AthenaHQ review
AI search visibility platform with a content-optimization agent, a free test tier, and a $295/mo paid starting price metered in credits
Unpaid review. We currently earn nothing if you sign up for AthenaHQ — links here go straight to the vendor. We review it anyway because it's the honest answer, and scores never depend on commissions — how we test.
ToolsGavel verdict
AthenaHQ is the tool in this group for acting on the data, with a content agent, on-page and off-page actions and llms.txt tooling, plus a free tier for testing. The catch is the $295 a month floor, a price jump of about $200 over Peec AI that buys credits you still have to budget. It scores 3.6 because that price and the unpublished annual and add-on costs outweigh a strong G2 showing, and because we found no independent review corpus beyond G2, no Trustpilot reviews and no Capterra listing we could confirm.
Best for: Brands that want recommendations and content actions on top of tracking, and can spend $295 a month to get them
What we liked
- The most action-oriented tool of the four: Starter includes a content optimization agent, on-page and off-page actions, brand voice and llms.txt tools, not just dashboards (athenahq.ai)
- A free Essential plan lets you test 5 engines with 300 credits before paying anything, though reviewers say the credit is one-time (athenahq.ai/pricing)
- Starter covers 11 engines including Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and AI Mode, with unlimited seats, prompts, topics and competitors (athenahq.ai/pricing)
- G2 shows about 4.9 on roughly 31 reviews, with praise for client-friendly reporting (G2)
- CSV export plus GA4, Search Console, Shopify and Webflow integrations on Starter, and SOC 2 Type 2 stated by the vendor (athenahq.ai)
What to watch
- The paid entry price is $295 a month, about 3x Peec AI's $95 and 10x Otterly.AI's $29 (athenahq.ai/pricing)
- No annual price is shown beyond a 17% off toggle, and API access and extra credits carry unpublished prices (athenahq.ai/pricing)
- API access costs extra and BI and Looker dashboards are Enterprise only, while Otterly.AI includes an API from its $189 Standard plan and Peec AI from its $495 Advanced plan (athenahq.ai/pricing)
- Credits meter every AI response (1 credit = 1 response), so you must do budget math to know how many prompts 3,600 credits really covers; G2 reviewers also mention some features need more setup (athenahq.ai/pricing, G2)
How much does AthenaHQ really cost?
| Starting price | $295/mo |
|---|---|
| Permanent free tier | Yes |
| Price last verified | November 10, 2026, against the live pricing page at athenahq.ai |
Price watch
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AthenaHQ is an AI search visibility platform that goes beyond tracking. It measures where your brand shows up in AI answers, then pairs that data with a content optimization agent and recommended on-page and off-page actions. The pricing has three levels: a free Essential plan, a $295 a month Starter plan, and custom Enterprise. The company is based in San Francisco and Y Combinator-backed. This review draws on the vendor’s homepage and pricing page and on public review sites, checked on 2026-11-10. We haven’t run the product ourselves.
What AthenaHQ is for
Tracking is the baseline; the pitch is what you do next. Starter includes on-page and off-page actions, a content optimization agent, brand voice settings, citation intelligence, smart robots.txt and llms.txt, and real-time sentiment. It also connects to GA4, Search Console, Shopify and Webflow, and exports CSV.
Seats, topics, prompts and competitors are unlimited on Starter, with country-level support. The limit is credits: 3,600 a month, one per AI response, with one month of rollover. Starter does not include persona targeting, the Recommendation Engine, Athena Citation Engine, SSO, audit logs or an SLA. Those belong to Enterprise, along with BI dashboards for Tableau, Power BI and Looker.
SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliance are vendor claims on the homepage.
What you get on each plan
| Plan | Monthly | Credits | Engines | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $0 | 300 (reviewers say one-time) | 5 | Test tier: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot |
| Starter | $295 | 3,600/mo, 1-month rollover | 11 | Content agent, on/off-page actions, llms.txt, CSV, GA4, GSC, Shopify, Webflow |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | All, plus more | SSO, audit logs, BI dashboards, Recommendation Engine, 2-hour SLA |
Starter’s 11 engines are ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with more on request.
Where the bill grows
The first number to weigh is $295. That is about three times Peec AI’s $95 Starter and ten times Otterly.AI’s $29 Lite, so AthenaHQ is the tool where the entry price alone rules out some buyers. Annual billing shows a 17% off toggle with no amount. By our arithmetic that lands near $245 a month, but we couldn’t verify it.
