State of GEO Q2 2026: 4 Tools Own 60% of AEO Category Mindshare

Why we ran this study

Every “best AEO tool 2026” list on Google feels sponsored. They usually are. Affiliate disclosures are inconsistent, ranking logic is opaque, and the authors often sell adjacent services. A buyer looking for a neutral answer has no easy source.

This matters more than it used to. 50% of B2B buyers now start vendor research in an AI chatbot rather than Google. AI referral traffic grew 1,300% year-over-year in 2025, and converts at a 14.2% rate versus Google’s 2.8% — roughly 5× more valuable per session (Semrush, 2026). The tools that monitor and optimize for AI visibility are no longer a curiosity. They are the new analytics stack.

So we tested the category the same way buyers do. We ran 27 queries into Google. We recorded who appeared and who didn’t. We published the raw CSV. Here’s what we found.

Methodology (2-minute read)

• Sample: 27 buyer-intent queries across 4 intent layers — awareness (“what is AEO”), solution-aware (“how to track brand in ChatGPT”), tool-shopping (“best AEO tool for SaaS”), brand-specific (“Profound reviews”).
• Execution: each query run once via Google desktop US, logged-out. Top 10 organic results captured per query (270 result pages total).
• Scoring: a tool earns a “mention” if it appears on any of the top 10 pages for a given query. Share = (mentions ÷ 27 queries).
• Coverage: Q2 is a partial dataset. Full 50-query rerun scheduled for Q3 2026 with direct LLM probes added.
• Raw data: CSV download (CC BY 4.0) — use freely, cite this post.

This is a SERP-based proxy for AI visibility, not direct LLM citation data. The correlation is strong but not perfect. We’ll be running the same 27 queries directly against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in Q3 and publishing the delta.

The leaderboard

Of roughly 60 AEO / GEO tools currently marketed, 16 appeared in at least 10% of our probes. Here’s the ranking:

Long tail (1–2 mentions, 25+ tools): LLMrefs, Bluefish, Adobe LLM Optimizer, Writesonic GEO, Knowatoa, Superlines, Promptwatch, ProductRank.ai, Frase, Mangools AI Search Watcher, Morningscore, OmniSEO, Ayzeo, Sight AI, Quattr, Rankscale, Search Party, Cairrot, Yotpo, Nudge, Yext, AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, Surfer, Schema App, Botify, Topify. The category has depth. But nearly all the depth is invisible to buyers.

The concentration metric

The standard way to measure category concentration is the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI): sum of the squared market shares of each participant. Higher numbers mean more concentration.

Using visibility share as a proxy for market share (imperfect but directional), the AEO category’s HHI is approximately 1,250. For reference:

• Unconcentrated market: HHI < 1,500
• Moderate concentration: HHI 1,500–2,500
• Highly concentrated: HHI > 2,500

The AEO tools category is just below the moderate-concentration threshold. Context:

• Global CRM HHI ≈ 2,800 (Salesforce dominates)
• Email marketing HHI ≈ 900 (fragmented)
• Web analytics HHI ≈ 4,500 (Google-dominated)

In other words: AEO is more fragmented than CRM, less than analytics. Still early enough for newcomers to break in — but hardening every quarter.

The funding-vs-mindshare map

Category leaders didn’t rank themselves by accident. We pulled public funding data and plotted it against SERP visibility share.

Correlation between total funding raised and SERP visibility share: approximately 0.78. Not deterministic (Otterly at 48% share with a fraction of Profound’s raise is the exception), but the pattern is clear — most of the top-of-category visibility is directly bought via content, agency, and outreach spend that funding enables.

Five surprising findings

1. Profound’s dominance is not uniform

Profound appears in 20 of 27 queries, but loses every 30-day head-to-head benchmark we found. AthenaHQ reported a 45% net gain in answer share over 30 days. Peec AI reported 8%. Profound: -1%. Interpretation: Profound wins the SERP (where buyers discover tools), but not necessarily the product benchmark (where buyers decide). Those are two different jobs.

2. The mid-market has three viable winners

For buyers in the $200–600/mo range, AthenaHQ ($270), Peec AI (€85), and Otterly ($29 entry) cover the decision space. The differentiation is real: Peec focuses on entity and product-level tracking, AthenaHQ on optimization agents, Otterly on simplicity. Buyers who demo all three consistently pick based on workflow fit rather than feature count.

