Rankscale AI vs Spotaq (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Rankscale AI if

• Fits if you want 17+ AI engines on one plan and can do the credit sums
• Works for brands where local results matter, as it shows your place in AI map packs

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you track a lot every day, since monitoring pauses when the credits run out until renewal or a top-up
• Skip it if you want the cheapest plan paid monthly, as Essentials is yearly only and the trial is for Pro
• Pricey if you need the REST API, which starts at Pro+ for $229 a month, or white label at $385
• Watch out: Claude costs 2 credits a run against 0.25 for ChatGPT, so Essentials' 120 credits go fast
• Watch out: extra brand dashboard slots are bought separately in the app

Pick Spotaq if

• Fits if you want a free look at whether AI recommends your product, with no signup
• Works for teams that want a one-off audit PDF to pass around, for $19

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to track your own prompts, as it uses a curated set built around buyer intents
• Watch out: the pricing page names ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google-grounded AI, while the homepage also shows Claude and Gemini without saying which plans check them
• Tight if you track more than one brand: Monitor covers one domain, and Pro caps runs at 30 a month across 5
• Watch out: the free scan keeps no history, so tracking over time means Monitor at $49 a month
• Not for you if you need an API or integrations, as none are listed, or yearly billing, which is arranged by email

Rankscale AI

• Tracking is limited by credits, not prompts: each engine run costs 0.25 to 2 credits, and monitoring pauses when credits run out until renewal or a top-up.
• Essentials is sold on yearly billing only; the 7-day trial is for Pro.
• The REST API starts at Pro+ ($229 a month); white-label dashboards start at Growth.
• Extra brand dashboard slots are bought separately in the app.

Spotaq

• Prompts are a curated set built around buyer intents, not a list you write yourself; Pro adds pricing and category-leader questions.
• The pricing page names ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google-grounded AI; the homepage also shows Claude and Gemini without saying which plans check them.
• Monitor covers one domain; tracking more brands means Pro, which caps runs at 30 a month across 5 domains.
• There is no yearly discount yet; plans are month to month, and paying for a year is arranged by email.

Rankscale AI

Wide engine coverage

All plans can query 17+ engines, from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity at 0.25 credits a run to Claude at 2 credits, on schedules from hourly to monthly.

Visibility, sentiment and citations

Tracks a visibility score over time, benchmarks competitors, analyzes sentiment and shows which sources AI engines cite.

Query fan-out and ChatGPT follow-ups

Shows the internal searches AI engines run while answering, and the clarifying questions ChatGPT asks before recommending brands.

Shopping, ads and local results

Analyzes shopping cards and sponsored ads in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Copilot, and brand placement in AI local and map packs.

AI visits from Cloudflare

A read-only Cloudflare connection reports AI crawler and assistant visits, top pages and the 404 errors AI bots hit.

Sharing, API and MCP

Shareable dashboard links, CSV and Google Sheets exports, Data Studio, an MCP server for AI assistants and, from Pro+, a REST API.

Spotaq

SpotAQ score

A 0 to 100 score averaged across the prompts in a check, built from mention rate, sentiment, which sites are cited and whether Google grounding finds your site.

Missed Prompts report

Lists the buyer questions where AI named a competitor instead of you, with an opportunity score and a suggested next move for each.

Fix pack

Copy-ready positioning rewrites and JSON-LD schema suggestions, drawn from the AI answers already collected for the run.

Citation chain

Shows whether answers drew on your own site, review sites, directories or third-party articles, prompt by prompt.

Weekly monitoring

Monitor and Pro keep score history, compute changes between runs, track when competitors appear or drop off and email a weekly digest.

Rankscale AI

• Essentials$17

  per month for 120 credits, billed yearly only

  For individuals and startups: 2 brand dashboards and 10 page audits a month. Shown as $20 crossed out.

• Pro$99

  per month for 1,200 credits, billed monthly

  Up to 4,800 AI answers a month, 10 brand dashboards, 50 page audits, Looker Studio and MCP. Unused credits roll over up to 2x.

• Pro+$229

  per month for 3,000 credits, billed monthly

  Up to 12,000 answers, 25 brand dashboards, 100 page audits, REST API access and 5 prompt researches a month.

• Growth$385

  per month for 5,500 credits, billed monthly

  For agencies: up to 22,000 answers, 50 brand dashboards, 200 page audits, white-label dashboards and the agency program.

• Enterprise$780

  per month for 12,000 credits, billed monthly

  Up to 48,000 answers, 100 brand dashboards, REST API access, a dedicated partner, and credit rollover up to 3x.

• Custom PlanCustom

  Built around credit volume and team size, with options such as SSO, custom API work, SLA guarantees and a success manager.

Spotaq

• Free scan$0

  An instant scorecard for any site, run from the homepage with no account, using the same engines and scoring as the paid plans.

• Audit$19

  one-time, for 1 domain

  One full benchmark with every prompt, answer and citation, a scored Missed Prompts report and a fix pack, as a shareable PDF.

• Monitor$49

  per month for 1 domain, billed monthly

  The audit re-run weekly (up to 6 runs a month) with score history, competitor tracking, a weekly email digest and alerts.

• Pro$149

  per month for up to 5 domains, billed monthly

  30 runs a month shared across domains, 4 extended checks of up to 14 questions, 1,000 quick re-checks and 3 named competitors per domain.

Rankscale AI

• Annual discount

  15% off with yearly billing

  Rankscale's pricing FAQ says yearly billing is 15% cheaper than monthly, paid 12 months upfront, with credits still renewing each month.

Spotaq

No public discounts listed.