AI Visibility Checker

Check whether your website can be discovered, interpreted, and cited by AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

The reference implementation of the AI Discovery Files specification. Emits output conforming to validator-output.schema.json and follows the published processing model.

10 AI Discovery File types validated
Free No account required
Reference Implementation of the specification

Enter your domain only (example.com). Do not include http(s) or paths.

We don't store or log checked domains. Results are generated in real time and not retained.

Checking your domain... 0%

About the AI Visibility Checker

The AI Visibility Checker is a free technical tool built by 365i, the publisher of the AI Discovery Files specification. It validates your website against the exact standard, not an approximation of it.

Unlike prompt-based tools that test what AI systems say about your business, this checker validates the inputs AI systems rely on: your machine-readable files, crawler access settings, identity signals, and structural configuration. Results are deterministic: the same domain produces the same score every time.

Enter your domain above to get a free, scored report with a file-by-file breakdown and specific recommendations. No email or account needed to see results.

  • Validates all 10 AI Discovery File types against the published specification
  • Checks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot crawler access
  • Detects identity contradictions across AI-facing files
  • Deterministic scoring against the published ADF specification
  • Downloadable AI Discovery File templates included in results
  • Optional AI Snapshot: live queries to ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini

Which AI visibility tool should you use?

"AI visibility" covers several different jobs, and most tools do only one of them. Prompt tools ask an AI what it currently says about you. SEO auditors grade traditional ranking factors. File validators check the syntax of a single file. The AI Visibility Checker validates the full set of technical inputs that decide whether an AI can discover, parse, and trust your site. Here is how the categories compare.

Capability Prompt / mention tools SEO audit tools AI Discovery File validators AI Visibility Checker
What it measures What AI systems currently say about you On-page and backlink SEO factors The syntax of one file in isolation Whether AI can discover, parse, and trust your whole site
Deterministic and repeatable No, varies by prompt and model version Partly Per file only Yes, the same domain scores the same every time
Tells you what to fix for AI No Indirectly One file at a time Yes, across files, crawler access, identity, and structure
Covers crawler access, identity, and structure together No No No Yes
Watches outputs over time Yes No No No, pair it with a tracking tool
Account or payment Usually Usually Varies None, free and no email required

These categories are not equal in what they give back. A mention tracker tells you what an AI happened to say on the day you asked, which shifts with every model update and gives you nothing to fix. Input checking tells you whether AI systems can discover, understand, and safely cite you, and exactly what to change. If you only run one, run the check: it is the half you can actually act on.

What the AI Visibility Checker Validates

AI Discovery Files

Checks for the presence, validity, and consistency of files like llms.txt, ai.txt, identity.json, and brand.txt that help AI systems understand your website.

Identity Consistency

Verifies your business presents a single, unambiguous identity across all AI-facing files, with clear services, location, and exclusions.

Crawler Access

Validates whether AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.) are allowed, blocked, or contradicted by your robots.txt and AI-specific directives.

Structural Readiness

Assesses whether your site structure supports deterministic interpretation and safe citation by AI systems.

How the score is calculated

Your score runs from 0 to 100 across four signal groups. Each is checked against the published specification, not a subjective judgement.

Signal groupWhat we check
AI Discovery FilesWhether each of the 10 files exists, is accessible, valid, and internally consistent
Crawler accessWhether known AI crawlers are allowed, blocked, or contradicted in robots.txt and AI-specific directives
Identity consistencyWhether your business name, services, location, contact details, and exclusions match across AI-facing files
Structural readinessWhether your site gives AI systems a clear, machine-readable basis for interpretation and citation

The same domain receives the same score on repeat checks unless the site itself changes. No hidden weighting. No subjective manual judgement. The checker emits output conforming to the published validator-output schema and follows the documented processing model.

How the AI Visibility Checker Works

  1. Enter your domain Type your domain name (e.g. example.com) and click Check.
  2. Automated AI visibility analysis The AI Visibility Checker scans your publicly accessible AI-facing infrastructure in real time.
  3. AI visibility score and recommendations You get a detailed AI visibility score, a file-by-file breakdown, and actionable recommendations to improve it.
  4. AI Snapshot (optional) Run live AI queries to see how ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini actually perceive your business.
Sample output

Example AI Visibility Checker report

Here is what a report looks like for a site that has not yet added its AI Discovery Files. It is an illustrative example for a fictional example.com, not a live scan, so you can see the structure of the result and the kind of findings the checker returns before you run your own domain.

