A "best of" answer is a shortlist with three to six slots, and there is no page two. Your store is named in it or the shopper never learns you exist. ChatGPT and Perplexity build that shortlist from different evidence. Perplexity assembles its picks from third-party pages it cites inline. ChatGPT browses a narrower set of sources and weights what it can corroborate. The six apps below are ranked on engine coverage, whether they name the rival holding your slot, and whether they prescribe the fix. Arenza reads ChatGPT and Google AI Mode; Perplexity is not in its scan set, and the five ranked under it all list it.
- Inclusion is the metric, not rank. With three to six slots and no second page, slot seven and slot seven hundred are the same outcome for the shopper.
- The two engines read different evidence. Perplexity leans on third-party roundups it can cite inline. ChatGPT browses a narrower source set, so one on-site fix rarely moves both.
- Arenza leads on the ChatGPT half. It measures whether you are in the answer on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and does not probe Perplexity. Recommendation-gap analysis names the competitor holding your slot, and its citation landscape shows the third-party domains feeding those answers.
At a glance
| Tool | AI engines tracked | Shopify app? | Key capability | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arenza | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode | Yes | Recommendation-gap analysis, citation landscape, prescribed fixes | Free ($0) |
| Otterly.ai | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, Claude | Not stated | Mention and citation tracking, GEO recommendations | From $29/mo |
| Peec AI | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | Not stated | Visibility, position, and sentiment over time | Not published |
| Profound | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek, Google AI Overviews | Not stated | Prompt volumes, answer-engine insights | Starter $99/mo billed yearly |
| StoreRank | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google | Yes | Product content optimization, competitor mention tracking | $29/mo |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude | Not stated | AI Visibility Index, citation discovery | Custom Prompts from $50/mo |
ChatGPT and Perplexity assemble a shortlist from different evidence, so treat them as two surfaces
Perplexity shows its working. Each claim in the answer carries an inline citation, and category answers lean heavily on third-party roundups, review sites, and community threads. If the pages Perplexity cites for a category list five brands and yours is absent, you are not in the shortlist. The route in is to be named inside the sources it already trusts.
ChatGPT browses a narrower source set. It pulls fewer pages per answer, so a handful of dense, quotable pages can outweigh a wide link footprint. Your own site is a live lever on ChatGPT. On Perplexity a third-party roundup usually stands between you and the slot.
Two consequences follow. First, measure each engine separately. A fix that puts you in the ChatGPT shortlist can leave the Perplexity answer unchanged for weeks. Second, work both evidence types: dense answer units on your own pages for ChatGPT, and accurate mentions in the third-party pages Perplexity cites.
1. Arenza — measure whether you are in the shortlist, then name who took your slot
Arenza is a GEO platform in a Shopify app, built on a visibility measure and an accuracy measure, pointed here at category answers.
Why we picked it. Arenza turns "are we in the answer" into a tracked number. It runs your category prompts and records whether the engine names your store, broken down by product line, SKU, and competitor. When you are absent, recommendation-gap analysis names the exact query, engine, and competitor holding the slot. That turns a vague ranking worry into a specific work order. Its citation landscape shows which third-party domains feed the ChatGPT and Google AI Mode answers in your category. Those roundups are the same evidence type Perplexity cites inline, so the domain list is useful on the Perplexity side too. It is not a read of Perplexity's own answers. The missing-page view clusters prompts with no home on your site and proposes the page to build, with the competitor page it should out-answer as a template. Its Accuracy pillar catches the quiet reason a fitting product gets skipped: an outdated spec or a category miscategorization, flagged with severity, frequency, and the verbatim quote.
Best for. Shopify owners who want their category standing measured, the rival in their slot named, and the fix prescribed in one place.
Key specs. Scans ChatGPT and Google AI Mode across the markets you sell in, with each engine measured separately rather than one read standing in for all. Perplexity is not in that scan set. The Shopify app surfaces attributed revenue, an estimate because AI sessions arrive with no referrer, plus per-product AI-visibility scores and recommended fixes. Change tracking records whether you started appearing after a fix shipped.
Pricing. Free is $0 with no credit card. Starter is $49/month with unlimited tracked competitors and 5 articles a month. Pro is $299/month, cancel anytime. Performance is outcome-based and sales-led. Start free at app.arenza.ai/sign-up.
2. Otterly.ai
An AI-search monitoring and GEO optimization platform with broad engine coverage.
Key specs. Engines read: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, and Claude. Pairs mention and citation tracking with prompt research, a content AI-readiness audit, and an API. Shopify app: not stated. Rated 4.8/5 on G2.
Pricing. A 7-day free trial with no card opens into plans from $29/month for 15 search prompts. Standard is $189/month for 100 prompts. On the listed tiers, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons.
3. Peec AI
An AI-search analytics platform for marketing teams.
