Searchly vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
For $99 a month, Searchly Starter tracks 50 of your buyer prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, with AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits and Search Console on the same plan. Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 a month per domain, billed annually, for 25 tracked prompts on one engine per campaign.
Compared from Semrush's own pricing and documentation, checked Oct 21, 2026. How we compare
Our verdict
Our pick: Searchly
Searchly is the better choice for most teams tracking their brand in AI answers. For $99 a month, Searchly Starter runs 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity; tracking as many prompts in Semrush's toolkit costs about $159 to $279 a month (est.), on one engine per campaign and with no Perplexity in Prompt Tracking. AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits, Search Console and the Agent come on Starter with no add-on, and Searchly Pro has a 14-day trial where Semrush says its toolkit has none.
| Searchly | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $99 a month (Starter) | $99 a month per domain, billed annually |
| 50 prompts, 3 engines, daily | $99 a month | About $159 to $279 a month (est.), no daily Perplexity |
| Engines on the entry plan | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity | One per campaign: ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini |
| Site data on the entry plan | AI crawler logs once you connect a source, GA4 AI visits and Search Console | Search Console and Google Analytics with a $10 a month add-on; crawler logs not documented |
| Free trial | 14 days on Pro | None |
strengths
Where Searchly comes out ahead.
From each company's own pricing pages and documentation, checked Oct 21, 2026. Each point links to its source.
Where Searchly is stronger
- 50 tracked prompts for $99 a month, where Semrush's toolkit includes 25 and charges $60 a month for 50 more. As you grow, Searchly Business tracks 350 prompts across up to 3 projects for $499 a month; Semrush adds $99 a month for each extra domain. Source
- Each tracked prompt runs on all of ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity. Semrush's main Prompt Tracking article lists one engine per campaign (ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini), so each engine needs its own campaign, and Perplexity appears only in the toolkit's Brand Performance report. Source
- AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits and Search Console together on Starter with no add-on, which no other platform compared here documents on its entry plan; crawler logs start once you connect a source. Semrush documents no AI crawler logs or AI referral traffic for the toolkit and connects Google Analytics and Search Console through a $10 a month add-on. Source
- An Agent on Starter you can ask about your AI visibility in plain language; it reads your Searchly data and proposes new prompts or competitors you confirm. Semrush documents no in-app agent for the toolkit. Answer and citation data also come through the REST API and MCP server on every plan, where Semrush says prompt-level and cited-page data are not in its API yet. Source
- AI shopping on every plan, Starter included: the products ChatGPT shows for your prompts, whose they are, what they cost, how they are rated, who sells them and where they rank. Semrush's toolkit tracks shopping only in Google AI Mode, as a shopping ads feature when products appear there. Source
capabilities
Feature by feature, with sources.
The same capabilities, in the same words, for both tools. A tag beside the status names the plan or the limit, and each note links to the page it came from. Not documented means we could not find it in Semrush's public pages.
