Elmo

Verified owner

Summary

Elmo is an open-source answer-engine-optimization platform that tracks how AI answer engines mention, rank and cite a brand. It runs as a self-hosted Docker stack or as Elmo Cloud managed hosting, and also sells a managed off-site placement service.

Not for: Non-technical teams that want a turnkey dashboard without setup. Self-hosting requires Docker Compose and CLI comfort. Elmo Cloud Starter is ChatGPT only, so tracking more engines means paying for Basic or higher.

AI engines it tracks: The AI engines Elmo tracks
ChatGPT: on every plan
Gemini: on some plans only
Perplexity: on some plans only
AI Overviews: on some plans only
Claude: on some plans only
AI Mode: on some plans only
Copilot: on some plans only
Grok: on some plans only
DeepSeek: on some plans only
Meta AI: not tracked
1 on every plan, 8 more on some plans only.
From: Freethen $29 monthly · $24.17 billed annually, 17% less
Open source: YesMIT
API: Yes
Category: AI visibility monitoring
Best for: Technical marketing and SEO leads who want auditable AI visibility data, plus developers and GEO agencies willing to run Docker Compose or pay for managed cloud from $29/mo.

Captured 8 September 2026 · citedindex.com

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What it does

Monitors AI answers: YesCore purpose: it queries answer engines on your prompts and reports visibility, share of voice, sentiment and position for your brand against competitors.Elmo is the open-source AI visibility platform for AEO and GEO. See how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and every other AI model talk about your brand,…elmohq.com
Optimises your content: YesThe Opportunities page turns tracking data into ranked actions, explicitly including existing pages to refresh as well as new content to create.Was Partly before our last check.Get AI-generated recommendations ranked by impact: content to create, pages to refresh, third-party sources to pitch.elmohq.com/features
Generates content: PartlyThe tracking product itself does not write content; drafting is part of the separate managed Off-Site AEO subscription, where articles are drafted with AI then rewritten by hand.After we come up with a plan, we create drafts of the guest posts using the best AI models. Then, we humanize the articles so they land under a 25%…elmohq.com/off-site-aeo
Publishes to your site: PartlyPublishing happens only through the managed Off-Site AEO service, which places guest articles on third-party sites; nothing on the site describes pushing content into your own CMS.We publish humanized guest articles (listicles, guides, and comparisons) on high-authority sites that AI answer engines read and cite.elmohq.com/off-site-aeo
Technical AEO: NoChecking whether AI crawlers can reach your pages is listed as an upcoming feature on the public roadmap, so no technical AEO auditing ships today.Site audits Check whether AI crawlers can reach your site and whether your pages give engines something to cite.elmohq.com/roadmap
Done-for-you service: YesBeside the software, Elmo runs a managed monthly service where its own team plans, writes, humanizes, places and reports on guest placements for you.Every plan is a managed monthly subscription: planning, writing, humanization, placement, and reporting included.elmohq.com/off-site-aeo

Answer engines

ChatGPT: YesChatGPT is the one engine included on every cloud plan, scraped from the live consumer surface rather than only through a model API.ChatGPT onlyelmohq.com/pricing
Perplexity: PartlyPerplexity is one of the scraped platforms, but the entry Starter plan is ChatGPT only, so it needs Basic or above and counts against the four-platform choice.Choose any 4 platformselmohq.com/pricing
Gemini: PartlyGemini appears in the scraped engine list from the Basic plan upward; Starter buyers get ChatGPT only, and Gemini must be one of the four chosen platforms.elmohq.com/pricing
Google AI Overviews: PartlyGoogle AI Overview is a scraped surface from Basic upward and has to be one of the four platforms a plan selects; the Starter plan cannot track it.elmohq.com/pricing
Google AI Mode: PartlyGoogle AI Mode is one of the two surfaces Elmo treats as most important, but it is only reachable from the Basic plan and within the four-platform allowance.elmohq.com/pricing
Claude: PartlyClaude is tracked through the Anthropic model API from the Basic plan; the grounded Claude web surface is restricted to the Pro plan's premium models.Premium LLM APIs1×/dayelmohq.com/pricing
Microsoft Copilot: PartlyCopilot is a scraped platform offered from Basic upward and competes for one of the four platform slots a plan may select.elmohq.com/pricing
Grok: PartlyGrok appears only in the Pro and Business premium grounded models, sampled once a day, and self-hosters can reach it through an OpenRouter target.Grounded and cited. 20 prompt/model pairings included, each answered daily. $5/mo for each extra pairing.elmohq.com/pricing
DeepSeek: PartlyDeepSeek is tracked via the LLM API block from the Basic plan onward rather than its consumer app, and the Starter plan excludes it entirely.LLM APIs4×/dayelmohq.com/pricing
Meta AI: NoMeta AI is absent from the documented list of trackable surfaces.model — the AI surface being tracked (chatgpt, claude, google-ai-mode, google-ai-overview, gemini, perplexity, copilot, grok, kimi).elmohq.com/docs/user-guide/providers
Coverage in the vendor’s words: YesThe vendor states it both scrapes consumer AI surfaces and calls model APIs, with the engine count gated by plan: ChatGPT only on Starter, any four platforms above it.Elmo both scrapes what real users see in popular AI search tools and captures all other models with direct API calls and OpenRouter.elmohq.com
Reads answers as a user sees them: YesElmo scrapes the live consumer products for the main surfaces and falls back to model APIs for the rest, and its docs argue scraping is closer to what customers see.You can approximate their responses by calling the underlying model APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter) with web search enabled, but that's…elmohq.com/docs/user-guide/providers