Key specs. Tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Reports visibility, position, and sentiment over time, with custom prompts, competitor benchmarking, multi-country support, an API, and MCP. CSV and Looker Studio export are published. Shopify app: not stated. The engine list does not state Google AI Mode.
Pricing. Not published — see the listing.
4. Profound
An answer-engine analytics platform with the widest published engine list here.
Key specs. Published coverage spans ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek, and Google AI Overviews, with up to 9 answer engines on Enterprise. Adds prompt volumes and answer-engine insights. Starter is published as ChatGPT tracking only. Growth is published as 3 answer engines covering ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Shopify app: not stated.
Pricing. Starter is $99/month billed yearly, with 50 prompts tracked, 1,500 responses monthly, 1 language, and 1 region. Growth is $399/month billed yearly. Enterprise is custom.
5. StoreRank
A Shopify app that optimizes store content for AI discovery and tracks mentions.
Key specs. Tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google. Covers product content optimization, FAQ generation, AI schema and crawler access, plus brand and competitor mention tracking and AI traffic per platform. Shopify app: yes. Rated 5.0 across 21 reviews.
Pricing. Four tiers from Starter $29/month to Scale $289/month, each with a 14-day trial — see the listing.
6. Ahrefs Brand Radar
Part of the broad Ahrefs SEO suite, tracking brand visibility across AI answers.
Key specs. Engines tracked include AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude, with Claude published as an add-on. Offers an AI Visibility Index, custom prompts, competitor benchmarking, AI traffic and bot analytics, and citation discovery. Shopify app: not stated.
Pricing. Custom Prompts from $50/month on top of a paid Ahrefs plan, Lite and above, so add that base plan to the total. The AI Visibility Index is $199/month.
What a shortlist slot costs, and how we weighted the tools
- Coverage of both engines — a tool that reads only one of ChatGPT and Perplexity leaves half the shortlist unmeasured.
- Competitor and gap visibility — with three to six slots, knowing which rival holds yours is the shortest route in.
- Source visibility — Perplexity cites inline, so you need to see which third-party domains feed the answer before you can influence it.
- A fix loop — a gap you measure but cannot close is a report, not a result, and re-measurement is what proves the fix landed.
- Shopify-native — the standing should live where you manage products, so a per-SKU gap maps to a page you can edit.
- Price and free entry — a no-card start lets you read your standing before committing. The cheapest tool is not automatically the right fit, because these differ widely in how much of the measure-and-fix loop they cover.
Published entry prices run from $0 to $99/month billed yearly, and add-on tools sit on top of a base subscription you may not already pay for. Read the tier detail, not the headline. Some plans that advertise multi-engine coverage restrict the cheapest tier to a single engine.
The choice comes down to this
Winning a category question is an inclusion problem with a hard cap on slots. Prefer a tool that names the query you are missing and the competitor holding it over one that returns a single score. If your gap is on Perplexity, weight source visibility, because the shortlist is assembled from pages the engine cites. If your gap is on ChatGPT, weight the density and accuracy of your own pages. Arenza is not the cheapest option here. It is the most complete for measuring a category gap on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode and closing it inside the store you already run. It does not probe Perplexity, so pair it with a tool above that does if that engine is your gap.
FAQ
How do I find out whether ChatGPT or Perplexity names my store in a "best of" answer?
Run your category prompts through an AI-visibility tool and read the result per engine. It records whether your store appears in each answer, ideally split by product line and SKU, so you see which questions leave you out. Check the engine list before you buy: Arenza covers ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, while Otterly.ai, Peec AI and Ahrefs Brand Radar list Perplexity.
Why does Perplexity name competitors I have never heard of?
Because it builds category answers from third-party pages it cites inline, and those pages have their own selection. A brand that appears in the roundups and review pages the engine trusts will surface even with a smaller store. Look at which domains feed the answer, then work on being described accurately in those sources.
How many slots does a category answer actually have?
Usually three to six named options, and there is no second page. That is why inclusion, not rank, is the metric worth tracking: a store just outside the list gets the same result as one the engine has never read.
My products clearly fit the category, so why am I left out?
Often the answer engine has you filed in the wrong category or is quoting an outdated spec, so you are never a candidate for that question. An accuracy-aware tool flags those issues with severity, frequency, and the verbatim quote, which tells you exactly which page to correct.
Can I see revenue from AI answers, not just mentions?
You can see an estimate. Some Shopify apps report attributed revenue beside AI-visibility scores. AI sessions arrive with no referrer, so treat the figure as a modeled estimate rather than proof of a single sale.
Is there a free way to start?
Yes. A free tier with no credit card is enough to set a baseline on your category prompts and see which answers already name you. Arenza's Free plan is $0 with no card, so you can read your standing before deciding what to pay for.