3. The “free” tier is a deliberate strategy, not a gap

HubSpot AEO Grader is free — permanently. Airefs is $24/mo. Trakkr has a genuine free tier. These are not accidents; they are Trojan horses for HubSpot Marketing Hub (CRM upsell), Airefs’s agency service (done-for-you upsell), and Trakkr’s platform consolidation play. The lesson: in 2026, any SEO-adjacent tool without a free tier is disadvantaged.

4. Enterprise has a real choice now

Enterprise buyers with $2,000–5,000/mo budgets used to default to Profound. Conductor and BrightEdge now credibly compete, with Adobe LLM Optimizer joining the tier at the top end. The category’s enterprise tier has matured from one credible vendor to four in 12 months.

5. Four gaps are still unclaimed

Categories that barely surfaced in our study:

• Hallucination detection (Scrunch is the lone real player)
• French / EU-specific AEO (every leader is US-first; GDPR + FR-language coverage is thin)
• Agency white-label (Cairrot is new; most tools struggle with multi-client margin economics)
• Local business GEO (multi-location brands with 50+ sites have no purpose-built tool)

Each of these is a positioning vector for a well-executed newcomer.

What this means for buyers

A practical buying framework based on the data:

• Enterprise ($2K+/mo): Profound for data depth, AthenaHQ for optimization agents, Conductor or BrightEdge for integrated SEO+AEO stack.
• Mid-market ($200–600/mo): AthenaHQ if optimization matters, Peec AI if entities and products matter, Semrush AI Toolkit if you’re already on Semrush.
• SMB ($30–200/mo): Otterly AI ($29) as the go-to starter, Airefs ($24) if Reddit monitoring matters, Peec Starter (€85) if you need more than 15 prompts.
• Free: HubSpot AEO Grader for a first scan, Trakkr for ongoing tracking, AI Rank Lab for a technical audit.
• Agency: Scrunch Agency Core ($500), Peec multi-client, or Cairrot for lean margin models.
• Ecommerce: Goodie AI (purpose-built), Peec AI (entity tracking), Profound (at enterprise scale).
• B2B SaaS: Profound for depth, GrackerAI ($39) for the cheap entry, Peec AI for mid-market.

If your needs span more than one segment, start with a free tool for baseline, then move to one of the mid-market winners. Skip the “try them all” trap — demo fatigue is real and the top 4 dominate for reasons that hold up in practice.

What this means for tool vendors

If you’re building in this space, the data suggests three clear plays:

1. Pick a vertical, not the category. GrackerAI owns “B2B SaaS.” Goodie owns ecommerce. Cairrot is taking agencies. Horizontal plays are now uphill vs. well-funded incumbents.
2. Free tier is table stakes. If your entry price is above $49/mo without a free option, most buyers won’t even demo you.
3. Content velocity matters more than feature velocity. Profound dominates SERP not because of product depth but because of constant content + PR output. Feature parity without content parity = invisibility.

A note on CapstonAI

CapstonAI — the tool publishing this report — appeared in 0 of our 27 probes. We’re a young brand (DR 47, ~180 referring domains, launched commercial product early 2026). We’re publishing this baseline publicly for two reasons:

1. Category neutrality. A study that named us at the top would be worthless as a buyer reference. This study names us as invisible, which is the most useful thing we can do for readers right now.
2. Measurable trajectory. We’ll re-run the same 27 queries in Q3 2026, then Q4, then Q1 2027. If our content + silo + digital PR work moves the needle, it will show up in this dataset. If it doesn’t, we’ll publish that too.

CapstonAI’s positioning is intentional: we build the AEO monitoring tool for teams that also want optimization recommendations, not just data dashboards. Early users are mid-market SaaS and multi-location brands in the $200–600/mo range. If that’s you, see how CapstonAI works. If it’s not, one of the tools ranked above almost certainly fits.

Reproduce this study

Everything you need is public:

• Download the raw CSV (license: CC BY 4.0 — use freely with attribution)
• Full 27-query list is included in the CSV
• Run Google desktop searches, logged out, US region
• Capture top 10 organic per query
• Score a “mention” if a tool name appears anywhere on any result page for that query
• Time required: ~3 hours

If you re-run it, email the data (greg@capstonai.com) and we’ll cite your methodology in Q3. The goal is a neutral category reference, not CapstonAI monopolizing the data.

What’s next

Q3 2026 report will expand to:

• 50 queries (up from 27)
• Direct LLM probes on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews
• Funding and ARR correlation with AI visibility (not just SERP)
• Vertical cuts (SaaS, ecommerce, B2B, local)
• FR and UK market comparisons

Subscribe to the CapstonAI weekly AEO insights to get the Q3 report the day it publishes, plus the monthly interim updates.