What it reports

Names the cited sources: YesA dedicated Citations view reports the domains and URLs engines cite, tracks new and dropped sources over time and splits them by category.See which domains and URLs AI models cite most, track new and dropped sources over time, and break down citations by category — brand, competitor,…elmohq.com/features
Competitor tracking: YesCompetitors are first-class: you add them in settings and they appear beside your brand in visibility, share of voice and sentiment views.Compare your brand's mention share against every competitor. A live leaderboard ranks who AI engines name most, and where you're missing.elmohq.com/features
Brand sentiment: YesEvery answer naming the brand is scored 0-100 for praise or criticism, per model and against competitors, with the underlying passages shown.Was No before our last check.Every answer that names you is read for praise or criticism and scored 0 to 100, beside each competitor and per model. See the exact passages behind…elmohq.com/features
Recommendations: YesBeyond reporting, the Opportunities page ranks concrete next actions by impact, covering pages to write, pages to refresh and sources to pitch.elmohq.com/features
AI crawler analytics: NoVisibility into AI crawler access is explicitly an upcoming roadmap item rather than a shipped feature, so there is no bot-crawl reporting today.elmohq.com/roadmap
Suggests prompts to track: YesA Prompt Wizard analyses your site and proposes prompts from keywords, competitors and personas, and Suggest Prompts adds untracked ones later; no search-volume figures are mentioned.Combining keywords, competitors, and personas, Elmo generates a set of tracking prompts. Each prompt is a question that will be asked to AI models.elmohq.com/docs/user-guide/prompt-wizard
Ads in AI answers: NoMonitoring sponsored placements inside ChatGPT is listed as a planned feature awaiting the rollout of AI search ads, so ad tracking is not available yet.ChatGPT ads tracking Monitor brand visibility in ChatGPT's sponsored placements as ads roll out across AI search.elmohq.com/roadmap
Wrong answers about you: NoResponses are inspectable per prompt, but no accuracy or false-claim flagging is offered.Drill into any prompt to see exactly what each AI model said, which brands were mentioned, what sources were cited, and how the response was…elmohq.com/features

Plans and signing up

A month at 100 prompts: Partly$299 a month on Pro for 100 tracked prompts. Prompts as the vendor counts them. Which AI engines check each one, and how often, depends on the plan. Starter, Basic might cost less, but no overage price is published, so it could not be priced past its allowance.Pro $299/ mo $2990/yrelmohq.com/pricing
Prompt or credit allowance: YesCloud plans publish a tracked-prompt allowance of 50 on Starter and Basic, 150 on Pro and 350 on Business, while self-hosting is stated as unlimited prompts.The same product on your own servers. Unlimited prompts, every model, full source.elmohq.com/pricing
Projects or brands: YesBrand count is a plan dimension: one brand on Starter and Basic, two on Pro, five on Business, with more available only on a custom contract.Was Partly before our last check.More brands, custom prompt limits, higher sampling rates, and any models.elmohq.com/pricing
Countries: NoTracking prompts by market and language is still an upcoming roadmap item, and the DataForSEO integration states country localisation is deliberately not exposed yet.Country localization is intentionally not exposed in SCRAPE_TARGETS yet because support differs by DataForSEO surface and underlying model.elmohq.com/docs/user-guide/providers
How often it checks: YesCadence is published per plan: once a day on Starter, up to four times a day on Basic, Pro and Business, once a day for premium grounded models.On Elmo Cloud, the Starter plan runs each prompt once a day, and the Basic, Pro, and Business plans run each prompt up to 4 times a day on every…elmohq.com/pricing
Card required to start: NoThe free route is self-hosting the open-source release, which the FAQ says needs neither an account nor a card; paid cloud plans are bought directly.No. Self-hosting Elmo does not require an account or a credit card. Clone the open-source repository, deploy with the CLI, and start tracking your AI…elmohq.com/pricing
Self-serve signup: YesCloud sign-up needs no demo or sales call; only custom contracts, higher sampling rates and white-label deployments go through a conversation.No. Elmo Cloud is fully self-serve: you sign up, pick a plan, and start tracking without a demo or sales call.elmohq.com/pricing

Access and integrations

API: YesA documented REST API with TypeScript and Python SDKs is included on every cloud plan and in self-hosted instances, with read-only or read-write keys scoped per brand.Yes. Elmo has a REST API for brands, prompts, competitors, analytics, sentiment, citations, runs, opportunities, and reports, with TypeScript and…elmohq.com/pricing
MCP server: YesAn MCP endpoint at /api/mcp is served by cloud and every self-hosted instance, with read tools for analytics and citations and write tools for prompts.Elmo serves a Model Context Protocol endpoint at /api/mcp, so an AI client can read your visibility data and manage prompts without you copying…elmohq.com/docs/api/mcp

For a larger team

Single sign-on: PartlySSO is named only as part of the quote-only white-label deployment for agencies; the self-serve cloud plans advertise unlimited seats but no company login.Offer AI visibility tracking to your clients under your own brand, domain, and SSO.elmohq.com/pricing

What we checked

Pages last read: 25 October 2026
Price on its site: Free planFrom its pricing page
AI answers: Named in 23 of 242Our October check

3 facts changed How we check Editorial policy

Changed since our last check

Optimises your content: now Yes. It was Partly when we checked on 11 September 2026.
Brand sentiment: now Yes. It was No when we checked on 11 September 2026.
Projects or brands: now Yes. It was Partly when we checked on 11 September 2026.

Plans and pricing

Price and terms

Free plan: YesYes
The terms in full
Self-hosting the open-source release is free forever with unlimited prompts and every model, but you pay your own infrastructure, scraping-provider and AI API costs, including a required TypeSafe key for mention judging. No account or credit card needed.
Card to start: YesNot required
Sign up without sales: YesYes