| Capability |  Searchly |  Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| TrackingWhat is tracked, how often and for how many brands. | ||
| AI enginesIncluded means five or more named engines on a published plan, counting paid add-ons. | Included3 included, 2 add-ons ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity on every plan; Gemini and Claude as paid add-ons (Starter +$50 and +$100 a month, Pro +$150 and +$300, Business +$250 and +$500, Custom included); Copilot, DeepSeek, Google AI Mode and Grok coming soon. Source | Limited1 engine per campaign Prompt Tracking: ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini, one per campaign (one help article adds Google AI Overviews); Perplexity only in the weekly Brand Performance report. Source |
| Tracking cadenceIncluded means a daily run is available on a published plan. | Included Each tracked prompt runs once a day on every engine in the plan. Source | IncludedDaily, some reports weekly Prompt Tracking daily (desktop); Brand Performance weekly. Source |
| Prompt suggestions and researchSuggested prompts or a prompt database; the note says whether volume data is shown. | IncludedNo volume data Buyer prompts suggested from your site and topics, tracked only after you accept them, or typed, pasted or uploaded as CSV and tracked at once; no search volume or difficulty. Source | IncludedTopic-level volume Prompt Research on a 317M+ prompt database with topic-level volume (15 countries). Source |
| Competitor benchmarkingCompetitors measured on the same answers. | Included Benchmark the competitors you choose on visibility, share of voice, position and citations. Source | Included Competitor comparison and competitive opportunities. Source |
| Several projects or brandsTwo or more projects, brands or workspaces on one published plan. | Included2 on Pro, 3 on Business 1 project on Starter, up to 2 on Pro and up to 3 on Business, sharing one prompt budget; more on Custom. Source | Add-on$99 a domain 1 project and 1 domain; an extra domain or location is $99 a month; unlimited projects on Enterprise. Source |
| Answer evidenceWhat you can open and take away from each answer. | ||
| Full answer textThe full answer behind each result, exportable or available through an API. | IncludedAPI fallbacks labelled Open the answer behind every score with its date and citations; API fallback answers are labelled and kept out of headline metrics, and Claude is collected through Anthropic's API; answers export as CSV. Source | LimitedAnswer snapshots 'View SERP' snapshots of the actual answer; exporting the full answer text is not stated. Source |
| Citations and sourcesCited pages and domains for each answer, with source analysis. | Included Cited domains and pages per answer, the sources that cite competitors but not you and content types including Reddit threads and YouTube videos. Source | Included Sources report by domain and page with mention rate and suggested actions per cited page. Source |
| SentimentHow answers describe the brand, per answer or per brand. | Included How AI answers describe you, positive, neutral or negative, and why. Source | Included Sentiment within the toolkit's brand reports. Source |
| Data exportsCSV or spreadsheet exports of answers, prompts or citations. | IncludedCSV CSV exports of answers, prompts, page evidence and crawler logs on every plan; articles export as Markdown, HTML or text on Pro and up. Source | IncludedCSV, Sheets, PDF Excel, CSV and Google Sheets exports, PDF for some reports and scheduled email exports; 10 CSV exports a day of up to 1,000 rows. Source |
| Site evidenceWhat your own site data adds. | ||
| AI crawler logsAI crawler requests read from server, CDN or edge logs. | Included Requests from AI crawlers, verified or declared, after you connect Cloudflare (Logpush or Worker), Vercel, Next.js, Netlify, WordPress or the HTTP API; 90-day retention; CSV export. Source | Not documented Not documented; the AI site audit checks crawler access but is not a log feed. Source |
| AI referral visitsHuman visits from AI assistants, from GA4 or the vendor's own script. | IncludedVia GA4 Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and other AI assistants, read from Google Analytics 4 through a read-only connection, with no extra script. Source | Not documented AI referral traffic is not documented for the toolkit; GA and Search Console come with the Base Report add-on. Source |
| Google Search ConsoleSearch Console data inside the product. | Included Search Console clicks, impressions, CTR and position by query, page, country and device beside the AI evidence for each page; no indexing data. Source | Add-onAdd-on $10 a month Google Analytics and Search Console integrations with the Base Report add-on ($10 a month). Source |
