# AthenaHQ review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Credit-based AI search tracking with content optimization agents Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. AthenaHQ tracks how a brand shows up in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok and other models, with source and competitor insights and sentiment. It suggests on-page and off-page actions, runs a content optimization agent and publishes to WordPress or Shopify. Usage is paid in credits, where one credit buys one AI response. - **Category:** AI Search Visibility (AEO & GEO) - **Made by:** AthenaHQ - **Website:** https://athenahq.ai - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you outgrow the free credits, as the next step is $245 a month on yearly billing. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ has a free plan, and paid plans start at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **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. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | 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. | Read from https://athenahq.ai/plans on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with AthenaHQ before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **17% off with annual billing** (Annual discount): AthenaHQ's plans page takes 17% off for annual billing, described as two months free: Starter is $245 a month instead of $295. Source: https://athenahq.ai/plans ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Small teams that want to try AI visibility tracking on a free plan first - Brands that want tracking and content changes in the same tool - Online stores watching product placement in AI shopping results ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. AthenaHQ tracks your brand across up to 11 AI models, shows the sources they lean on, and has an agent that rewrites pages and publishes them to WordPress or Shopify. The free plan's 300 credits go fast, since one credit is one AI answer, and the next step is Starter at $245 a month yearly. The API and extra credits are priced only on request. - **Value for money: D.** Starter 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. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A 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. - **Features: B.** Up 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. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. Credits take some working out: there's a whole calculator just for estimating how prompts, locations, models and cadence add up. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web 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. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from AthenaHQ's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI search visibility tools - AthenaHQ's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 68 of the 157 other AI search visibility tools we grade, and level with 56. - It stands best on features (B, above 125 of 157) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $245 a month, against a middle price of $59 for the category: 123 of the 128 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-visibility ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace AthenaHQ you would be making an AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $2,940 a year. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: The same prompts asked of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers every day, and the answers kept. - You could not: A score built from what the top results for each keyword cover. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Google Analytics, Google Search Console and WordPress among them, and has an API. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, ChatGPT, Claude **Tags:** AI search visibility, Content optimization, AI agents, Public API ## Alternatives - [Profound](https://toolgpa.com/tools/profound): AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/athenahq-vs-profound) - [Peec AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/peec-ai): AI search analytics that tracks brand prompts across AI models. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/athenahq-vs-peec-ai) - [Scrunch](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scrunch): AI search monitoring plus pages served to AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/athenahq-vs-scrunch) - [Goodie](https://toolgpa.com/tools/goodie): AEO platform for AI search tracking, content agents and attribution. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/athenahq-vs-goodie) - [Semrush](https://toolgpa.com/tools/semrush): SEO suite for keyword research, rank tracking and AI search visibility. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/athenahq-vs-semrush) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://athenahq.ai/plans - https://athenahq.ai/ - https://athenahq.ai/integrations - https://athenahq.ai/credit-calculator - https://docs.athenahq.ai/guides/settings-billing.md - https://docs.athenahq.ai/llms.txt Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/athenahq Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).