Two costs sit on top of Starter, and neither has a price on the page: API access and extra credits. Third-party sources quote about $0.08 per credit or $100 per 1,250 credits; they conflict, so treat both as unconfirmed. Because a credit is one response, budgeting is simple arithmetic but easy to underestimate. Tracking 100 prompts across 11 engines once a day would use 1,100 credits a day, far above 3,600 a month, so frequency and engine choice decide whether Starter is enough.
What users say in reviews
G2 shows about 4.9 from roughly 31 to 32 reviews, a secondhand figure. Praise centers on client-friendly reporting. 
Trustpilot has 0 reviews, and we couldn’t confirm a 
Capterra listing. We found no independent corpus like OMR for this tool, and no one- or two-star reviews anywhere.
Complaints are sparse: G2 users say some features need more setup and wish for more visibility into prompt volume data. Competitor blogs, low in credibility, question whether $295 is good value for small teams.
Who should skip it
Skip AthenaHQ if you only need to monitor mentions, since Otterly.AI and Rankscale track for far less. Skip it if you need published annual and add-on prices before you commit, or if you want BI dashboards without going to Enterprise. Teams that want unlimited seats and a polished client interface with a lower floor should look at Peec AI. All four tools sit side by side in Best AI Search Visibility (GEO) Tools.
Pricing note: AthenaHQ has a free Essential plan, a $295/mo Starter plan and a custom Enterprise plan. Essential is $0 with 300 credits (a $25 free credit that reviewers say is one-time) and 5 engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. Starter is $295/mo for 3,600 credits a month with 1 month of rollover and 11 engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with more on request. One credit equals one AI response. Starter includes unlimited seats, topics, prompts and competitors, country-level support, CSV export, GA4, Search Console, Shopify and Webflow integrations, on-page and off-page actions, a content optimization agent, brand voice, citation intelligence, smart robots.txt and llms.txt, and real-time sentiment. A toggle shows 17% off for annual billing without an amount (about $245 a month by our arithmetic, unverified). API access and extra credits are billed on top of Starter at unpublished prices. Enterprise adds SSO, audit logs, multi-region support, BI dashboards (Tableau, Power BI, Looker), a Recommendation Engine and a 2-hour SLA. We found no time-limited paid-plan trial, and the vendor doesn't state whether a card is needed.
Frequently asked questions
How much does AthenaHQ cost?
Essential is free with 300 credits and 5 engines. Starter is $295/mo for 3,600 credits a month and 11 engines. Enterprise is custom. A 17% annual discount appears as a toggle with no amount, which works out near $245 a month by our arithmetic, and we couldn't verify it. API access and extra credits are add-ons with unpublished prices.
Does AthenaHQ have a free plan?
Yes. The Essential plan costs $0 and comes with 300 credits, a $25 free credit that reviewers describe as one-time, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. We found no time-limited trial of a paid plan, and the vendor doesn't state whether a card is needed. Use the free plan to check whether its results fit your prompts before committing $295.
What is a credit on AthenaHQ?
One credit equals one AI response. Starter's 3,600 credits therefore buy 3,600 responses a month. If one prompt runs on all 11 Starter engines it uses 11 credits, which puts Starter near 327 full prompt runs a month by our arithmetic. Unused credits roll over for one month. Overage prices aren't published; third-party figures conflict, so ask before you exceed the allowance.
What does AthenaHQ do that Otterly.AI and Peec AI don't?
Its Starter plan bundles a content optimization agent, on-page and off-page actions, brand voice and smart robots.txt and llms.txt tooling. Otterly.AI gives recommendations (3 a week on Lite, unlimited from Standard) and URL audits, and Peec AI offers recommended actions and an agent, but neither lists a content optimization agent on its pricing page the way AthenaHQ does. If you'd rather outsource the work entirely, see Ranked AI.
Is AthenaHQ worth $295 a month?
It depends on whether you'll use the action tools. If you only need tracking, Otterly.AI at $29 or Rankscale Pro at $99 cover monitoring for less. Reviewers on competitor blogs question the value for small teams. G2 reviewers rate it about 4.9 on roughly 31 reviews, so the people using it tend to be happy. Our best AI search visibility tools guide compares all four.
Bottom line
AthenaHQ is the tool in this group for acting on the data, with a content agent, on-page and off-page actions and llms.txt tooling, plus a free tier for testing. The catch is the $295 a month floor, a price jump of about $200 over Peec AI that buys credits you still have to budget. It scores 3.6 because that price and the unpublished annual and add-on costs outweigh a strong G2 showing, and because we found no independent review corpus beyond G2, no Trustpilot reviews and no Capterra listing we could confirm.
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AI search visibility tracker priced by prompt count, from $29/mo, with Gemini, AI Mode and Claude sold as add-ons