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Semrush

A broad SEO and marketing platform whose AI Visibility Toolkit tracks brand mentions across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini, alongside its long-standing keyword research and content tools.

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What it does

Semrush is a long-established, broad SEO platform — keyword research, backlink analysis, technical site audits, competitive analysis — that added a distinct AI layer as AI-answer-engine visibility became a marketing concern in its own right. The AI Visibility Toolkit, part of the Semrush One bundle launched in October 2025, tracks how often and how favorably a brand is mentioned across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini for prompts relevant to the business, alongside a related AI Search Site Audit that flags technical issues blocking AI crawlers specifically.

Content-focused AI features sit alongside that visibility tracking: ContentShake AI generates a publish-ready draft from a set of keywords, the SEO Writing Assistant scores a draft for readability, SEO, tone, and originality in real time, and Semrush Copilot surfaces priority SEO tasks and anomalies across a site. This makes Semrush the broadest tool in this category — a fit for teams that want AI-answer-engine tracking bundled with the classic SEO toolwork they already need, rather than a narrowly scoped content or visibility tool.

That breadth comes with more complexity and cost than a single-purpose tool. The classic SEO Toolkit starts at $139.95/month with no AI Visibility included; getting AI-visibility tracking means choosing the separate “SEO & AI Search” plan line instead, starting at $199/month for the Starter tier — packaging that has already shifted once since the AI features launched, so current structure is worth confirming directly before budgeting.

Ideal users

  • Teams that already need (or plan to need) full-scope SEO tools — keyword research, backlink analysis, technical site audits — and want AI-answer-engine visibility bundled into the same platform
  • Marketing teams that want AI content scoring (SEO Writing Assistant) and AI drafting (ContentShake AI) alongside classic SEO tooling rather than a separate app
  • Agencies tracking both traditional rankings and AI-search visibility for multiple client brands from one dashboard

Who should avoid it

  • You only need content-level optimization for individual articles — Surfer SEO or Clearscope are more narrowly built for that and cost less
  • You only care about AI-answer-engine visibility, not the broader SEO toolkit — a dedicated tracker like Otterly.AI is cheaper and more focused
  • You're a solo creator or very small team — Semrush's classic SEO plans (from $139.95/month) and its separate AI-visibility-enabled plan line (from $199/month) are priced for teams with a real marketing budget
  • You want a single, stable price — Semrush has repackaged its AI features (Semrush One, AI Visibility Toolkit) more than once, and plan structures continue to shift

Key features

  • AI Visibility Toolkit: tracks brand mentions, sentiment, and daily visibility across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini for prompts relevant to the business
  • AI Search Site Audit and AI Search Health widget that flag technical issues blocking AI crawlers from indexing a site
  • ContentShake AI: a standalone AI content generator that turns keywords into a publish-ready article draft
  • SEO Writing Assistant: real-time content scoring for readability, SEO, tone, and originality
  • Semrush Copilot: a personalized assistant that surfaces priority SEO tasks and anomalies
  • Core SEO toolkit: keyword research, backlink analysis, technical site audits, and competitive analysis, unified with AI features in the Semrush One bundle

Pros

  • Combines classic SEO tooling (keyword research, backlinks, technical audits) with AI-visibility tracking in one platform, reducing the number of separate tools a team needs
  • AI Search Site Audit addresses a genuinely different problem — technical blockers to AI crawling — that content-only tools don't cover
  • Well-established platform with a long track record, compared to several newer, smaller AI-visibility startups
  • 7-day free trial available to test the platform before committing

Cons

  • Pricing has been repackaged multiple times (Semrush One, AI Visibility Toolkit as an add-on), making cost comparisons across reviews unreliable
  • AI-visibility tracking isn't available on the classic SEO Toolkit plans at all — it requires switching to the separate 'SEO & AI Search' plan line, starting at $199/month for the Starter tier
  • Broader and more complex than teams that only need content optimization or only need AI-visibility tracking — a lot of the platform may go unused
  • AI Visibility Toolkit's prompt-tracking limits (e.g., 50 prompts/day on the entry tier) can be restrictive for brands wanting broad coverage

Pricing

Paid — $139.95/month (Pro plan); AI Visibility Toolkit/Semrush One from $199/month

Confirmed on semrush.com/prices and semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search (July 2026): Semrush still sells its classic SEO Toolkit with no AI Visibility as Pro ($139.95/month), Guru ($249.95/month), and Business ($499.95/month), annual billing lowers each by roughly 16-17%. AI Visibility is bundled (not sold as a bolt-on add-on) into a separate 'SEO & AI Search' plan line, launched as Semrush One in October 2025: SEO ($139/month, no AI Visibility), Starter ($199/month, 50 tracked prompts/day and one domain for AI brand performance), Pro+ ($299/month, 100 prompts/day), and Advanced ($549/month, 200 prompts/day, includes API access) — annual billing lowers each of these by roughly 16-17% as well. A 7-day free trial is available.

Typical workflows

  • A marketing team uses the AI Visibility Toolkit to check how often their brand is mentioned in ChatGPT and Google AI Overview responses for category-relevant prompts, then uses the AI Search Site Audit to fix any crawling issues found.
  • A writer drafts an article with ContentShake AI, refines it against the SEO Writing Assistant's readability and originality scores, then checks keyword rankings in the core SEO toolkit after publishing.

Integrations

  • Google Search Console
  • Google Analytics
  • WordPress
  • Google Docs (via SEO Writing Assistant add-on)
  • Google Business Profile
  • API access (Business plan and above)

Privacy & security notes

Per Semrush's own privacy policy and AI Generative Services terms (semrush.com/company/legal), personal data is retained only as long as necessary for the service or legal obligations, then anonymized or deleted; the AI Generative Services are not intended to collect personal data, and users are asked not to input personal data into them unless permitted under applicable privacy law. Service data is stored at U.S. data centers on AWS, Google Cloud, and Digital Realty infrastructure.

Frequently asked questions

Is Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit a separate product from the rest of Semrush?

As of July 2026, Semrush runs two parallel plan lines rather than selling AI Visibility as an add-on: the classic SEO Toolkit (Pro/Guru/Business, no AI Visibility) and a separate 'SEO & AI Search' line (SEO/Starter/Pro+/Advanced) where AI Visibility is included starting at the Starter tier. You pick one line rather than stacking an add-on on top of the classic plans.

How is this different from a dedicated AI-visibility tool like Otterly.AI or Profound?

Semrush bundles AI-visibility tracking with a much broader existing SEO platform — keyword research, backlinks, technical audits — while Otterly.AI and Profound focus specifically and only on AI-answer-engine visibility. Teams that only need the narrower tracking function may find a dedicated tool cheaper and more focused.

What does the AI Search Site Audit actually check?

It scans a website for technical issues that could prevent AI crawlers from accessing and indexing content — a different check than a traditional SEO audit, which focuses on issues affecting classic search-engine crawlers and rankings.

Do I need the Business plan to get API access?

As of July 2026, API access requires Semrush's top tier on either plan line: Business ($499.95/month) on the classic SEO Toolkit, or Advanced ($549/month) on the newer SEO & AI Search line — it's not included on Pro/Guru or SEO/Starter/Pro+.

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