Free AI Visibility & Citation Finder
Who does AI recommend—and where is it citing?
This AI Citation Finder checks recommendations for your service and city, shows the answers and cited source URLs, and inspects selected pages for potential competitor gaps. It uses OpenAI web search, Perplexity and Google AI Overview data when available. A business mention and a citation to its website are reported separately. API answers can differ from your personal ChatGPT session. No signup is needed to inspect the sources.
Who does AI recommend, and which sources does it cite?
More people ask ChatGPT and AI search “who's the best contractor near me?” every day. See if AI names you — or sends the job to someone else. No email to run it.
What is AI search visibility?
AI search visibility is whether AI assistants name and cite your business in their answers. More buyers now start with ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview instead of a list of blue links — they ask for the best option in their category or city, and the AI hands back a short list. If your name isn't on that list, the work goes to whoever is. Getting named is the new version of ranking. See also LLM visibility and AI brand visibility.
How does AI pick which businesses to recommend?
AI engines pull from the open web and their training data, then cite businesses with strong, consistent signals: clear service and location pages, genuine reviews, mentions on trusted third-party sites, and content that directly answers customer questions. There is no auction and no “position.” You are either in the answer or invisible. That's why two businesses on the same street can get wildly different AI results.
How to check your AI visibility (free)
Enter your business name, trade, city, and an optional service phrase. The report shows observed recommendations, source links, and potential citation opportunities. Check the displayed date: saved results are reused to keep the tool free.
How to improve your AI search visibility
Improving AI visibility — sometimes called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or GEO — runs on the same foundation as SEO: authoritative, well-structured service and location pages, real reviews, citations from trusted sites, and content that answers the exact questions customers ask AI. The difference is you optimize passages to be quoted, not just pages to be ranked — the discipline now called LLM SEO. If you are weighing the terminology, we break down AEO vs SEO and GEO vs SEO.
AI visibility tools, compared
Most AI visibility platforms are built for enterprise brands and marketing teams. Here's an honest look at where each fits — and where a free, local-first checker makes more sense.
| Tool | Built for | Cost | Local / “near me” |
|---|---|---|---|
| BaaDigi (this tool) | Local & service businesses | Free, no signup | Yes — geo-aware by city |
| Profound | Enterprise brands | Paid subscription | Brand-level |
| Scrunch / Peec / AthenaHQ | Marketing teams & agencies | Paid subscription | Brand-level |
See the full breakdown: Best AI Visibility Tools (2026), compared.
We used this same method on agencies rather than restaurants: which restaurant SEO agencies AI engines actually name — every prompt published.
Learn more about AI visibility
AI visibility glossary
- AI search visibility
- Whether AI assistants (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) name and cite your business when someone asks for a recommendation. Full definition
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
- Optimizing your content and signals so answer engines pick you as a recommended source — the AI-era successor to SEO. Full definition
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
- Another name for the same discipline: getting generative AI to surface your brand in its answers. Full definition
- LLM SEO
- Optimizing content so large language models quote and name your brand. Princeton (KDD 2024) measured what moves it: cited sources +40%, statistics +37%, expert quotes +30%. Full definition
- Citation
- A source URL attached to an AI answer. A business can be named without its website being cited; this report tracks those separately. Full definition
- Share of Answers (SoV)
- How often AI answers mention your brand for a set of prompts, versus competitors. Full definition
- llms.txt
- A Markdown file at your site root that tells AI models what your site contains. Cheap to publish, and honestly: no major assistant has confirmed reading it. Full definition
AI visibility tool FAQs
How does the AI Citation Finder identify opportunities?
It preserves the observed answers and citation URLs for three service-and-city questions, then samples HTML from up to eight cited pages. Potential gaps flag competitor names found without your exact name in that sample. Confirm the page content and any listing or editorial eligibility yourself before acting.
Are these the exact results I would see in ChatGPT?
No. OpenAI web-search API observations may differ from your personal ChatGPT session. The report shows the query, engine, check date, original answer and citation URLs. Failed engines and unreadable pages are labeled separately from observed absence.
What is an AI visibility tool?
An AI visibility tool checks whether AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity recommend or cite your business when people ask for it. BaaDigi’s free tool runs the real questions a customer would ask ("best [trade] in [city]") against those engines and shows whether AI names you or a competitor.
Is AI search visibility the same as Google ranking?
No. AI search has no numbered ranking. An AI engine either names and cites your business in its answer or it doesn’t. The goal of AEO/GEO is to be one of the handful of businesses the AI recommends when a customer asks.
How do I check my AI visibility for free?
Enter your business, trade, and city in the tool on this page. It checks OpenAI web search, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity, showing observed recommendations and cited sources. Reports may reuse cached results; the check date appears with the answer. No signup to run it.
Which AI visibility tool is best for a local or service business?
Most AI visibility platforms (Profound, Scrunch, Peec, AthenaHQ) are built for enterprise brands and marketing teams with monthly subscriptions. For contractors and local service businesses, BaaDigi’s tool is free, instant, and geo-aware — it checks the exact "near me in [city]" questions your customers ask. See the full comparison below.
What is the best free AI visibility tool?
Free AI visibility tools fall into two groups. Enterprise platforms (Profound, Scrunch, Peec, AthenaHQ) offer limited free tiers built around brand-level prompt tracking on a monthly subscription. This tool is free with no signup and is the only one that tests geo-specific "best [category] in [city]" prompts, which is where local and service businesses are actually won or lost. If you need continuous multi-market tracking, use a paid platform; if you need to know where you stand right now, run this.
How do I improve my AI search visibility?
Get cited by giving AI clear, consistent signals: strong service and location pages, real reviews, mentions on trusted sites, and content that directly answers customer questions. The same foundation that earns Google rankings earns AI citations.
Who AI recommends, by trade and city
Published results from real checks — every business the engines named, with the date they were asked. Nothing here is ranked or paid for by us.
Want to run the checks by hand?
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