Domain checked example.com
58/100 Moderate Signal
Signal-by-signal breakdown for the example above
SignalResultWhat it means
llms.txt Found and valid AI systems have a plain-language summary file to read.
identity.json Missing No structured identity, so AI has no authoritative source for your name, services and location.
GPTBot (ChatGPT) Allowed OpenAI's crawler is permitted in robots.txt.
ClaudeBot (Claude) Blocked A blanket disallow rule stops Anthropic's crawler reading your content.
Identity consistency Partial Your business name or contact details differ between files, which weakens trust.
Structural readiness Needs work Some machine-readable signals are present, but key files are missing or incomplete.

An example like this scores 58/100, a Moderate Signal: discoverable, but held back by a missing identity.json and a blocked crawler. Fixing those two issues alone would push it into the Strong Signal band. Run your own domain to see your real report.

First-party evidence

Proof: AI crawlers read AI Discovery Files every day

Don't take our word for it. AI Discovery Files only matter if AI systems actually fetch them, so here is real server-log evidence from mcneece.com, a sister site that generates all 10 files with our AI Discovery Files WordPress plugin. In a single seven-day window the site logged 36 file accesses from 8 different AI crawlers, with none blocked by robots.txt.

Seven-day AI crawler activity dashboard for mcneece.com: 36 file accesses from 8 unique bots including ChatGPT-User, meta-externalagent, GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-User, bingbot, Applebot and meta-webindexer, with zero bots blocked by robots.txt
Seven days of AI crawler activity on mcneece.com, read from the server's own access logs by the plugin. Click to enlarge.

Every crawler went straight for the AI Discovery Files. This breakdown, from the same seven-day log, shows which bot read which file:

AI crawler accesses on mcneece.com, 31 May to 6 June 2026
CrawlerOperatorAccessesTop file read
ChatGPT-UserOpenAI (browsing)11/llms.html
meta-externalagentMeta (training)9/llms.html
GPTBotOpenAI (training)6/faq-ai.txt
OAI-SearchBotOpenAI (search)6/ai.json
ApplebotApple (Siri / Spotlight)1/robots-ai.txt
bingbotMicrosoft (Bing / Copilot)1/brand.txt
Claude-UserAnthropic (browsing)1/llms.txt
meta-webindexerMeta (indexing)1/llms.txt

That is not the norm. In our Q2 2026 crawl of 1,905 live sites, 10% block GPTBot in robots.txt, 85% publish no AI crawler policy at all, and just 7.2% have any AI Discovery File. mcneece.com is in the small minority giving AI systems a clear, machine-readable identity to work with.

And the files do their job. Running mcneece.com through this checker returns a perfect AI Snapshot, with high confidence on every identity signal:

AI Visibility Checker AI Snapshot summary for mcneece.com showing 100 out of 100, a Strong Signal grade, and high confidence for identity, services, contact and consistency
AI Snapshot for mcneece.com: 100/100, graded Strong Signal, with high confidence across identity, services, contact and consistency. Click to enlarge.

The plugin generates all 10 files from your WordPress dashboard. Each section has an "Import from my site" button that uses the AI Connectors built into WordPress 7.0 core (added in version 2.0 of the plugin): point it at a page on your own site and the AI reads that page and fills in the details for you to review before saving. For the full method behind this evidence, read our server-log case study.

The window is open, and now is the moment to step through it. AI crawlers already fetch these files every day, yet barely 7% of websites publish any. Add and maintain your AI Discovery Files today and you are established, machine-readable, and accurately understood while the other 93% are still catching up. The cost of being early is small. The cost of being late is being misread.

What we catch

Common AI visibility problems this checker finds

Most websites fail in the same handful of ways. These are the issues the AI Visibility Checker surfaces most often when it scans a domain, and every one of them is fixable.

No llms.txt at all

The single most common gap. Without it, AI systems have no plain-language summary of who you are or what you do, so they fall back to guessing from scattered page text.

A crawler blocked in robots.txt

A blanket Disallow: / rule or an over-zealous security plugin quietly shuts out GPTBot or ClaudeBot, so those systems never reach your content at all.

Business name differs across files

Your trading name, legal name and contact details disagree between files. AI systems read inconsistency as a trust risk and tend to hedge or leave you out.

