Frequently asked questions

Citare is an AI search visibility platform that measures how your brand ranks in ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity — alongside a full traditional SEO suite (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Content Explorer). One platform, one subscription, half the cost of running two vendors.

Yes for teams who also need to rank in AI search. Citare ships the same intent groups Ahrefs ships (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Content Explorer) plus Brand Radar across 5 LLM engines, MCP server access at Pro tier, and INR pricing native. Most teams replace their SEO suite + AI search monitor with one Citare subscription at less than half the combined cost.

Brand Radar is Citare's flagship AI search visibility product. It runs persona-anchored query dispatches against ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity — captures responses, parses brand mentions and citation context, and produces per-platform surface rates with named-competitor benchmarks. Cadence depends on tier (monthly on Pulse, weekly on Pro/Agency, daily on Enterprise).

Yes. Free forever, no credit card. Includes 1 project, 20 free GEO + SEO tools, monthly Brand Radar dispatch, full read-only access to all dashboards. Most users start here.

Five tiers. Free ($0 / ₹0) covers 1 project + 20 tools + monthly Brand Radar. Pulse ($35 / ₹2,999) is solo/SMB with monthly Brand Radar + 500 keywords. Pro ($119 / ₹9,999) is weekly Brand Radar + 2,500 keywords + MCP. Agency ($299 / ₹24,999) is weekly × 10 ICPs + white-label + full API. Enterprise (from $1,200 / ₹99,999) is daily Brand Radar + SSO + custom retention.

Citare Pulse ($35) is 73% less than Ahrefs Lite ($129). Pro ($119) is 52% less than Ahrefs Standard ($249). Agency ($299) is 33% less than Ahrefs Advanced ($449). And every Citare tier ships Brand Radar — Ahrefs doesn't have an AI search measurement product at any tier. (See /vs/ahrefs for the full feature matrix.)

Yes. INR pricing native via Razorpay (UPI, NetBanking, Cards). GST invoicing included. Pricing auto-detects by IP; manual currency toggle available. Tier pricing: Free ₹0, Pulse ₹2,999, Pro ₹9,999, Agency ₹24,999, Enterprise from ₹99,999.

Yes. Tier changes are instant and non-destructive — historical data, integrations, ICPs, and Query Guides preserved across upgrades and downgrades. Downgrade caps apply (e.g., if you exceed Pulse's 500 keywords on Pro, downgrading prompts you to archive the surplus).

Persona-anchored query dispatch. For each project we define 3-5 ICPs, construct a Query Guide (50-100 queries per cadence), and dispatch every query × every persona × every platform. Responses are parsed for brand entity mentions and citation context classification (recommended / compared favorably / cited as authority / passing reference). Surface rate is computed per platform per persona, benchmarked against named competitors.

AI search runs on four indexes (Google for AIO + Gemini, Bing for ChatGPT, Brave for Claude, Perplexity's own). Same brand can show 40% surface rate on AIO and 8% on ChatGPT in the same week. Aggregating loses the diagnostic signal — the gap between platforms tells you which fix to apply. See /four-index-reality for the full breakdown.

AIO content is not exposed via Google's API — it has to be captured from the live SERP. Brand Radar uses Cloudflare Browser Rendering + Playwright to screenshot the AIO answer block from geo-seeded SERPs, then routes the screenshot through Haiku's vision API for structured extraction (cited URLs, brand names, answer text). Robust to AIO DOM swaps because we read pixels, not class names.

Every Brand Radar query prepends a 50-80 word persona context block (role + geography + industry + sophistication + constraints) so the AI platform responds as it would to that specific buyer type. Same query produces different responses for different personas — measuring this variance is how we surface audience-specific visibility gaps. Most measurement tools default to global personas; Citare requires explicit persona context.

