It means something precisely because you are not relying on one answer. A single check is a coin flip; a repeated check is a signal. CitedOrNot re-queries each engine on its own adaptive schedule and records every result, so what you see is your mention rate over time, not a snapshot. When the trend genuinely moves, you get alerted. Every result also stores the full AI response verbatim, so you can read exactly what was said and judge it yourself rather than taking our word for it.

A mention means your name — or a name you told us you go by — appearing in the text the AI actually wrote. Not an estimate, and not a guess at what was implied. Every result keeps the full answer and the date it was given, so you can open any row and read it yourself. Before-and-after results only appear once there are checks on both sides of the day you shipped, and always show how many there were. The full method is written up in plain English on our methodology page.

You can, and most people start there. It breaks down for three reasons: one answer is not a trend, you would have to repeat it across 7 engines and every buyer question you care about, and you have no record of what changed or when. CitedOrNot is that same habit run consistently, logged, compared against your competitors and turned into a to-do list — without you remembering to do it.

More than look at them. CitedOrNot flags every query where a competitor is recommended and you are not, then builds recommendations from the actual AI answers — the content format to publish, the proof points to include, and the buyer query it should own. You get a prioritized to-do list, not another dashboard to interpret. (AI action plans are on Pro and Agency.)

Seven: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Google AI Overview and Google AI Mode. They are tracked separately, because being strong on one and invisible on another is the normal case, not the exception. Starter covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity; Pro and Agency cover all 7.

A rank tracker tells you your position in a list of blue links. CitedOrNot tells you whether AI names your brand inside its generated answer — on engines that publish no rankings at all and send no referrer you could measure in Analytics. Different metric, different playbook. This is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the layer that sits on top of SEO rather than replacing it.

No. No script, no tracking tag, no access to your site or analytics. You add your brand and the questions your buyers ask AI; CitedOrNot does the querying. That also means you can track competitors — or evaluate a brand before you own it.

Yes. Add the competitors you care about and every result shows who the AI recommended alongside or instead of you, per engine and per query. That competitor gap is usually the fastest path to winning more citations, because it tells you exactly which answers you need to be in.

One check is one engine queried for one of your questions, so a question checked across all 7 engines uses 7 checks each time it refreshes. First results appear within minutes of setup; after that each engine re-checks on an adaptive schedule — faster when answers move, slower when they are stable — so your allowance goes where it matters. Monthly allowances: Starter 750, Pro 6,000, Agency 18,000.

Nothing is charged and nothing is deleted. The trial is 7 days and takes no credit card. If you do not upgrade, your account simply pauses with your data intact so you can pick it up later. Paid plans start at $29/mo and cancel from your billing settings in one click — no fees, no contract, no call with anyone.