No structured identity

identity.json is missing, so there is no authoritative, machine-readable record of your name, services, location and exclusions for AI to cite with confidence.

A stale brand or old trading name

An old company name, former address or retired product still lingers in your AI-facing files, quietly teaching AI systems outdated facts about your business.

A missing or contradictory AI policy

ai.txt says one thing and robots.txt says another. Conflicting permissions leave AI crawlers unsure what they are actually allowed to use.

Recognise one of these on your own site? Our Quick Start guide walks through each fix step by step, or the AI Discovery Files Pack has us research and write all 10 files for you.

Free WordPress Plugin

Generate AI Discovery Files from your dashboard

Using WordPress? Install the plugin and create all 10 files in minutes. No coding, no configuration files to edit manually.

Get the Plugin

What the AI Visibility Checker does not do

Being clear about the boundaries is part of being trustworthy. The AI Visibility Checker is a checking tool, not a tracking tool.

  • It does not guarantee AI mentions. No tool can promise ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity will name your business. The AI Visibility Checker makes you discoverable and accurately readable; it cannot force a citation.
  • It does not measure your share of AI answers. It will not tell you how often AI systems currently mention you versus a competitor. That is brand monitoring, a different discipline.
  • It does not replace AI tracking or monitoring tools. If you need to watch outputs over time, pair the AI Visibility Checker with a tracking tool. They are complementary.
  • It does not store history. Each check is generated in real time and not retained, so there is no built-in trend line or change log for your domain.

What the AI Visibility Checker does do: verify that your website provides the technical inputs AI systems need to discover, interpret, and cite you accurately. Fix the inputs and the outputs follow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about AI visibility, AI Discovery Files, and getting your business found by AI systems.

Get Visible to AI

How to check, improve, and take control of your AI presence.

What is the AI Visibility Checker?

The AI Visibility Checker is a free tool that technically verifies whether your website can be correctly discovered, interpreted, and cited by AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. It validates your AI Discovery Files, checks crawler access permissions in robots.txt, confirms identity consistency across AI-facing files, and scores your overall structural readiness, then provides a detailed breakdown with specific recommendations. Built by 365i, the publisher of the AI Discovery Files specification.

How can I check my website's AI visibility?

Use our free AI Visibility Checker above. Enter your domain and it will scan your site for AI Discovery Files, crawler access, identity consistency, and structural readiness, then give you a score with actionable recommendations.

How do I get my business mentioned in ChatGPT?

AI systems like ChatGPT rely on machine-readable signals to understand and cite businesses. Adding AI Discovery Files to your website gives AI systems the structured information they need to accurately describe what you do, where you operate, and how to reference you.

What are AI Discovery Files and do I need them?

AI Discovery Files are a set of 10 standardised files placed in your website root that tell AI systems who you are, what you do, and how to interact with your content. They include files like llms.txt, ai.txt, identity.json, and brand.txt. If you want AI systems to find and accurately represent your business, yes, you need them.

How do I create AI Discovery Files for my website?

Start with our Quick Start Guide, which explains each file and what to include. You can also download free templates directly from the checker results after scanning your site, or follow the full AI Discovery Files specifications we publish.

Can I pay someone to set up AI Discovery Files for me?

Yes. Our AI Discovery Files Pack is a professionally authored set of all 10 files, researched and customised for your business. We write the content, you upload the files. No technical knowledge required.

What is a good AI visibility score?

Your score runs from 0 to 100 and reflects how complete and consistent your AI-facing infrastructure is. The checker sorts results into four grades: Weak Signal (0-25), Low Signal (26-50), Moderate Signal (51-75), and Strong Signal (76-100). Most websites land in the Weak or Low band because AI Discovery Files are still an emerging standard, so reaching Moderate Signal already puts you ahead of the majority of indexed sites. A Strong Signal of 76 or above gives AI systems a clear, structured basis to discover and cite you accurately, and a perfect 100 means all 10 AI Discovery File types are present and validated. Below 26, AI systems have almost no structured signals to work with and are likely guessing when they represent your business.

Troubleshoot AI Issues

Why AI might be ignoring or misrepresenting your business.

Why is my website not appearing in AI answers?

AI systems can only cite what they can reliably interpret. If your website lacks machine-readable identity signals like AI Discovery Files, consistent structured data, or permitted crawler access, AI has no structured basis to include you in its responses.

