AI visibility for a US franchise across locations, and what the recommended stack costs per site
Two engines, seven products, the only published per location price ladder in the set, and our own multi business contradiction stated in full.
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 22 October 2026
A brand level AI visibility score is close to useless to a franchise, because the thing that breaks is one market at a time. Asked what a US franchise should do about AI visibility across locations, both assistants said location data first and measurement second, and then recommended seven products between them with prices attached. We checked every price. One vendor publishes a full per location ladder, one publishes a monthly plan with a prompt allowance, one publishes nothing at all, and one engine quoted figures for a vendor whose own pricing page carries no price. The ladder, and the order of work, are below.
What was asked and what each engine recommended
"What should a US franchise do about AI visibility across locations", put to the ChatGPT and Gemini product surfaces through a data provider on 21 October 2026 at 22:32 and 22:45 UTC. Both ran a live search. ChatGPT returned 90 citations, led by developers.google.com with seven, support.google.com with six, BrightLocal's help centre with five and SE Ranking's help centre with five. Gemini returned 5 citations, all third party comparison and agency pages.
ChatGPT ordered it: Google Business Profile first and free, then BrightLocal for local operations, then SE Ranking for AI visibility measurement, then Yext as the enterprise alternative, with a 90 day plan. Gemini ordered it: Yext or BrightLocal for listing governance, Schema App for location schema, Profound or Brandlight for engine tracking, then SOCi for reviews and local social.
The per location ladder, which only one vendor publishes
One vendor in either answer prices by the number of locations managed and publishes the whole structure rather than a starting figure. BrightLocal's pricing page, read on 22 October 2026, sets out three tiers against location bands of 1, 2 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 and beyond, each with a month to month price and an annual price, and the entry tier carries a local AI visibility tracker in its own feature list. We are not reproducing a rival's rate card here, so two anchors and the limits will do.
- One location on the entry tier is published at 41 dollars a month billed monthly, or 369 dollars billed annually, which the page shows as 31 dollars a month. The toggle opens on annual billing, which is why a quick look at that page shows the lower number and the table beneath it resolves the difference.
- Eleven to twenty locations on the same tier is published at 104 dollars a month billed monthly.
- The limits that matter more than the price: local rank tracking for up to 100 keywords and four competitors per location, a geo grid view per location, citation tracking, and listing management and reputation features arriving on the higher two tiers.
ChatGPT quoted both of those anchors, 41 dollars for one location and 104 for 11 to 20, and both are exactly right to the dollar against the table we read. On the one claim in either answer that could be checked line by line, the engine was precise.
The rest of the recommended stack, checked
| Product | Recommended by | Price the engine gave | What we read on the vendor page, 22 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | ChatGPT, third | Multi location plans around 129 a month, verify current pricing | Confirmed. seranking.com/pricing redirects to its subscription page, which publishes Core at 129 a month or 103.20 billed annually, with 10 projects, 1 manager seat, 2,000 keywords and 100 prompts, and Growth at 279 a month or 223.20 annually with 30 projects, 3 manager seats and 250 prompts. |
| Yext | Both engines | ChatGPT: quote based. Gemini: 199 to 999 a year per location, plus custom bundles | yext.com/pricing returns HTTP 404, redirecting to a 404 page, and yext.com renders 694 words with no price. ChatGPT's reading was the accurate one, and Gemini's figures came from a third party marketplace listing it cited. |
| Profound | Gemini, third | Starts at 99 a month, Growth at 399 a month | tryprofound.com/pricing renders 1,302 words containing no 99 and no 399 anywhere in its text. The page publishes a free Trial, 50 prompts run daily for seven days across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and an Enterprise tier at custom pricing with up to nine answer engines, SSO and SAML, SOC 2 compliance and unlimited seats. For agencies it states that the self serve Agency Growth plan comes with 400 credits a month per client workspace. |
| Schema App | Gemini, second | Enterprise custom, typically 1,000 or more a month | Presented by the engine as custom, which is what it is. |
| SOCi | Gemini, fourth | 400 to 1,800 a year per location | Presented as a range by the engine. |
| Brandlight | Gemini, third, as the alternative | Custom enterprise pricing | No figure offered and none quoted here. |
The order of work, which both engines agreed on
The two answers disagreed about products and agreed about sequence, which is the more useful half.
- Location data before anything is bought. Every eligible location verified, one profile per real location, correct primary category, hours, phone, address, photos and review replies per location. Both engines put this first and one marked it free.
