# CitePulse review (2026): is the free plan enough? > AI answer scans scored on one citation visibility index Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA. CitePulse runs scans that ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Google AI Overviews and other engines a brand's target prompts, then reports how often the brand is mentioned, cited and recommended as a Citation Visibility Index, with citation share and competitor coverage. A free page check looks at structured data, AI crawler access and answer readiness. Plans are sold by scans per month for one brand. - **Category:** AI Search Visibility (AEO & GEO) - **Made by:** Fyndability Labs - **Website:** https://www.citepulse.io - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you run several brands, as each self-serve plan covers one and more need Enterprise. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, CitePulse has a free plan, and paid plans start at $40 per month, billed annually ($50 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** 5 AI visibility scans a month for 1 brand on all tracked engines, with basic reporting and community support. No card needed. - **Free trial:** Free trial of paid plans; length not stated. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 5 scans a month, 1 brand, all tracked engines, CVI scoring and basic reporting for 1 team member. | | Starter | $40 per month for 50 scans, billed annually ($50 billed monthly) | 1 brand, 1 competitor tracked, scans run on keys managed by CitePulse, and email support. | | Professional | $80 per month for 200 scans, billed annually ($100 billed monthly) | 1 brand with full competitor tracking, advanced analytics, API access, 5 team members and priority support. | | Scale | $200 per month for 1,000 scans, billed annually ($250 billed monthly) | 1 brand, mention depth analysis, a coverage heatmap, 15 team members and the option to bring your own model API keys. | | Enterprise | Custom | Several brands, site auditing, Content Lab workflows, custom reporting, API access and rollout support. Sold through sales. | Read from https://www.citepulse.io/pricing on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with CitePulse before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Save 20% with annual billing** (Annual discount): CitePulse's pricing page lists annual billing at 20% off: Starter $40, Professional $80 and Scale $200 a month, against $50, $100 and $250 monthly. Source: https://www.citepulse.io/pricing ## Key features - **AI visibility scans:** Each scan asks the configured AI engines your target prompts and analyzes whether the brand is mentioned, cited, trusted and recommended. - **Citation Visibility Index:** A single score per engine and overall, tracked over time alongside citation share, mention depth and answer coverage. - **Competitor tracking:** Shows which competitors the answers recommend instead; Starter follows 1 competitor and Professional and Scale track them fully. - **Free readiness check:** Checks a page's structured data, AI crawler access, retrieval signals and answer readiness in about 30 seconds, with no signup. - **Coverage matrix and mention depth:** Scale adds a heatmap of which engines answer which prompts and a deeper read of how the brand is mentioned. - **Bring your own keys:** Scale can run scans on the team's own model provider API keys to control cost; other plans use keys managed by CitePulse. ## Good for - Teams tracking one brand that want a single score to report - Site owners who want a free check of crawler access and structured data - High-volume teams that prefer to pay model providers directly with their own keys ## Worth knowing - Every self-serve plan covers one brand; several brands, site auditing and Content Lab workflows are listed under the custom Enterprise plan. - Scans pause when the monthly allowance runs out, until the next billing cycle or an upgrade. - Starter tracks a single competitor and has no API access; the API starts at Professional. - The pricing page offers free trials on paid plans but does not say how long they last. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 24, 2026. CitePulse puts your prompts to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Google's AI Overviews and other engines, and rolls the results into one Citation Visibility Index per engine. But every self-serve plan covers one brand, Starter follows one competitor and has no API, and scans stop when the month's allowance runs out. The trial's length isn't stated. - **Value for money: C.** Starter is $40 a month billed yearly, or $50 monthly, for 50 scans on 1 brand with 1 competitor. That's between this category's cheaper quarter at $29 and its $49 middle. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A free plan with no card: 5 scans a month on all tracked engines for 1 brand, with basic reports. Paid plans have a free trial too, of unstated length. Five scans a month is a cap you'll hit. - **Features: C.** Scans that score mentions, citations and recommendations per engine, citation share, competitor coverage and a free page readiness check. The gaps are in the listing: one brand per plan, and site auditing sits on Enterprise. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. You set target prompts and ration scans across the month, since they pause when the allowance runs out. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with no desktop or phone app and no ready-made integrations. An API comes from Professional at $80 a month billed yearly. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from CitePulse'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 - CitePulse'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 platforms and integrations (B, above 51 of 157) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $40 a month, against a middle price of $59 for the category: 50 of the 128 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 10 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-visibility ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Nothing CitePulse does is plain enough to make in a weekend. The 3 things listed below take a company. It costs $480 a year. - 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 crawler that checks every page of a site. - You could not: An API that other software can build on. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** AI search visibility, Site audit, Public API ## Alternatives - [Otterly.AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/otterly-ai): Daily brand and citation tracking across AI search engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citepulse-vs-otterly-ai) - [Peec AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/peec-ai): AI search analytics that tracks brand prompts across AI models. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citepulse-vs-peec-ai) - [Rankscale AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rankscale-ai): Credit-based AI visibility tracker covering 17+ AI engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citepulse-vs-rankscale-ai) - [LLMrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/llmrefs): Keyword-based AI search visibility tracker with one flat plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citepulse-vs-llmrefs) - [PromptScout](https://toolgpa.com/tools/promptscout): Low-cost AI answer tracking across five providers, with weekly to-dos. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citepulse-vs-promptscout) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://www.citepulse.io/pricing - https://www.citepulse.io/ - https://www.citepulse.io/about Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/citepulse Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).