AthenaHQ vs Relixir (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ grades higher than Relixir: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
AthenaHQ grades higher on the free plan and features. Relixir grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on 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
Free plan · from $245/mo
Relixir
Rex, an AI agent that tracks and improves a brand's AI search presence
Paid
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 Relixir if
- Fits if you'd otherwise hire an agency to write, publish and refresh content for AI answers
- Works for B2B companies that want AI traffic and AI-sourced leads in the report
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a price before a sales call, as Rex is sold on custom pricing after a demo
- Skip it if you want to sign off every page, as Rex publishes to your CMS on its own schedule
- Too light for teams that need Gemini or Copilot answers watched, as neither is named
- Skip it if you want to try it first, as there's no free plan or trial
- Watch out: it isn't self-serve, so Relixir's team configures, launches and manages it for you
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | 1.8GPARelixirWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CNo price is published: Rex is sold on custom pricing that's only given on a sales call after a demo, so there's nothing to set against the rest of the category. |
| 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 on record: no free plan and no trial, just a demo to book. |
| 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. | CMonitoring, content written and published with schema, page refreshes every 30 to 60 days, backlink and Reddit outreach, and site audits. But the engines it names leave out Gemini and Copilot, and it publishes to your CMS on its own schedule. |
| 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. It isn't self-serve: Relixir's team configures and launches Rex for you, so the start is a demo and a setup period. |
| 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, connected to your CMS, Google Analytics, Search Console, CRM and Slack, and it reports AI traffic and AI-sourced leads. |
| Best for | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking | B2B teams handing AI search work to an agent |
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 Relixir. How we grade
Where they differ
- AthenaHQ also covers content optimization.
- Relixir also covers long-form writing, site audit, link outreach and schema markup.
In commonWebAI agentsAI search visibility
At a glance
| AthenaHQ | Relixir | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) | Not published |
| 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 | Relixir Inc. |
| Price read from | athenahq.ai | Not confirmed |
| 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.
Relixir
- No prices are published; Rex is sold on custom pricing after a demo.
- It is not self-serve: Relixir's team configures, launches and manages Rex for each customer.
- Rex writes and publishes content to your CMS on its own schedule, including refreshes every 30 to 60 days.
- The engines it names are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews; Gemini and Copilot are not mentioned.
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.
Relixir
- AI visibility monitoring
- Tracks mention rate, citation rate, sentiment and competitor share of voice across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
- Content generation and publishing
- Researches, writes and publishes content with JSON-LD schema, FAQ sections and citations, aimed at being picked up by AI answers.
- Automatic content refresh
- Finds stale pages across the CMS and republishes them with updated data every 30 to 60 days.
- Backlink and Reddit outreach
- Runs outreach to the sources AI answers cite, finds Reddit threads to target and supports PR campaigns.
- Technical audits
- Crawls the site, fixes broken links and meta tags, and monitors Core Web Vitals and site health.
- Stack connections
- Connects to the CMS, Google Analytics, Search Console, CRM and Slack, and reports AI traffic and AI-sourced leads.
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.
Relixir
Pricing could not be confirmed. See relixir.ai.
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.
Relixir
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, AthenaHQ or Relixir?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly), and Relixir has no price we could confirm.
Which has a free plan, AthenaHQ or Relixir?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Relixir 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.