| Site auditIncluded means a multi-page technical or AI-readiness audit. | LimitedHomepage only Site Health checks your homepage and selected root files, including AI crawler access in robots.txt, llms.txt and structured data, with a fix for each; not a whole-site crawl. Source | IncludedUp to 100 pages AI Search Site Audit of up to 100 pages, checking access for eight AI crawlers. Source |
| Taking actionWhat happens after a finding. | ||
| Recommendations or action queueA ranked list of next steps or tasks. | Included Opportunities: a ranked list of next steps tied to the evidence, from setup and on-page fixes to sites worth pitching; outreach is drafted, nothing is sent. Source | Included AI-generated strategic recommendations in Brand Performance and suggested actions per cited page. Source |
| Content generationIncluded means article generation that is generally available. | IncludedPro and up Content Studio on Pro, Business and the Pro trial: full articles or writer briefs in 8 formats from verified sources, readiness checks and accept or reject revisions; English only, hourly generation caps, no monthly article quota. Source | Add-onSeparate toolkit A separate Content toolkit; Enterprise lists AI automations and content workflows. Source |
| CMS publishingIncluded means content sent to two or more CMSs, as drafts or live. | LimitedWebflow drafts, Pro and up Approved articles go to your Webflow CMS as drafts on Pro and up; WordPress, Framer and Shopify publishing are not built. Source | Not documented CMS publishing is not documented for the toolkit. Source |
| AI agent or assistantAn in-app agent that works on the product's own data. | Included Agent on every paid plan and the Pro trial: ask about your AI visibility in plain language; it reads your Searchly data, opens the right page and proposes changes such as new prompts or competitors that you confirm; it does not write or publish articles. Source | Not documented An in-app agent is not documented for the toolkit. Source |
| Access and teamsHow data leaves the tool and who can sign in. | ||
| REST APIA documented API for the visibility data. | Included REST API with an OpenAPI spec and scoped, expiring keys on every plan; operations that generate content need an active subscription or the Pro trial. Source | Not offeredNot in the API yet Prompt-level and cited-page data are not in the Semrush API yet (vendor, Oct 12, 2026); Enterprise lists custom integrations and API. Source |
| MCP serverA documented MCP server for the visibility data. | Included MCP server on every plan for AI tools that support Streamable HTTP and a custom Authorization header (bearer key, no OAuth). Source | Not documented The Semrush MCP server covers Trends, SEO and Projects data; AI visibility data through it is not stated. Source |
| Agency plans and client reportingAn agency plan, client workspaces or branded or shareable client reports. | Not offered No agency plan, white label, scheduled or PDF reports or share links; client data leaves as CSV or through the API. Source | Add-onAdd-on $20 a month Pro Report add-on ($20 a month) for branded, white-labelled reports shared by link; each subuser needs a $99 toolkit licence. Source |
| SSO (SAML or OIDC)Company identity-provider sign-in; Google sign-in does not count. | Not offered No SSO, SAML, SCIM or audit log; customers sign in with email and password or Google. Source | Sales plan onlyEnterprise SSO, team governance and audit logs on Enterprise. Source |
| Shopping and adsProducts and ads inside AI answers. | ||
| AI shopping visibilityIncluded means the products AI answers show are captured and tracked; the tag names the engines. | IncludedChatGPT AI shopping on every plan: the products ChatGPT shows for your prompts, whose they are, their price, rating and retailer and where they rank. Source | LimitedGoogle AI Mode only Shopping ads tracked as a results feature when products appear in Google AI Mode. Source |
| AI ads trackingIncluded means ads inside AI answers captured on two or more surfaces. | Not offered AI ads tracking is not built. Source | LimitedGoogle AI Mode only Shopping ads inside Google AI Mode only. Source |
| BuyingPublic prices and free trials. | ||
| Published priceA public price for a paid plan that tracks AI answers, listed on the vendor's pricing page. | Included Starter $99, Pro $239 and Business $499 a month; yearly billing is 10 times monthly; Custom is quoted. Source | IncludedPer domain $99 a month per domain, shown as billed annually; the help article says $99 per month. Source |
| Free trial or free tierA documented free trial or free tier that includes AI-answer tracking. | IncludedOn Pro, 14 days 14-day trial on Pro ('Start for free'); Starter and Business have no trial; the free AI visibility report is a one-off sample, not a trial. Source | Not offered The vendor says the toolkit has no free trial (the site-wide 7-day banner is for other Semrush plans). Source |
pricing
The same workload, priced on both.