Why does ChatGPT give wrong information about my business?

Without explicit, structured files telling AI what your business does, AI systems infer from whatever fragments they can find, and often get it wrong. AI Discovery Files provide a single, authoritative source of truth that AI systems can reference instead of guessing.

Can AI systems like ChatGPT actually read my website?

Only if you let them. AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot respect your robots.txt directives. If those crawlers are blocked, whether intentionally or by a blanket disallow rule, AI systems cannot access your content at all. Run a free check to see your current crawler access status.

Does my robots.txt affect AI visibility?

Absolutely. Your robots.txt controls which AI crawlers can access your site. Many websites inadvertently block AI crawlers with overly broad rules. Our checker validates whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and other AI crawlers are allowed, blocked, or contradicted by your directives.

Why does AI mention my competitors but not me?

Your competitors likely have better machine-readable signals: structured data, AI Discovery Files, or clearer crawler access. AI systems prefer sources they can verify and cite confidently. Implementing AI Discovery Files levels the playing field by giving AI the same structured information about your business.

Can I check if ChatGPT can access my website?

Yes. The AI Visibility Checker validates your robots.txt against known AI crawler identifiers, including GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Claude), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), and others. It identifies whether each crawler is explicitly allowed, blocked, or contradicted by other directives. Many websites unknowingly block AI crawlers through blanket Disallow: / rules or security plugins. Run a free check to see your current crawler access status for all major AI systems.

How do I fix my AI visibility?

Start with a free AI visibility check to see your score and which files are missing. From there you have three options: use our Quick Start Guide to implement AI Discovery Files yourself, order the AI Discovery Files Pack and have 365i research and write all 10 files for your business, or, for WordPress sites, install the free AI Discovery Files plugin which generates and manages all 10 files directly from your dashboard.

Understand AI Visibility

The fundamentals of how AI systems discover and cite websites.

What is AI Visibility and why does it matter?

AI Visibility is the ability of a website to be correctly discovered, interpreted, trusted, and safely cited by AI systems. It matters because AI is increasingly how people find businesses, and if AI cannot read your structured signals, it will either ignore you or misrepresent you.

What is the difference between AI visibility and SEO?

SEO optimises for search engine rankings. AI Visibility ensures AI systems can accurately understand and cite your business. SEO targets keywords and backlinks; AI Visibility targets machine-readable identity, structured files, and crawler access. They are complementary but distinct disciplines.

Which AI systems use AI Discovery Files?

AI Discovery Files are designed for all major AI systems including ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), Perplexity, Copilot (Microsoft), and other large language models. The llms.txt format in particular is already referenced by several AI providers as a preferred discovery mechanism.

Is there a standard for AI Discovery Files?

Yes. The AI Discovery Files specification defines 10 standardised files (ADF-001 through ADF-010) covering identity, permissions, FAQs, technical context, and brand guidelines. The specification is published and maintained by AI Visibility, the authoritative source for AI visibility standards.

How often should I update my AI Discovery Files?

Update them whenever your business information changes: new services, rebranding, change of address, or updated contact details. As a minimum, review them quarterly to ensure everything is still accurate. Outdated files are worse than no files, because they teach AI systems to distrust your signals.

How is the AI visibility score calculated?

The checker validates each AI Discovery File type at the root of your domain and assesses crawler access permissions, identity consistency across files, and structural readiness. The score reflects both presence and quality: a file that exists but contains contradictions or errors is scored differently to a complete, consistent implementation. All scoring is fully deterministic: the same algorithm applies the same rules to every domain and produces the same result on repeat checks. No hidden weighting, no subjective judgement.

Is my website data private when I run a check?

Yes. The checker reads only publicly accessible files at your domain root, the same files any AI crawler would fetch. We do not store or log checked domains, and no personal data is required to run a check. Results are generated in real time and are not retained after your session.

How is this different from asking ChatGPT about my website?

Asking ChatGPT what it knows about your website tests what AI systems currently say, the output. The AI Visibility Checker validates what they can technically access and parse, the input. These are different things. Outputs vary by model version, prompt wording, and training data cutoff. Inputs are stable and verifiable. Fixing your inputs is what changes outputs over time. Prompt-testing tells you where you stand today; visibility checking tells you why, and what to fix.

Built and maintained by Mark McNeece and the 365i team, publisher of the AI Discovery Files specification. Published . Last reviewed .