AEO
Free AEO Audit Tools in 2026: Scope and Limits
Free tools can answer useful technical questions about public pages. They do not share one definition of an “AEO audit”. A passing result does not guarantee an AI citation. The scopes and official links below were checked in Oct 2026.
Free checks and their limits
| Tool | What it checks | What to account for |
|---|---|---|
| AEOprobe | What it checksPublic crawler policies, JSON-LD and other technical page findings. | What to account forUp to 3 pages without sign-up. It does not measure live citations. |
| Google Rich Results Test | What it checksStructured data for supported Google rich-result features. | What to account forIt is not a generic Schema.org validator or a site-wide crawl audit. Passing does not guarantee display. |
| Schema Markup Validator | What it checksSchema.org markup and syntax. | What to account forIt does not check Google rich-result eligibility or AI citation selection. |
| Search Console URL Inspection | What it checksGoogle indexing information and a live URL inspection. | What to account forYou need access to the verified property. A live test does not guarantee indexing. |
| PageSpeed Insights | What it checksPerformance diagnostics, with field data when available. | What to account forPerformance data is not an AI visibility score. |
AEOprobe’s public audit and saved-site workflow
The free audit covers up to 3 pages and needs no sign-up. A saved-site audit costs 20 credits. It covers up to 10 pages on Free and 50 on Watch or Pro. A free account shows 5 findings for each site, and a paid plan shows them all. AEOprobe checks robots.txt policies for 20 named AI crawlers. It reports findings across 10 categories. JSON-LD checks cover malformed JSON, detected types and supported required fields. The audit does not parse Microdata or RDFa.
A saved-site finding becomes a to-do with the evidence, what to change and how to check it. You or your developer publish the edits, then run a scoped technical recheck. Claude Code and Codex can work in the same flow. Any action that spends credits asks for your confirmation first. See how to use Claude Code or Codex with AEOprobe.
AEOprobe plans are Free at €0/month, Watch at €7/month and Pro at €21/month. Credit packs add extra credits to a Watch or Pro plan. Only customers with an active Watch or Pro plan can buy them. Monthly credits are used first. Bought credits stay valid for 12 months after purchase, even if your plan ends. They can still pay for audits and checks after your plan ends. They do not open the full lists without an active Watch or Pro plan. A page capture or recheck costs 1 credit. Your account shows what you can buy. Plan and credit details describe the saved-site allowances. The public audit remains a separate free check.
Keep crawler policies and access control separate
Review policies for the specific search, training or user-fetch crawler involved. An allowed robots.txt rule does not prove that a crawler fetched the page. It does not prove that a firewall allowed it, or that an answer engine will use it. Google’s robots.txt documentation also explains why robots.txt is not a way to protect private data.
Interpret structured-data results correctly
Use markup that describes real visible content. Google’s generative AI guidance does not require special schema. Its documentation changelog says FAQ rich results stopped appearing from 7 May 2026. Helpful Q&A on the page can still serve readers.
Use the evidence to choose a next step
Save the technical observation. Edit the affected page or configuration and publish through your developer or coding agent. Then recheck that same finding. If you also need AI output monitoring, compare the vendors in the tool comparison guides by current scope and limits. Many now offer technical audits as well as analytics.
A technical finding or score does not explain why a brand is missing from an AI answer. AEOprobe does not measure live citations. No audit guarantees indexing, rankings or citations.
Questions
What can I check for free?
AEOprobe provides a no-sign-up audit of up to 3 pages. Google Rich Results Test checks supported Google structured data. Schema Markup Validator checks Schema.org markup. Search Console inspects URLs on a verified site. PageSpeed Insights reports performance data.
Which free tool is the most comprehensive?
No single tool covers everything. Each has a different scope: a technical report, markup validation, verified-site indexing data or performance diagnostics. Choose the tool that answers your question.
Does valid schema guarantee an AI citation?
No. Google says no special schema is required for generative search. Validation can find markup problems. It does not prove selection, ranking or citation.
When should I recheck?
Recheck after you publish a change that addresses a finding. Keep the URL and original evidence so you can compare the same technical observation. Use a cadence that fits how often your site changes.
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