The best AI SEO tools, sorted by the SEO job

"AI SEO tool" now means three different things: a classic SEO suite with AI features added, a content tool that tells you what a page needs to rank, and a chat assistant that writes and rewrites for you. A fourth job has appeared in 2026: tracking whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers mention your brand. This page sorts six tools by those jobs and lists the prices each vendor publishes as of October 2026.

How the picks were chosen

We kept tools that a small business or a freelance SEO can sign up for today and that publish prices or a free plan. We picked at least one tool per job: research, content, AI search tracking and writing. Selection rests on public facts such as pricing pages, listed features and plan limits. We did not run a ranking test, and nothing here is a paid placement. Each tool links to its page in our catalog, where the full plan table and sources live.

The six tools at a glance

1. Semrush

Best for: one bill for research, audits and AI search tracking · Price: SEO $139/month, or $117.33/month billed yearly (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes, plus a 7-day trial

Semrush covers keyword research, backlink and competitor analysis, Position Tracking and Site Audit on its SEO plan, with 5 websites and 500 keywords tracked daily. The plans labelled SEO + AI Search start at $199 a month and add AI prompt tracking: 50 prompts tracked daily and brand performance for one domain on Starter. If you only want the AI side, the AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 a month per domain billed yearly, tracks 25 prompts and reports mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. The Content Toolkit, $60 a month billed yearly, writes briefs and brand-voice content.

Limits: the free plan is one demo project and 10 reports a day, which is enough to look around and too little to work in. API access starts on Advanced.

2. Ahrefs

Best for: backlink research, and owners who want free data on their own site · Price: Starter $29/month; Lite $129/month (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes, for sites you verify

Ahrefs has the most useful free plan here if you own the site: Ahrefs Free gives Site Explorer and Site Audit for your verified sites, with 5,000 crawl credits a month per project, Web Analytics and one AI Content Helper document a month. Starter at $29 is the entry plan for keyword and competitor research. Lite at $129 adds 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 5 tracked AI prompts and API and MCP access.

Limits: AI features cost extra. Brand Radar AI, for tracking a brand across AI answers, is sold on its own from $199 a month, and AI Content Helper is a $99 add-on for 50 documents a month.

3. Surfer

Best for: teams that publish articles often and want a score to write against · Price: AI Search Analytics $95/month or $82/month billed yearly; content plans priced on Surfer's site (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: no

Surfer is built around the Content Editor, which gives a draft a Content Score against the pages that rank for the same query, plus Surfy, an AI writing assistant, and a humanizer. Content plans run from Discovery, with 120 documents and 1 seat, to Pro with 5 brand workspaces, a cannibalization report and MCP. Its standalone AI Search Analytics tracks 50 prompts a day across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini.

Limits: there is no free plan, and a content score is a guide to coverage. It cannot tell you whether the page answers the reader better than the pages above it.

4. ChatGPT

Best for: first drafts, title tags, meta descriptions and FAQ sections · Price: Go $8/month; Plus $20/month (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

ChatGPT does the writing jobs around SEO well when you give it the facts: a service page from your own price list, ten title tag options under 60 characters, an FAQ from the questions customers ask. The free plan includes web search and file uploads, so you can paste a competitor's outline or upload a keyword export and ask for gaps. Plus adds projects, which keep a site's brief and voice in one place.

Limits: ChatGPT has no search volume or ranking data of its own. Any number it gives you for keyword volume is a guess; take volumes from Semrush, Ahrefs or Google's own tools.

5. Claude

Best for: rewriting long pages and keeping a consistent voice · Price: Pro $20/month, or $17/month billed yearly (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Claude is the pick for refreshing old content: paste a 3,000-word page and ask it to cut repetition, update sections and keep your wording where it works. Its apps include Projects, memory, file creation and web search. If you write in the same voice across many pages, our Claude Skills catalog shows how to package that voice once and reuse it.

Limits: like ChatGPT, it has no SEO data of its own, and usage caps apply on every plan.

6. Perplexity

Best for: topic research with sources you can check · Price: Pro $20/month on the US App Store (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Perplexity answers with cited sources, which makes it useful for the research step of an article: what a topic covers, which pages it cites, and what a searcher would expect to find. It is also a quick way to see how an AI search engine answers a query in your niche, by hand, before you pay for tracking. The free plan includes a limited number of Pro Searches each day.

Limits: the prices we could confirm are in-app prices on the US App Store, and it gives no rankings or volumes.

What to check before you pay

• What the base plan leaves out. At both Semrush and Ahrefs, AI search tracking and AI writing are separate products or higher tiers. Price the plan with the add-ons you would actually use.
• Projects, keywords and seats. Semrush SEO tracks 500 keywords across 5 websites; Ahrefs Lite tracks 750 across 5 projects for 1 user. An agency with ten clients outgrows both entry plans.
• Whether you need a suite at all. For one local business site, Google Search Console, Ahrefs Free and a chat assistant cover most of the work. A paid suite starts paying off when you research competitors or publish every week.
• Billing. Yearly billing lowers the monthly price at Semrush ($139 to $117.33) and Surfer ($95 to $82 for AI Search Analytics). Use a trial or free plan first.

Which one to pick

• One local business site: Ahrefs Free for your own data, plus ChatGPT for pages and posts.
• Research competitors and keywords every week: Semrush or Ahrefs. Try both free options before you choose.
• Track mentions in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Ahrefs Brand Radar AI or Surfer AI Search Analytics.
• Publish many articles: Surfer for the score, Claude or ChatGPT for the drafting.

Whichever suite you choose, the prompts do the writing. This one turns your own facts into a local service page:

Write a service page for [service] in [town]. Our price range is [price range], the job includes [what is included] and takes [time].
Give me a title tag under 60 characters, a meta description under 155 characters, an H1, four H2 sections and four FAQ questions locals would ask.
Use only the facts above. Where you need a fact I did not give, leave a blank in square brackets.

The full version is the Local Service Page Writer prompt. For more, browse our SEO prompts and the ChatGPT prompts for small business, which include a website FAQ writer and a Google Business Profile prompt.

FAQ

What is the best AI SEO tool?

For most sites, one suite plus one chat assistant. Semrush suits teams that want research, audits and AI search tracking under one login. Ahrefs suits owners who start on its free plan for their own site. ChatGPT or Claude does the writing.

Are there free AI SEO tools?

Yes. Ahrefs Free covers your own verified sites, Semrush has a free plan with 10 reports a day, and ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity have free plans. Surfer has no free plan.

Can ChatGPT do keyword research?

It can brainstorm keywords and group them by intent, but it has no search volume data of its own. Take volumes from an SEO tool or Google's own tools, then use ChatGPT to sort and write.

How do I track whether ChatGPT mentions my brand?

Three tools on this list sell it: Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit ($99 a month per domain, billed yearly), Ahrefs Brand Radar AI (from $199 a month) and Surfer AI Search Analytics ($95 a month). Each tracks a set of prompts and reports where your brand appears in the answers.