TEARDOWN 12 · REVIEWED 2026-08-19
AthenaHQ
AthenaHQ tracks whether and how a brand gets mentioned or cited across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, and other AI platforms, then suggests content changes to improve those citations. It also offers on-page and off-page optimization actions and a Search Console/Analytics integration to connect that visibility back to actual site traffic.
AthenaHQ queries ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and up to nine AI platforms for brand mentions — its marketing never claims a proprietary crawler, model, or dataset, and doesn't say whether each platform is reached through an official API or its own consumer interface.
What you lose building it yourself
- ✕One dashboard checking 9 AI platforms daily instead of scripting and maintaining each one
- ✕Competitor benchmarking, citation intelligence, and a content-recommendation agent
- ✕Google Search Console/Analytics integration tying AI visibility to actual site traffic
Why people still pay
A three-API script covers a slice of what AthenaHQ tracks, but keeping 9 platforms — several with no public API at all — working, scored, and turned into content recommendations on a schedule is the ongoing engineering the subscription is paying for.
THREE-PLATFORM WEEKEND BUILD
An AI coding tool can call the official developer APIs for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini directly, sending a fixed list of prompts and checking each response for a brand mention — the same category of query AthenaHQ runs, just without its dashboard, scoring, or content-recommendation layer. Google doesn't expose AI Overviews through a public API, so covering that platform means either an automated browser or a paid SERP API that captures it — both real ongoing maintenance, not a one-shot build.
StackOpenAI API, Anthropic API, and Google's Gemini API for ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini · a hosted AI model to score each response for a brand mention · a spreadsheet or small database to log results by date.
Build a script that calls the OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini APIs directly with a fixed list of 10 brand-relevant prompts, saves each model's response as text, and sends each response to a hosted AI model asking whether the brand is mentioned and to quote the sentence if so. Log the date, platform, and result to a CSV file so results can be compared over time.
Similar tools
Free alternative: geo-optimizer-skill (open-source AEO/GEO toolkit) — audits and tracks whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews cite a site, for free via command line; it doesn't include AthenaHQ's competitor benchmarking, citation engine, or content-recommendation agent.
QUESTIONS
Is the free plan enough for ongoing tracking, or just a trial?
The free Essential tier includes 300 credits and monitoring across 5 platforms (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude) — paid plans start at $295/month for 9 platforms, API access, and content-optimization tools.
Does AthenaHQ disclose how it queries ChatGPT, Gemini, and the other platforms it tracks?
No — its marketing describes what it monitors, not the underlying method (official developer APIs vs. browsing each platform's own interface), and nothing on the site claims a proprietary crawler or dataset behind any of it.
Is API access included for automating reports?
No — API access is a separate paid add-on billed on top of the Starter subscription, not included in the base price.