How to Check If AI Search Engines Cite Your Brand (Free Open-Source Tool)

Zl Mo — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:17:46 +0000

If you ask Perplexity or Google AI Overview to recommend a tool in your category, does your brand show up? For most businesses, the answer is: they have no idea.

Traditional SEO tells you where you rank on Google. But in 2026, more users are getting answers directly from AI — and those answers don't follow the same rules as search rankings.

This is where GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) comes in.

What Is GEO and Why Should You Care?

GEO is the practice of optimizing your content so that AI-powered search engines cite and recommend your brand. Unlike traditional SEO where you optimize for keyword rankings, GEO focuses on being included in AI-generated answers.

The shift is real:

Perplexity processes millions of queries daily, pulling answers from the web in real time
Google AI Overview now appears on ~40% of search queries, often above traditional results
ChatGPT with browsing is becoming a primary research tool for many users

If your brand isn't being cited in these AI responses, you're invisible to a growing segment of your audience.

The Problem: No Way to Measure AI Visibility

For traditional SEO, you have dozens of tools: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz. But for GEO? Your options are:

Tool	Type	Price	Open Source
Otterly.AI	SaaS	$39+/mo	❌
GEOReport.ai	SaaS	$29+/mo	❌
ZipTie.dev	SaaS	$19+/mo	❌
geo-eval	CLI	Free	✅

Every existing solution is a paid SaaS platform. If you're a developer, indie maker, or startup that just wants to quickly check "does Perplexity mention my product?" — you shouldn't need a $40/month subscription.

Introducing geo-eval: Free, Open-Source GEO Auditing

geo-eval is a CLI tool that checks if AI search engines cite your brand when users ask relevant queries.

Installation

pip install geo-eval
playwright install chromium

Basic Usage

# Check if "YourBrand" is mentioned when users ask about your category
geo-eval check "YourBrand" --query "best tools for X"

Output:

┌──────────────┬────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ Engine       │ Cited? │ Sources          │ Context               │
├──────────────┼────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ Perplexity   │ ✅ Yes │ github.com/...   │ "...recommended..."   │
│ Google AI    │ ❌ No  │ -                │ -                     │
├──────────────┼────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ Score: 1/2 engines cite your brand                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Compare Against Competitors

geo-eval compare "MyTool" "Competitor1" "Competitor2" --query "best API testing tools"

JSON Output for CI/CD

geo-eval check "MyBrand" --query "best developer tools" --format json

This means you can add GEO monitoring to your CI pipeline — get alerted if your brand drops out of AI recommendations after a content change.

How AI Search Engines Decide What to Cite

Understanding the mechanics helps you optimize. AI search engines use a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architecture:

Retrieve: The AI searches the web for relevant content
Rank: Content is scored for relevance, authority, and freshness
Generate: The AI synthesizes an answer, citing the top sources

What gets cited? Based on testing with geo-eval across hundreds of queries:

Content Type	Citation Rate	Why
Structured data (tables, specs)	High	Easy for AI to extract and verify
Comparison articles	High	Directly answers "which is best" queries
Forum discussions (Reddit)	High	Perplexity heavily indexes Reddit
Long-form marketing copy	Low	Hard to extract specific facts from
Paywalled content	Low	AI can't access it

Key insight: A simple comparison table on Reddit can outperform a 5,000-word blog post from a major publication. AI cares about structured, factual, extractable information — not prose quality.

5 Practical GEO Tips

1. Target "Content Vacuum" Queries

Find queries where AI gives poor answers — that's your opportunity. If you search "best [your niche] tools 2026" and the AI response is vague or incomplete, you can fill that gap.

2. Publish on Platforms AI Engines Index

Not all platforms are equal:

Platform	Perplexity	Google AI	Effort
Reddit	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐	Low
GitHub	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	Medium
dev.to / Medium	⭐⭐	⭐⭐	Medium
Your own blog	⭐	⭐⭐	High
Product Hunt	⭐⭐	⭐⭐	Low

3. Write Structured Content, Not Marketing Copy

❌ "Our revolutionary AI-powered platform transforms the way you..."
✅ "geo-eval is a CLI tool that checks brand visibility across 
    Perplexity and Google AI Overview. Install: pip install geo-eval"

4. Create Multi-Source Consistency

When multiple independent sources mention your brand with consistent information, AI engines treat it as more trustworthy. One Reddit post + one blog article + one GitHub repo is more powerful than three blog posts on your own site.

5. Monitor and Iterate

Use geo-eval to track changes over time:

# Weekly check
geo-eval check "MyBrand" --query "best tools for X" --format json >> tracking.jsonl

FAQ

What is the best free GEO audit tool?

geo-eval is currently the only open-source, free GEO audit tool available. It supports Perplexity and Google AI Overview out of the box, with no API keys required for basic usage.

How do I check if Perplexity mentions my brand?

Install geo-eval (pip install geo-eval && playwright install chromium), then run geo-eval check "YourBrand" --query "relevant search query". It will show whether Perplexity cites your brand and which sources it references.

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO optimizes for search engine rankings (position on Google). GEO optimizes for inclusion in AI-generated answers (Perplexity, Google AI Overview, ChatGPT). A brand can rank #1 on Google but never be mentioned by AI search engines, and vice versa.

Can I use geo-eval in CI/CD pipelines?

Yes. Use --format json to get machine-readable output that can be parsed in your pipeline scripts.

geo-eval is open source and available on GitHub. Contributions welcome — especially for additional AI engine adapters (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).

DEV Community: Zl Mo