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Semrush AI visibility: what it tracks, and how to read the numbers

The component tools, the surfaces covered, the dataset figures Semrush publishes, and the free checker that needs no plan.

Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 12 October 2026

Yes, Semrush tracks AI visibility. Its AI features sit inside the main platform beside keyword, backlink and rank tracking, and they cover five jobs: a visibility overview across AI platforms, brand sentiment, competitor benchmarking, prompt research and prompt tracking, plus an AI search health audit for crawler access. There is also a free AI search visibility checker that needs no plan. This page describes what each part does, using Semrush's own published material, and how to read the numbers it gives you.

What the AI features cover

On its AI visibility features page, Semrush lists the component tools by name. Taken together they answer four separate questions.

ToolThe question it answers
Visibility OverviewHow often the brand appears in AI generated answers, broken down by platform, topic and region, tracked over time
Brand PerformanceHow AI platforms describe the brand, and how that compares with competitors
Competitor ResearchWhich rivals are mentioned instead of you, and which topics they own
Prompt ResearchWhich prompts and questions trigger brand mentions in your category, including topic volume and intent
Prompt TrackingDaily updates on a custom prompt set you choose
AI-Cited MediaWhich outlets the models cite most often, as a list to pitch
AI search health auditWhether AI bots can reach your content, with a prioritised fix list

Two of those are worth singling out. Prompt Research is the part that behaves like keyword research for assistants: Semrush states it holds prompt data on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode and more, across more than 40 global markets, and reports topic volume and intent as informational, commercial or transactional. Brand Performance is the sentiment side, reporting the words and framings models use about a brand.

The dataset figures Semrush publishes

Semrush states these numbers on its own feature pages, which is the right place to check them because platform figures are updated often.

  • 317 million or more AI prompts in the dataset
  • 42 geographic AI prompt databases
  • 36 million or more unique brands covered for AI visibility analysis
  • 68,000 locations for brand sentiment tracking
  • 28 billion or more keywords on the classic SEO side
  • Daily, weekly and monthly data refreshes, depending on the tool

Read those as the size of a prompt and brand database, which is what makes category level benchmarking possible without you writing every prompt yourself.

The free checker, and what it returns

Semrush publishes a free AI search visibility checker that takes a domain and returns a report. Semrush describes the output as an AI Visibility Score from 0 to 100 representing how often the brand appears in AI generated answers compared with others in the industry, plus a total mention count, a breakdown across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google results, the pages driving the most AI citations, and the topics and prompts where the brand appears. The checker covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode.

That is a reasonable way to get a first baseline in one click. Save the page list and the prompt list from it, because those are the two outputs you can act on immediately.

How to read the numbers you get

Four habits make any AI visibility dashboard more useful, and they apply to this one as much as to any other.

  • Check which surfaces are in the figure. A score built from four platforms and a score built from five are different scores. Note the platform list beside every number you report upward.
  • Check the market. Answers differ by country, and a global average can hide the one market you sell in. Filter to your market before you draw a conclusion.
  • Treat a composite score as a trend line. A 0 to 100 index is most useful watched over months against the same prompt set. The underlying mention counts are what you take into a meeting.
  • Keep your own brand name out of any prompt you add. A prompt that names your business returns your business. Blind prompts are the only ones that tell you what a buyer would have seen. The reasoning is in why you must never name your own brand in a tracking question.

Where it fits in a stack

The structural fact about Semrush AI visibility is placement. It sits inside a platform many teams already pay for, next to the keyword, backlink, site audit and rank tracking data. If your team lives in Semrush, AI visibility becomes another tab rather than another login and another invoice, and the AI numbers land in the same report as the organic ones.

The work that moves those numbers happens outside any dashboard: crawler access, one page per buyer question with the answer in the first paragraph, checkable facts with dates, and your name on sites you do not own. A platform tells you where you stand. Somebody still has to write and publish. If you want that half done as well as measured, AI Knows Us measures five surfaces with blind prompts and then writes the pages and runs the listings work, and its free scan needs no account.

This page describes what Semrush's AI visibility features do and how to read them. For a side by side against our own product, we published AI Knows Us vs Semrush AI Toolkit. For current plans and prices, read Semrush's pricing page on the day you buy.

Asked and answered: Semrush AI visibility

Does Semrush track ChatGPT?

Yes. Semrush lists ChatGPT among the platforms covered by both its AI visibility tools and its free checker, alongside Gemini, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, with Perplexity named in its prompt data coverage.

Is Semrush AI visibility included in my existing plan?

Access depends on the plan and the add-on you hold, and Semrush has reorganised these features into its newer packaging. Check the entitlement on the pricing page or in your own account rather than assuming, because the same feature name can sit on a different tier than it did last year.

What is an AI Visibility Score?

Semrush describes it as a 0 to 100 metric for how often a brand appears in AI generated answers compared with others in its industry. It is an index built from mention counts, so it is best used as a baseline to watch over months rather than as an absolute measure of standing.

Do I still need a dedicated AI visibility tool?

You need a measurement that asks real buyer questions in the real assistants, asks them without your brand name, and runs each one more than once. Whether that comes from a platform feature or a dedicated product, those three properties are what make the reading usable. The category map is in AEO tools and what each one measures.

Does good Google ranking carry over into AI answers?

For Google's own AI surfaces it is the entry ticket. Google's documentation on AI features states that to appear as a supporting link a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional technical requirements. For the assistants, crawler access and a quotable page do the work.

What to do first

  • Run the free checker on your domain and save the two lists it returns: your most cited pages and the prompts where you appear.
  • If you hold a Semrush plan, filter the visibility overview to your own market before you read any figure.
  • Add ten of your own buyer prompts to tracking, with your brand name in none of them.
  • Run the AI search health audit and fix the crawler access items first, since those are the cheapest and fastest to change.
  • Take the most cited media and directory domains from the report and get properly listed on the three you are missing.

Read next

AI Visibility Audit Deliverables for a UK Agency: The Five Artefacts, and Why the Zero Column Is One of ThemWhat a British agency should hand a client at the end of an audit, including the findings that did not survive a second reading.A Workflow Standard for AI Search Optimisation: Six Stations, and Who Owns Each OneThe execution sequence an Indian agency can hold a team to, measured against what our own site serves eleven named crawlers.The Multi Engine AI Citation Audit Framework: One Column Per Engine, Never a Blended ScoreA reproducible audit design for an Indian agency, built from 1,260 readings on 16 October 2026 and the 597 that came eleven days before it.A Small UK Agency Against a Large Consultancy on AI Search Optimisation: What the Citation Data Says Each One Can OwnThree British agency domains took dozens of citations each in our readings, and none of them is a large firm. Here is what that result does and does not tell a ten person shop.Build or Buy an AI Visibility Stack: The Five Silent Wrong Answers an In House Build ProducesWhat it actually takes to run a multi engine tracker yourself, measured from the defects in our own build, with rupee prices for the alternative.AI Search Optimisation and SEO in India: What Each One Costs, and What Each Return Is Counted InMost of the production work is already inside your search invoice, two budget lines are genuinely new, and the two results are counted in units that cannot be divided by each other.

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