Cheap AEO Tracking Without Enterprise Tools

AI Overview tracking costs $0.005 per keyword check via search API. Monitoring 200 keywords weekly costs $4/month. Enterprise AEO tools from Semrush, Ahrefs, and seoClarity charge $100-500/month for similar functionality locked behind higher-tier plans.

What AEO Tracking Measures

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) tracking monitors three things: which of your target keywords trigger AI Overviews, whether your domain is cited in those overviews, and which competitors appear instead. The delta between weekly snapshots tells you whether your content strategy is gaining or losing AI visibility.

Building a $4/Month Tracker

import requests, os, json
from datetime import date

API_KEY = os.environ["SCAVIO_API_KEY"]

def track_aeo(keywords, my_domain):
    results = []
    for kw in keywords:
        resp = requests.post("https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search",
            headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY},
            json={"platform": "google", "query": kw,
                  "ai_overview": True})
        data = resp.json()
        aio = data.get("ai_overview", {})
        entry = {"keyword": kw, "has_aio": bool(aio), "cited": False,
                 "competitors": []}
        if aio:
            sources = aio.get("sources", [])
            domains = [s.get("domain", "") for s in sources]
            entry["cited"] = my_domain in " ".join(domains)
            entry["competitors"] = [d for d in set(domains)
                                    if d and d != my_domain][:5]
        results.append(entry)
    return {"date": date.today().isoformat(), "results": results}

# 200 keywords x $0.005 = $1 per run, $4/month weekly
report = track_aeo(
    ["best SERP API 2026", "web scraping alternatives"],
    "scavio.dev")
for r in report["results"]:
    status = "CITED" if r["cited"] else "not cited"
    aio = "AIO" if r["has_aio"] else "no AIO"
    print(f"  {r['keyword']}: {aio}, {status}")

What Enterprise Tools Add

Semrush and Ahrefs offer historical AIO data, SERP feature tracking beyond AI Overviews, and integration with their broader SEO suites. If you already pay for Semrush ($129/month Pro), the AEO data is included. The DIY approach makes sense when you do not need the full SEO suite or when you want to track AEO across more keywords than enterprise tiers allow.

Weekly Report Automation

Run the tracker as a weekly cron job. Store results in a JSON file per week. Compare consecutive weeks to detect: new AI Overviews appearing for your keywords, lost citations (you were cited last week but not this week), and new competitor appearances. The comparison logic is 30 lines of Python and the entire pipeline runs unattended.

Scaling Beyond 200 Keywords

At 1,000 keywords weekly, the cost is $20/month. At 5,000 keywords, $100/month, which approaches enterprise tool pricing. The breakeven point depends on whether you need the additional features (historical trends, SERP feature tracking, team dashboards) that enterprise tools provide. For pure AEO citation monitoring, the API approach stays cheaper up to roughly 3,000 keywords.