- One page per location on the brand domain. Services, service area, hours, FAQs and genuinely local detail, with LocalBusiness structured data and the parent organisation relationship stated, so an assistant can tell a store from the brand. The franchise specific trap is the template that changes only the city name, and that decision sits inside the domain question covered in SEO for franchises and the location page nobody writes.
- Measurement per market, never one national score. Fix the prompt wording, such as the best service in a named city, run it per market on each engine, and record which locations appear and which URLs get cited. Compare locations against each other and against last month.
- Reviews and local social last, as an operating habit rather than a purchase. Volume and recency per location is what the engines read, and the automation only helps once somebody owns the replying.
The franchise agreement decides who may do each of these, which is the part no tool comparison mentions. Who controls the location profiles, who may buy media in a territory, who owns the review responses and who pays for the platform are all contract questions first. Our comparison of franchise and co-op agencies and the budget layer that decides who controls what is the companion piece on that.
Where we fit, and where these rivals beat us
This is our own category, so the disclosure has to be specific rather than modest. AI Knows Us measures whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews name a business for real buyer questions, and publishes pages built to be quoted. Our rates, from aiknowsus.com/llms.txt read 22 October 2026: SEO Start 149 dollars a month in the US watches 0 buyer questions on 0 engines, Growth 299 watches 100 questions on five engines weekly with 1,200 scheduled answers, Scale 599 watches 300, Agency 1,299 watches 80 with 12,300 credits, Everything 1,799 watches 300. One credit is one buyer question asked on one app once, and a Claude check costs three.
Now the part a franchise should read twice. We are priced by buyer questions and credits, not by location. BrightLocal publishes a per location ladder from 41 dollars a month for one site to 261 for 41 to 50 sites on its entry tier, which is a cleaner fit for a network that wants coverage per store, and it includes a local AI visibility tracker on that tier. SE Ranking publishes 10 projects and 100 prompts at 129 dollars a month and 30 projects at 279. We audited what this whole category publishes, including where four rivals beat us, in twelve AI visibility pricing documents audited on 20 October 2026. Profound publishes unlimited seats on both of its plans, SSO and SAML, SOC 2 compliance, up to nine answer engines, and 400 credits a month per client workspace for agencies.
And our own pricing page contradicts itself on exactly the question a franchise cares about. Read on 22 October 2026, 119,203 bytes, it lists "businesses covered 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 1" across the eight plans, giving the Agency plan ten brands, while the row immediately beneath reads "more than one business, no" for every plan including Agency. Both render. The same page carries no SSO, no SAML, no SOC 2, no ISO and no data processing agreement anywhere in its text, which a franchisor with a procurement process will reach before it reaches our numbers. Ask us which reading of the multi business row applies before you buy, and if the answer does not fit a 40 location network, buy the per location ladder instead.
What the measurement above establishes. One question per engine on one night, which fixes what each engine said then. Every price is attached to the URL it was read on, on 22 October 2026. The 404 at one vendor and the absence of two figures at another are records of what those pages served on that date.
What franchisors and franchisees ask about AI visibility across locations
Can one national AI visibility score tell me which markets are failing
No, and both engines said so in different words. The assistants answer a local question with a local shortlist, so the unit of measurement is the market, not the brand. Run the same prompt per city and compare cities.
What does it cost to watch AI answers for 40 locations
From published pages on 22 October 2026: BrightLocal's entry tier is 209 dollars a month for 31 to 40 locations, or 1,881 a year, with local AI visibility tracking included, and SE Ranking publishes 30 projects with 250 prompts at 279 a month. Question based platforms, ours included, charge by questions and credits rather than by site, so the cost depends on how many buyer questions you watch per market.
Who should own this, the franchisor or the franchisee
The data and the schema belong centrally, because consistency is the thing the engines read. The reviews, the hours and the photos belong to the operator, because only they know when the hours change. Put both in the agreement and name the owner of each profile.
Why did one engine quote prices a vendor does not publish
Because it cited a third party comparison page rather than the vendor. The Profound figures in that answer, 99 and 399 dollars a month, do not appear in the 1,302 words tryprofound.com/pricing rendered to us on 22 October 2026, where the published plans are a free trial and a custom enterprise tier. Open the vendor page before you put a figure in a budget.
Does schema really matter for a multi location brand
It is the one thing on this list that is free and that both engines named independently. LocalBusiness data per location, with the parent organisation stated, is how an assistant tells your Peoria store from your Phoenix store. Write it into the location template once.