AEO Toolkit and Ahrefs Brand Radar
Ahrefs Brand Radar is AI visibility inside an SEO suite, built around a large index of prompts drawn from search demand, with the AI responses and citations stored. AEO Toolkit checks whether answer engines can read and quote the site, then tracks your own customer questions, and sits beside a suite rather than inside one. If you already use Ahrefs and want market-wide prompt data, Brand Radar is the closer fit.
| Dimension | Ahrefs Brand Radar | AEO Toolkit |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Tracking and studying a brand’s visibility across AI answers, from inside the Ahrefs suite | Auditing how answer engines read a site, then tracking customer questions to see whether the brand is named |
| Where the prompts come from | A large index built from queries in the Ahrefs keyword database, tied to search demand, plus prompts you define. Its FAQ notes coverage can be thin for brands with little search volume | The customer questions you give us. We do not estimate how often the market asks anything |
| What it stores | The AI responses themselves, with mentions, citations and share of voice reported across competitors | Whether the brand was named or linked, its position, and which other brands were named beside it |
| Platforms covered | Several AI platforms, which differ between its index and its custom prompts. Its page lists them | Perplexity, GPT with live web search and Gemini, called through their APIs. These are API answers, not screenshots of the consumer apps |
| Site audit | Brand Radar describes tracking and AI analytics. We did not find a check on that page of whether AI crawlers can read the site | 44 published checks with a fix for each. The free audit needs no account |
| How it is sold | Prompt tracking comes with paid Ahrefs plans. The prompt index is a separate product. Its page lists the allowances | A free plan with no card and no time limit. It works with or without any SEO suite |
| Agent access | Check Ahrefs’ own pages for what it offers today | Hosted MCP servers for Claude, Cursor and other clients, plus your own Search Console, GA4 and Bing data |
Brand Radar and AEO Toolkit both answer "does AI name this brand?", from different places. Brand Radar answers it market-wide: a large prompt index, weighted by search demand, with the responses and citations stored. AEO Toolkit answers it for the questions you choose, and adds the step before: whether the site can be read and quoted at all.
They also sit differently. Brand Radar lives inside the Ahrefs suite, next to rankings and backlinks. AEO Toolkit does not track rankings or index backlinks, so it works beside whatever suite you already pay for. If you are on Ahrefs, the two fit together: Brand Radar for the market view, the toolkit for the audit and the fixes.
We have not compared prices or plan allowances, because those change and Ahrefs states them on its own pages. The links below go there directly.
Choose Brand Radar when
You already work in Ahrefs and want market-wide prompt data weighted by search demand, with stored responses and competitor share of voice in the same place as your rankings.
Use AEO Toolkit when
You want to check whether the site can be read and cited, want published rules you can inspect, or want to track your own customer questions from a free plan, with or without an SEO suite.
Common questions
Is AEO Toolkit a replacement for Ahrefs Brand Radar?
No. Brand Radar gives market-wide prompt data and stored responses. AEO Toolkit audits the site and tracks the questions you choose. They answer different questions.
Do I need Ahrefs to use AEO Toolkit?
No. The toolkit works with or without any SEO suite. It does not track rankings or index backlinks, so it does not replace one.
Can I use both?
Yes. Use Brand Radar for the market view of AI visibility, and the audit to find and fix what stops answer engines quoting the site.