Google Search Console (clicks + impressions + position + queries + countries + devices), Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing index health for ChatGPT-side measurement), DataForSEO (keyword data + SERP overview + backlinks), our own crawlers (PerplexityBot equivalent for Brand Radar), and 4 free SEO data providers (OpenPageRank, Scrape.do, SerpAPI, plus the DataForSEO trial). Daily $10 cap on DataForSEO spend per project.

Yes — CSV upload supported. Drop your Ahrefs/Semrush export, map columns, ingest with full historical data preserved. Most migrations complete in under 15 minutes.

Citare's Model Context Protocol server exposes 37 tools that Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible agents can call directly. Run Brand Radar dispatches, fetch keyword data, score citation readiness — all from inside your agent. MCP starts at Pro tier ($119/₹9,999). Ahrefs gates MCP at Enterprise; that's one of our key differentiation lines.

Yes. 42 REST endpoints covering every product surface (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Brand Radar, Tools, Webhooks). Read API access starts at Pro. Full write API + white-label at Agency tier. Webhooks (9 event types) at Pro+. TypeScript and Python SDKs generate from spec; published to npm + PyPI.

Three structural differences. (1) Coverage: Citare runs against all 5 platforms (AIO + ChatGPT + Gemini + Claude + Perplexity); alternatives cover 1-3. (2) Persona-anchored dispatch is default, not an add-on. (3) Citation context classification surfaces 'recommended' vs 'passing reference' rather than mention counts only. Plus Citare ships the full Ahrefs-IA SEO suite — alternatives don't. Pricing: Citare Pulse $35 vs Profound Enterprise $499 entry.

Most teams replace. Citare ships the Ahrefs intent groups (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Content Explorer) plus Brand Radar that Ahrefs doesn't have, at less than half the price. Edge case where keeping both makes sense: very large enterprise teams with existing Ahrefs contracts in place + need Brand Radar — run Citare in parallel for AI search until contract renewal.

Yes — and structurally better-fit for B2B and SMB buyers. Profound starts at $499/mo enterprise pricing; Citare Pulse is $35. Profound focuses primarily on ChatGPT; Citare covers all 5 AI platforms. Citare also includes the full Ahrefs-class SEO suite under one subscription. (See /vs/profound for the full comparison.)

Three factors. (1) Engineering cost: building per-platform parsers with edge-case handling (pronoun resolution, alias normalization, citation context classification, AIO DOM-swap adaptation) is 6-12 months of engineering. (2) Operating cost: AI dispatch fees + browser rendering + proxy infrastructure exceed Citare Agency tier at most usage levels. (3) Methodology cost: persona design + Query Guide curation + competitor benchmarking takes domain expertise. Build only if you're 50+ clients on monitoring AND have the engineering team available.

Cloudflare Workers (compute) + Supabase Postgres in ap-south-1 (data). Hyperdrive caches Postgres queries at the edge for sub-100ms response. R2 stores generated PDFs + browser screenshots. KV stores rate-limit counters and 24h DataForSEO caches.

Yes. Refresh tokens (Google Search Console, OAuth integrations) are AES-GCM 256 envelope-encrypted at rest with a Worker-secret-bound master key. Supabase storage encrypted at rest. TLS 1.3 in transit. Bring-your-own-encryption-key available on Enterprise tier.

Account drops to Free tier (1 project + 20 tools + monthly Brand Radar preserved). Paid-tier data archives for 90 days; you can re-upgrade and resume seamlessly. Hard export option available — download all your historical Brand Radar runs, keyword data, audit reports as CSV/JSON at any time.

Enterprise tier includes priority support (24h response on weekdays, named CSM, slack channel) and 99.9% uptime SLA. Pro and Agency tiers have email support with 48h response. Free and Pulse use community + documentation. Studio Concierge ($600/₹50,000) is a separate managed engagement — done-for-you GEO/SEO with monthly deliverables.

Email support@citare.ai or use the in-app feedback widget (bottom-right on every dashboard page). Public roadmap is at /changelog. Bug reports get triaged within 24h; feature requests are evaluated against the quarterly roadmap.