The short version:
- Adacity is a pay-per-report alternative to AthenaHQ: one report, from $5, no subscription and no account. The $39 full report covers ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
- AthenaHQ is the widest-coverage monitoring platform: a free tier with $25 of credits, then $295 a month for 3,600 credits across nine models. The prompts are yours to supply, and billing is per credit, so cost scales with use.
- If you check monthly or quarterly, a report fits better. If your team watches nine engines daily, AthenaHQ is built for exactly that.
New to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)? Start with what is AEO.
What is AthenaHQ?
AthenaHQ is an AI visibility monitoring subscription. The free Essential tier includes $25 of credits across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude, with competitor insights and content recommendations. Starter, at $295 a month or $245 billed annually, raises that to 3,600 credits a month across nine models, adding AI Mode, Copilot, and Grok. Enterprise adds hallucination and discrepancy detection, a citation engine, and SSO, priced through sales.
How Adacity compares to AthenaHQ
| Adacity | AthenaHQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5 to $39 per report | Free credits, then $295/mo ($245 annual) |
| Billing | Per report | Subscription, metered in credits |
| Account required | No | Yes, free tier |
| Prompts | 100+ discovered for you | Yours to supply, credit-metered |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude in the $39 report | 9 models, including Grok |
| Claude | Yes, in the $39 report | Yes, from the free tier |
| Visibility by buying stage | Yes | No |
| Competitor comparison | Yes, discovered from AI answers | Yes, ones you pick |
| Continuous monitoring | No | Yes |
| Trends over time | Snapshot only | Yes |
| Best for | Founders, small businesses | Teams wanting the widest engine coverage |
AthenaHQ pricing and features checked on August 4, 2026 against AthenaHQ's pricing page; a capability its site does not show is marked No. Check their site for the latest.
What is different about Adacity
You pay per report, not per credit
AthenaHQ meters usage in credits, so the monthly cost depends on how much you run and the free $25 runs out fast. Adacity charges a flat price per report: every run asks 100+ questions across all three engines. Run one now, run another in three months. Nothing recurring, and nothing to cancel.
We figure out the questions
AthenaHQ analyzes the prompts you bring. Adacity does the opposite. We look at your site, what communities say about you, and what authoritative sources publish in your category, then run the questions real buyers ask.
Visibility by buying stage
A blended score hides where you actually disappear. Adacity breaks visibility out across the buying journey, from discovering the category to validating a pick, so you see which stage loses you and fix that first.
When AthenaHQ is the better choice
We are honest about the fit. AthenaHQ is the stronger pick when:
- You need the widest coverage sold: nine models, including Grok and Copilot, which Adacity does not cover at any price.
- You want Claude without paying at all. The free tier includes it, and that is rare.
- Your team monitors daily and wants share-of-voice trends and dashboards rather than a periodic report.
If instead you want one clear answer about where you stand and what to fix, without a subscription, that is what Adacity is for. For the whole field, see the best AEO tools in 2026, compared. To see live rankings built from our report data, browse the free AEO industry leaderboards.
Common questions
- How much does AthenaHQ cost?
- The free Essential tier comes with $25 of credits. After that, Starter is $295 a month, or $245 a month billed annually, for 3,600 credits. Billing is per credit, so cost scales with how much you run. Enterprise is custom.
- Does AthenaHQ track Claude?
- Yes, from its free tier, which few tools do. The paid plan covers nine models, including Grok and Copilot. Adacity covers three: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude in the $39 full report.
- Is AthenaHQ's free tier enough?
- It is a real first look: $25 of credits across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude. The prompts are yours to supply, and the credits run out. It tells you where you stand on the questions you thought to ask, not the ones buyers actually ask.
- When is AthenaHQ the better choice?
- When you want the widest engine coverage available, nine models including Grok, with daily monitoring and a team dashboard. Adacity covers three engines and gives you one clear answer per report.