AthenaHQ vs Gauge (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ grades higher than Gauge: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
AthenaHQ grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
AthenaHQ
Credit-based AI search tracking with content optimization agents
Gauge
AI search visibility tracking with a built-in content engine
Which one is for you
Pick AthenaHQ if
- Fits if you want to look at real AI answers about your brand before paying anything
- Works for shops checking their products in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini shopping results
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you outgrow the free credits, as the next step is $245 a month on yearly billing
- Tight if you track lots of prompts every day, because every answer spends a credit
- Skip it if you need Claude, AI Mode or Grok on the free plan, as they start on Starter
- Watch out: the API and extra credits on Starter are add-ons priced only on request
- Not for you if you need SSO, audit logs or multi-region tracking without an Enterprise contract
Pick Gauge if
- Fits if you track hundreds of prompts daily and want articles written from the gaps
- Works for agencies running several clients, with an agency mode and 3 seats on Growth
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're a small team, at $599 a month with nothing cheaper
- Skip it if Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews or sentiment matter, as they need Enterprise
- Not for you if you want to try before paying, since there's no free plan or trial
- Watch out: Claude and Grok tracking runs on your own Anthropic or xAI API key, billed by them
- Watch out: Gauge Agents is a separate product, sold in credit plans from $100 to $20,000 a month
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | 1.6GPAGaugeWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DStarter is $245 a month billed annually, $295 monthly, for 3,600 credits. That sits in this category's dearest tenth, which starts at $129, and the API and extra credits are add-ons priced only on request. | DGrowth is $599 a month, the only priced plan, for 600 daily prompts on 3 platforms and 18 articles. That's about $1 per prompt a month, but the floor is about twelve times this category's middle of $49 and deep in its dearest tenth. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan, Essential, with 300 credits on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot and unlimited users. But one credit is one AI answer, so 10 prompts on 5 models spend 50 credits a run. You'll hit the wall fast. | FNothing free: no free plan and no advertised trial. The 1,000 free credits are for Gauge Agents, a separate product. |
| Features | BUp to 11 models on Starter, Claude, AI Mode and Grok among them, with competitor benchmarks, sentiment and source insights. It adds an optimization agent, AI shopping results and robots.txt and llms.txt controls. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. | CDaily tracking with competitor and citation analysis, an Action Center, a content engine, the Ask Gauge agent and agency mode. The gap the listing names: Growth covers only ChatGPT, AI Mode and Copilot, and AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and sentiment need Enterprise. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Credits take some working out: there's a whole calculator just for estimating how prompts, locations, models and cadence add up. | CNo rating on record. There's a CMS to connect for publishing, and tracking Claude or Grok means bringing your own Anthropic or xAI API key. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It links to Google Analytics, Search Console, WordPress, Shopify and Webflow, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude over MCP. The API is a paid add-on. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to GA4, Search Console, DataForSEO, Webflow, Framer, Sanity, GitHub and Slack, with MCP for AI assistants. |
| Best for | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking | high-volume prompt tracking with articles included |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: AthenaHQ and Gauge. How we grade
Price against what you get
AthenaHQ starts at $245 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Gauge starts at $599 a month and scores 2.3.
AthenaHQ scores higher and starts $354 a month lower. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than AthenaHQ for less, and 27 score higher than Gauge for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- AthenaHQ also covers AI agents.
- Gauge also covers long-form writing.
At a glance
| AthenaHQ | Gauge | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) | $599 per month for 600 prompts across 3 AI platforms |
| Free plan | Essential plan: $25 of credit (300 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with unlimited users. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | AthenaHQ | Gauge Technologies, Inc. |
| Price read from | athenahq.ai | withgauge.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
AthenaHQ
- Everything runs on credits: 3,600 a month on Starter. A free credit calculator helps estimate use by prompts, locations, models and cadence.
- API access and extra credits on Starter are paid add-ons whose prices are given only on request.
- The free Essential plan covers 5 models; Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral need Starter.
- SSO, audit logs, multi-region tracking and BI dashboards come only with Enterprise.
Gauge
- There is no free plan or advertised trial; the cheapest plan is $599 a month.
- Growth covers only ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot; AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and sentiment analysis need Enterprise.
- Claude and Grok tracking is optional on any plan and uses your own Anthropic or xAI API key, billed by that provider.
- Gauge Agents is priced separately in monthly credit plans from $100 to $20,000, with 1,000 free credits to start.
Key features
AthenaHQ
- AI answer monitoring
- Analyzes prompts and responses for brand mentions, competitor benchmarking and real-time sentiment across up to 11 models on Starter.
- Sources and citation intelligence
- Shows which sources AI answers draw on and where competitors are cited instead of you.
- Content optimization agent
- Recommends on-page and off-page actions and rewrites content against brand guidelines; drafts can be published to WordPress, Shopify and other CMSs.
- Shopping insights
- Shows how a site's products appear in AI shopping results in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini carousels, with position and competitor pricing.
- AI crawler controls
- Manages AI crawler access through a generated robots.txt and llms.txt.
- MCP and analytics connections
- Connects Google Analytics and Search Console to tie AI visibility to traffic, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude through MCP.
Gauge
- Daily prompt tracking
- Each tracked prompt is asked of every covered AI platform once a day; Growth's 600 prompts on 3 platforms come to 54,000 answers a month.
- Competitor and citation analysis
- Compares brand and competitor mentions in AI answers and shows which websites, Reddit threads and YouTube videos the models cite.
- Action Center
- A list of recommended actions drawn from the tracking data that a team can review, assign and follow through.
- Content engine
- Writes briefs, outlines and articles from visibility gaps and publishes them to Webflow, Framer, Sanity or a GitHub-based blog. Growth includes 18 articles a month.
- Ask Gauge agent
- A built-in chat agent that analyzes the visibility data alongside GA4, Search Console and DataForSEO data. Chats are unlimited on both plans.
- Slack, MCP and agency mode
- Gauge data can be queried from Slack or an AI assistant through MCP, and agency mode manages tracking for several clients.
Plans
AthenaHQ
Essential$0
300 credits on 5 models, unlimited users, prompt and source analysis, content recommendations and the Athena AI agent.
Starter$245
per month for 3,600 credits, billed annually ($295 monthly)
11 models including Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral; unlimited topics, prompts and competitors, CSV export and the optimization agent.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and websites, API access, knowledge base and claim review, multi-region tracking, BI dashboards, SAML SSO, audit logs and a 2-hour SLA.
Gauge
Growth$599
per month for 600 prompts across 3 AI platforms
Prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot, 18 articles a month, 3 seats, one location, email and Slack support.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom prompts, seats and locations, six core platforms adding AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity, sentiment analysis, exports and strategy sessions.
Ways to pay less
AthenaHQ
- Annual discount
17% off with annual billing
AthenaHQ's plans page takes 17% off for annual billing, described as two months free: Starter is $245 a month instead of $295.
Gauge
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, AthenaHQ or Gauge?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ is cheaper to start with: $245 a month, against $599 a month for Gauge. AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly), and Gauge starts at $599 per month for 600 prompts across 3 AI platforms.
Which has a free plan, AthenaHQ or Gauge?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Gauge does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.