One brand, 50 buyer prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, checked once a day in one country: a common base for AI visibility tracking. Every Searchly plan includes all three engines; where Semrush counts or includes engines differently, the note says so.
| Item | Searchly | Semrush |
|---|---|---|
| Covers the workload | Covers it | Not as specified |
| Plan | Starter | AI Visibility Toolkit plus prompt packs |
| Monthly price | $99 | About $159 to $279, est. |
| Billed yearly | $990 a year ($82.50 a month) | Shown as "$99/mo per domain, billed annually"; the monthly-billing price is not shown |
| The three engines | All three included | No daily Perplexity: Prompt Tracking runs one engine per campaign (ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini) |
| Extra cost | None | +50 prompts for $60 a month: once if the 25 prompts are per account, three times if each engine campaign counts its own prompts |
| Free trial | None on Starter; a 14-day trial of Pro ($239 a month after) | None, per Semrush |
| What the plan counts | 50 prompts on 3 engines once a day: up to 4,500 runs in 30 days, the whole Starter allowance | 25 prompts per account; whether prompts count per engine is not stated |
One Semrush help article also lists Google AI Overviews for Prompt Tracking; the main Prompt Tracking article does not. Perplexity appears in the weekly Brand Performance report.
Prices before tax, in each company's own currency, as published on Oct 21, 2026. est. marks our arithmetic from published units. Units differ: Searchly counts runs, up to 4,500 in 30 days on 50 prompts.
Sources: Searchly: Searchly pricing; Semrush: AI Visibility Toolkit help, Semrush AI pricing, Prompt Tracking help
fit
Which one to choose.
Choose Searchly if…
you want each tracked buyer prompt run on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity with the answer behind each score, plus AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits, Search Console and the Agent from the first plan.
Semrush may suit you if…
your team already runs SEO in Semrush and mainly wants AI prompt research beside its keyword data, with a small set of 25 tracked prompts.
switching
Moving from Semrush, or running both.
- Your prompts.Semrush exports to Excel, CSV and Google Sheets, up to 10 CSV exports a day of 1,000 rows. Source In Searchly, paste or upload your prompts as CSV. Prompts you add are tracked at once; the ones Searchly suggests wait until you accept them.
- Competitors.Add the competitors you follow in Semrush. Searchly benchmarks the ones you choose.
- History.Past results stay in Semrush. Scores are not comparable between tools, because engines, collection methods and formulas differ, so compare trends from the same start date.
- Site data.Connect Google Analytics 4 and Search Console read-only, and send AI crawler logs from Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, WordPress, Next.js or the HTTP API by following a setup guide. Searchly installs nothing on your site.
- Run both.Track the same prompts in both tools during the 14-day Pro trial before you decide.
evaluation
Put both tools to the test.
Use your own brand, the same buyer prompts and the same dates in both tools. Ask the other vendor these three questions.
- Do the 25 included prompts count once or once per engine campaign, and is Perplexity among the Prompt Tracking engines?
- Which plan or add-on shows AI crawler visits and AI referral traffic for my own site, and what does it cost?
- Can I pull prompt-level answers and their cited pages through your API or MCP server today?
sources
Sources and scope.
How we compare. We read each company's own pricing page, documentation and changelog, noting the day we checked each one. A capability we could not find is marked Not documented; Not offered means the company's own pages say it is not part of the product. Both columns follow the same rules. We do not compare visibility scores between tools: engines, collection methods and formulas differ.
Semrush sources
- AI Visibility Toolkit help
- Semrush AI pricing
- AI visibility data sources
- Prompt Tracking help
- AI visibility dashboard tutorial (Oct 12, 2026)
- Semrush MCP
Searchly sources
Spotted an out-of-date detail about Semrush? Email piotr@trysearchly.com and we will check it against Semrush's pages.
The positioning map and its methodChanges
- Rewritten with a feature table, pricing for the same workload and dated sources.
related
Also on your shortlist?
get started
Make the comparison with your own brand.
Start a 14-day free trial of Pro. Track your own buyer prompts, open the answers and sources behind them and decide with evidence.