See the full context when AI names your competitors, and when it leaves you out.
Proofsource shows every answer where a competitor is named and you are not, in full: the text, who was named in what position, the pages the answer cited and whether they mention you, and the searches behind it. It asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
AI monitoring tools that show me the full context of when competitors get mentioned versus when I don't
Proofsource is built for exactly this. A mention rate tells you that a competitor beat you; the context tells you how. For every buyer question you track, on 4 engines, it records which of your tracked competitors each answer named and where, keeps the answer as written, and keeps every page the answer cited. You can then read the answers where you lost beside the ones where you won.
The context comes in four layers:
- Who was named instead. The first-scan grid marks every question on every engine as named (with your position), cited only, or not named, with the brands named instead.
- Where they were named. A question's panel shows a rank list of the companies named for it, and can draw each competitor's mention rate line beside yours.
- What the answer said. Each answer opens whole: the text with names highlighted, the tracked companies it named, and the searches the engine reported running before it answered.
- What the answer leaned on. Every cited page, sorted into your site, a competitor's site, lists, reviews and forums, with a check of whether each page mentions you.
How does Proofsource show when competitors are named and you are not?
- Why you lost lists the answers you lost. Under Actions, every question whose current answer names competitors and not you, grouped by topic, biggest loss first. Each row shows who won, what the answers cited and one next step.
- Open a lost question. Its panel lists who won, with the position each was named in and on which engines, and which engines did name you. Then, per engine, the competitors named instead of you, the sources the answer cited (marked as yours, a competitor's, a list, a review or a forum, and whether each mentions you) and the searches behind it, with which of them named a competitor.
- Open the full answer. One click from any engine's row opens the answer itself, as the engine wrote it, with every page it cited.
- Watch it over time. The Visibility view can draw each competitor's daily line beside yours, and its leaderboard matrix shows every topic's and question's visibility per company. Competitor changes reads your competitors' key pages (home, pricing, features, comparison, alternatives, changelog) daily and keeps the changes a marketer would act on.
How share of voice against competitors is computed is on AI share of voice, and benchmarking against named competitors on its own page.
What does each engine show?
The same question can go to a competitor on one engine and to you on another, so each engine is read apart. In the public Tesla example, the head-to-head question “SunPower vs Enphase Energy for home battery storage: which is better?” went the same way everywhere: None of the four engines named Tesla. All four answered about Enphase and SunPower.
| Engine | What each answer opens to | In the public Tesla example |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The answer text, the tracked brands it named with their positions, the pages cited, and the web searches it reported running. | Named Tesla in 16 of 25 buyer answers. It named Tesla first for whole-house backup batteries. |
| Google AI Overviews | The same record, plus the related questions and related searches Google showed after the answer, kept apart as follow-ups, never counted as searches. | Named Tesla in 16 of 25 buyer answers. Across the 25 questions it cited youtube.com 20 times, reddit.com 15 times and tesla.com once, and it left Tesla out of the whole-house backup answer. |
| Claude | The answer text, the tracked brands it named with their positions, the pages cited, and the searches it reported running. | Named Tesla in 11 of 25 buyer answers. On solar panel installation it named Tesla in 0 of 5 answers, where Google AI Overviews named it in 4 of 5. |
| Perplexity | The same record, plus the related questions Perplexity showed after the answer, kept apart as follow-ups. | Named Tesla in 10 of 25 buyer answers, the fewest of the four. |
Three ways to read a competitor win
Named, and you were not
The engine knows you and chose them. Compare what each answer says about them with what your pages say about you.
Cited, and you were not
The engine read a list or review that names them and leaves you out. That page is the fix.
Your page cited, their name used
The engine read your site and still named someone else. The page does not answer the question plainly enough.
How do other AI visibility tools handle competitor context?
Most tools in the category track competitors beside your brand. Here is each one's own description of itself, read from its pricing page. Whether each shows, per answer, the full text, the cited pages and the searches behind a competitor win is not published on the pages we read; ask on a demo.
| Tool | What it says it does | Fixes or actions it publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Proofsource | AI intelligence platform that shows which buyer questions name your brand, who gets named instead, and drafts the fix for each gap. | Each gap names the pages the engine cited instead and comes with a draft held for your approval |
| Peec AIsource | AI search analytics for marketing teams and agencies: visibility, position, sentiment and sources. | Gap analysis, ranked recommended actions and agent actions |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkitsource | AI visibility add-on to the Semrush SEO suite: brand performance, prompt tracking and an AI search site audit. | AI-generated strategic recommendations |
| Otterly.AIsource | Self-serve AI search monitoring for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with GEO audits. | Recommendations (3 a week on Lite) and GEO audits (1,000 a month on Lite) |
| Ahrefs Brand Radarsource | AI mention tracking inside Ahrefs, built on a database of hundreds of millions of prompts plus your own. | Finds the pages AI cites and mention opportunities |
| Scrunchsource | AI search monitoring plus an Agent Experience Platform that serves AI agents an optimised version of your site. | Insights and recommendations, 1 page optimisation a month on Core, content generation |
- Peec AI pricing peec.ai/pricing
- Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit
- Otterly.AI pricing otterly.ai/pricing
- Ahrefs pricing ahrefs.com/pricing
- Ahrefs Brand Radar ahrefs.com/brand-radar
- Scrunch pricing scrunch.com/pricing
Sources read on . Some rows re-read on 5 Oct 2026
What does Proofsource do here, and what does it leave to you?
You choose the competitors that count for each brand; Proofsource proposes a set from your site and category at setup, and you can add more in settings. It then records every answer against that set, with a 95% interval on every rate, so one lucky answer does not read as a trend. Reading the answers behind any number is covered on seeing the AI answers and citations behind your visibility, and tracing a loss to its cause on why AI does not recommend your product.
What buyers ask about competitor mentions in AI answers
AI monitoring tools that show me the full context of when competitors get mentioned versus when I don't
Proofsource records which of your tracked competitors every answer names, and in what position, on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. For any question you can open the answers where a competitor was named and you were not, read the full text, see the pages each answer cited and which of them mention you, and see the searches the engine ran before it answered.
How do I see which competitors are named instead of me?
The first-scan grid marks each question and engine as named, cited only, or not named with the brands named instead. Why you lost lists every question whose current answer names competitors and not you, with who won, in what position and on which engines.
Can I compare my mention rate with a competitor's over time?
Yes. The Visibility view can draw each competitor's daily line beside yours, and a question's own panel can include competitors on its mention rate line and rank list. Both are counted from the same answers.
Does it tell me which sources favour a competitor?
Yes. Every cited page is sorted by type (your site, a competitor's site, a list, a review site, a forum), and Proofsource checks whether each page mentions you, so you can see the pages that name a competitor and leave you out.
Which competitors does Proofsource track?
The ones you set for each brand, which it proposes from your site and category at setup. Every answer is also kept as full text, so a brand you did not list is still in front of you when you read it, and you can add it as a competitor in settings.
Is there a free way to see this for my brand?
Yes. The free trial is 2 days of full AI visibility, today and tomorrow: 25 questions on 4 engines, no card, and its report shows who was named instead of you on every question.
Related
See who AI names instead of you.
See which buyer questions name your brand, who gets named instead, and what to fix. 200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free. No card.
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