick score plus the pages AI cites, if you already know Semrush.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews.
What it checks: a 0–100 visibility score for your domain, with mentions, citations, topics, prompts and your top cited pages.
Signup: none for up to three checks a day.
Versus HubSpot's grader: search-style prompts and cited pages rather than brand perception; no Perplexity. Like Ahrefs, it reads from a prebuilt prompt database, so a small or new brand may see few or no results even if AI does name it.
Mangools AI Search Grader
Best for: seeing how often you appear across several models for a niche you describe.
Engines: three models without an account (GPT-5 Nano, Mistral Small and Llama 3.3 70B); a free account adds DeepSeek, Claude Haiku and Gemini Flash-Lite.
What it checks: prompts generated from your brand and niche description, with the share of prompts where you appear in the top 20 and your average rank.
Signup: optional; a free account, with no card, unlocks the extra models. Usage is limited.
Versus HubSpot's grader: category prompts instead of brand questions; without an account, the models are small API models (GPT-5 Nano, Mistral Small, Llama 3.3).
Omnia free AI visibility checker
Best for: a short emailed report with cited sources for two engines.
Engines: ChatGPT and Google AI Mode only.
What it checks: 3 prompts relevant to your category, chosen from your site, with share of voice, cited sources and 2 suggested actions.
Signup: your domain and an email; no card. The report arrives in 3 to 5 minutes.
Versus HubSpot's grader: category questions with sources; fewer engines.
Birdeye AI Visibility Checker
Best for: local businesses.
Engines: ChatGPT only.
What it checks: local prompts such as "best dentist near me" for one location, with your local competitors and the sources cited.
Signup: business name, website and location.
Versus HubSpot's grader: built for local search; one engine.
LumenGEO free check (ours)
Best for: seeing whether ChatGPT and Perplexity cite your site for one keyword, and which sites they cite instead.
Engines: ChatGPT and Perplexity, with web search on.
What it checks: your site against one keyword you choose, scored, with the sites cited in your place.
Signup: your site, the keyword and an email; no card.
Versus HubSpot's grader: a citation check with sources, not a perception score; two engines, where HubSpot's grader uses three.
Paid alternatives, if you want to track it over time
A one-time check tells you where you stand. To see whether it changes after you publish or pitch something, you need the same prompts re-run on a schedule.
| Tool | Entry price | At that price |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot AEO | $50/mo ($45 annual) | 25 prompts; ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo | 15 prompts; ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | 50 prompts; 3 engines you pick |
| Semrush AI Visibility | $99/mo | 25 prompts, 4 engines |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | From $50/mo + Ahrefs plan | Custom prompts |
| LumenGEO (ours) | $19 once; $49/mo tracking | Report: 20 answers, 4 engines |
Prices from each vendor's own pricing page, 8–9 November 2026, before tax. More options and plan details: Otterly.AI alternatives and Peec AI alternatives.
HubSpot AEO is the grader's own upgrade. It tracks the prompts you choose on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, compares competitors and gives recommendations. It needs no HubSpot subscription, is included in Marketing Hub Pro and Enterprise, and has a free trial of 25 prompts with no credit card. If your marketing already runs on HubSpot, start there.
Otterly.AI is one of the cheapest established trackers and the one AI engines named most often in our test after Semrush and Ahrefs. Gemini, AI Mode and Claude are add-ons. Peec AI is a step up in polish and prompts. Semrush and Ahrefs make sense if you already pay for the suite.
What should a first check tell you?
Before you pay for tracking, one check should answer four things. Most free tools answer one or two.
- Are you named for buyer questions, not just your brand name?
- On which engines? ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude cite different sources.
- Who is named instead of you, and how often?
- Which pages are behind each answer, so you know which lists to pitch and which questions to answer with a page of your own?
That is what our report does: 20 buyer answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, the lists those answers cite that you can get onto, and the fixes written out, for $19 once, starting from a free check. If it shows a problem worth watching every week, that is when a tracker earns its fee, whether it's HubSpot AEO, Otterly or ours.
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Frequently asked questions
Is HubSpot's AI Search Grader free?
Yes. It is a free, one-time check with no HubSpot account needed; you complete a short form to see the full results. It analyzes GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity and Gemini, and the result is ready in under two minutes.
What is the best free alternative to HubSpot's AI Search Grader?
Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker covers the most engines (six) with no signup and shows the top cited pages. Semrush's free checker gives three checks a day across four engines. Both test whether AI names you for search-style prompts, which HubSpot's brand-perception grade does not.
What is the difference between HubSpot's AI Search Grader and HubSpot AEO?
The grader is a free one-time snapshot of how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini describe your brand. HubSpot AEO is a paid tracker, $50 a month for 25 prompts, that re-checks the prompts you choose over time, compares competitors and gives recommendations.
Why is my AI Search Grader score high when ChatGPT doesn't recommend us?
Because the grader scores what the engines know and say about your brand, with sentiment worth 40 of the 100 points. Being recommended depends on whether an engine names you when a buyer asks a category question, and on which pages it reads to answer. Test that directly with buyer questions.
Related: Otterly.AI alternatives · Peec AI alternatives · Profound alternatives · GEO tools 2026 buyer's guide