Last updated: 2026-08-12
CiteLens is a platform that tracks citations of a brand, launched in June 2026 to measure how often AI chat assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity cite or recommend it. Its Citation Explorer traces each citation back to the exact source page, a level of detail broader SEO suites do not offer.
About CiteLens
CiteLens is a Generative Engine Optimization platform built by Solustiq and founded by Alper Tekin, launched into general availability in June 2026. It measures how often the leading AI answer engines cite or recommend a brand when people ask for recommendations, a signal traditional SEO rank-tracking tools do not capture. The platform runs a brand's real customer questions across those engines, captures the generated answers, and identifies which websites the engines cited as sources. From that data it reports an AI Visibility Score, a share-of-voice figure benchmarked against named competitors, and the sentiment of how the brand is described. CiteLens is built for SEO managers at agencies and content marketing leads at small and mid-size brands who want a first measurement of AI search visibility without an enterprise budget. It is not aimed at Fortune 500 teams needing broad language coverage or a dedicated customer-success team, a gap that funded category leaders are built to fill instead. The platform runs as a web dashboard only, with English and Turkish market support built in.
Pricing
Free: $0/mo, 10 prompts, 100 engine calls, 3 engines. Starter: $79/mo, 25 prompts, 800 calls. Growth: $249/mo, 75 prompts, 3,000 calls, 4 engines ($0.06/extra call). Pro: $599/mo, 200 prompts, 9,000 calls, 5 engines, public API access ($0.05/extra call). Agency: $1,499/mo, 600 prompts, 28,000 calls, white-label branding. It also sells a $499 one-time audit and a $299 add-on session outside the tier structure.
Key Features
- Brand and Domain Tracking: Monitors both brand-name mentions and URL citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in one dashboard.
- Citation Explorer: Reveals exactly which pages get cited for a specific prompt so teams can see query-by-query competitive positioning.
- GEO Audit Tools: Checks whether a site's pages are technically accessible and citable to AI crawlers, flagging blockers before optimization work starts.
- AI Recommendations: Turns each visibility gap into a concrete next step, such as which page needs schema markup or which competitor is winning a query.
- Multi-workspace support: The Agency tier includes up to 50 workspaces so agencies can separate client accounts and track share of voice per client.
- Public API access: Available from the Pro tier and above, a REST API exposes each brand's AI Visibility Score and citation data for external reporting.
Pros
- A free plan with no credit card covers a starter set of tracked prompts and 3 AI engines, cheaper entry than Profound or Peec AI's paid-only trials.
- Citation Explorer shows the exact source URL cited per prompt, not just an aggregate visibility score.
- Native English and Turkish market support with correct country and language targeting, a gap most US-built GEO tools do not cover.
Cons
- Tops out at 5 AI engines even on the priciest Agency tier, fewer than enterprise rival Profound tracks.
- Public API access is locked behind the Pro tier and above; no API on Free, Starter, or Growth plans.
- No published Model Context Protocol server, so connecting CiteLens data into an AI agent workflow requires custom REST integration.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does CiteLens cost in 2026?
CiteLens runs five tiers priced from Free at $0 a month up to Agency at $1,499 a month. Starter is $79 a month, Growth is $249 a month with a fourth engine unlocked, and Pro is $599 a month with public API access added. Every paid tier bills $0.05 to $0.06 for each engine call past its monthly cap, and CiteLens separately sells a $499 done-for-you AI Visibility Audit and $299 strategy sessions.
Is CiteLens free to use?
CiteLens's Free plan costs $0 a month and needs no credit card. It covers 10 tracked prompts, 100 engine calls, and 3 AI answer engines each month, with a hard cap and no overage billing once the limit is hit. Tracking a fourth or fifth engine, or running past 10 prompts, requires upgrading to the Starter tier or higher.
What are the best alternatives to CiteLens?
Profound is the enterprise-grade option, having raised $155M and built for Fortune 500 brands that need the broadest engine and language coverage. Peec AI is the closer mid-market rival, having raised $29M and pairing citation diagnostics with built-in guidance on what to fix. Otterly is the budget pick, starting near $29 a month with a simpler dashboard aimed at founders who are not SEO specialists. Choose CiteLens over all three for its free entry tier and native Turkish-market support.
How does CiteLens compare to Profound in 2026?
Profound is the funded category leader with $155M raised and a roughly $1B valuation, built for Fortune 500 brands that need enterprise-grade language coverage and dedicated support. CiteLens starts at $0 a month and tops out at $1,499 a month for its Agency tier, far below Profound's enterprise contracts. In exchange for that lower price, CiteLens covers at most 5 AI engines and fewer tracked prompts than Profound's broader scope. Pick Profound if budget is not the constraint and the brand needs enterprise-grade language coverage and support; pick CiteLens for an affordable first GEO measurement, especially for brands with a Turkish-market audience.
How do you get started with CiteLens?
Sign up for the Free plan, which needs no credit card, and enter the real questions your customers ask an AI assistant about your brand or product. CiteLens runs those prompts across its free-tier engines and returns an AI Visibility Score plus the exact source pages each answer cited. From there, upgrade to a paid tier only once tracked prompts or engine coverage need to grow.
Top Alternatives
- Surfer SEO: Pick CiteLens if you need AI-answer-engine citation tracking; pick Surfer SEO if you need on-page content optimization for classic search rankings.
- Clearscope: Pick CiteLens to monitor whether AI engines cite your site; pick Clearscope to optimize content briefs for traditional search relevance.
- Frase: Pick CiteLens's free tier for first-pass AI visibility measurement; pick Frase if your priority is AI-assisted content drafting and briefs.
HokAI guides covering CiteLens
- Best AI Search Visibility Tools in 2026: What Actually Separates Them: CiteLens, Palmata and SeaOcean track AI citations for free. Surfer, NEURONwriter and Writesonic bolt it onto content tools. Here is which one to actually buy.