# Cheap Seats > Cheap Seats is an MIT-licensed, self-hosted tracker of Claude and OpenAI answers. It grades recommendations, keeps the evidence and ranks page fixes. [Get started](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/getting-started/) · [Explore the demo](https://demo.cheapseats.dev/) · [Requirements and costs](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/cost-and-budget/) Each link below is the page's markdown; drop `index.md` for the HTML. ## Docs - [Getting started](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/getting-started/index.md): Run the example, configure your brand and check the first results. - [Configuration](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/configuration/index.md): Set the brand, assistants, prices and schedule in cheapseats.toml. - [Prompt sets](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/prompt-sets/index.md): Write buyer questions with stable IDs that retain their history. - [Cost, API keys and the daily budget](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/cost-and-budget/index.md): Choose subscriptions or API keys. The budget limits admissions, not provider bills. - [Reading results](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/reading-results/index.md): Find the answers behind your rates and choose what to fix. - [How grading works](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/how-grading-works/index.md): Check recommended, mentioned and absent grades against their evidence. - [Metric definitions](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/metrics/index.md): Look up formulas, denominators, exclusions and export fields. - [Comparing metrics across tools](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/comparing-metrics/index.md): Compare published definitions and migration differences across tools. - [How big a change Cheap Seats can detect](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/noise-and-confidence/index.md): Read uncertainty and decide whether a change is detectable. - [Which AI engines Cheap Seats asks, and why](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/engines/index.md): Claude and OpenAI coverage, including API and CLI limitations. - [Reviewing your prompts](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/prompt-review/index.md): Retire uninformative prompts, clarify noisy questions and fill gaps. - [Got wrong about you: the fact check](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/got-wrong/index.md): Find contradictions of your listed facts, with verified quotes. - [Re-grading stored answers](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/regrading/index.md): Re-apply grading while keeping original answers and replaced grades. - [From fix to pull request](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/fix-to-pull-request/index.md): Turn a ranked fix into a pull request with Claude Code. - [Free site checks: audit, citations, AI crawlers](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/site-audit/index.md): Check crawler access, cited pages and logs. No model calls; optional Exa reads can cost money. - [Sharing a run](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/sharing/index.md): Share one run through an expiring, revocable, read-only link. - [A public read-only copy](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/read-only-copy/index.md): Publish an isolated dashboard copy. Treat its database and config as public. - [Self-hosted AI visibility tracker: Docker and Kubernetes](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/self-hosting/index.md): Choose a host, try the container and see where data goes. - [Deploying](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/deploying/index.md): Deploy with Docker, Helm or an exe.dev VM. - [Upgrading](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/upgrading/index.md): Upgrade while keeping your history. - [The CLI, and runs from CI](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/cli-and-ci/index.md): Run sets, validate prompt changes and trigger runs from CI. - [Optional providers: Jev and Exa](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/optional-providers/index.md): Optional, off by default. Jev makes typed decisions; Exa adds web evidence. - [CLI, API and MCP](https://cheapseats.dev/docs/reference/index.md): Look up commands, JSON routes, MCP tools and access rules. ## Guides - [Track which pages AI assistants cite](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/track-ai-citations/index.md): Find cited pages and understand coverage alongside Google and Bing reports. - [Benchmark your brand against competitors in AI answers](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/benchmark-against-competitors/index.md): Compare brands on the same questions, with a real table and trend. - [Find out if ChatGPT recommends your product](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/check-if-chatgpt-recommends-you/index.md): Run buyer questions and check each recommendation against its answer. - [See the searches behind an AI answer](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/see-ai-search-results/index.md): Trace queries, results and citations. Retrieval alone does not prove a page was read. - [Measure whether your content changed AI answers](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/prove-content-impact/index.md): Compare target prompts and report uncertainty. Before/after alone does not establish causation. - [Mentioned vs. recommended: measuring brands in AI answers](https://cheapseats.dev/guides/mentioned-vs-recommended/index.md): Distinguish mention, recommendation and share-of-voice rates, with their denominators. ## Compare - [Cheap Seats vs Profound](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/profound/index.md): How collection, denominators, model weighting and enterprise coverage differ, with prices and qualifications from October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Peec AI](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/peec-ai/index.md): Direct model calls and logged-out consumer interfaces: collection, country limits, metrics and plans, October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Otterly.AI](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/otterly-ai/index.md): Recommendation grades and exact-name matching: collection, prompt units, plans and history, October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Bad Popcorn](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/bad-popcorn/index.md): Briefs for your repo and approved CMS drafts: collection, markets, metrics and commerce plan limits, October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Gauge](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/gauge/index.md): Fixes in your repo or Gauge's Action Center: collection, grading, content workflow and plan limits, October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Semrush AI Toolkit](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/semrush-ai-toolkit/index.md): Which Semrush report covers each engine, and how its metrics, prompts and prices compare. October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Elmo](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/elmo/index.md): Recommendation grades and judgments of brand portrayal: engines, setup, metrics and history, October 2026. - [Cheap Seats vs Limelit Open](https://cheapseats.dev/compare/limelit/index.md): Recommendation judgments and reproducible name counts: engines, setup, history and open-core limits, October 2026. ## Blog - [Which fix first, and who owns AI visibility](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/prioritize-ai-visibility-fixes/index.md): Rank fixes by buyer questions, effort and remaining headroom; assign each to an owner. (2026-10-23) - [Why AI visibility scores differ between tools](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/why-ai-visibility-scores-differ/index.md): One ten-answer example shows how matching and denominators change visibility and share of voice. (2026-10-22) - [How many runs do you need to trust an AI visibility number?](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/how-many-runs-to-trust-ai-visibility/index.md): Separate noise from change, with sample sizes and uncertainty intervals. (2026-10-22) - [Cheap Seats vs. Promptfoo for AI visibility](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/cheap-seats-vs-promptfoo/index.md): Track product recommendations with Cheap Seats, or build checks with Promptfoo. (2026-10-22) - [AI visibility tools compared](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/ai-visibility-tools-compared/index.md): Compare collection, grading, hosting and workflow from vendors’ October 2026 documentation. (2026-10-22) - [Why I built Cheap Seats](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/why-we-built-cheap-seats/index.md): Why I built a self-hosted tracker around the subscriptions I already had. (2026-10-21) - [A free, open-source AI visibility tracker](https://cheapseats.dev/blog/free-open-source-ai-visibility-tracker/index.md): Costs, setup and a real graded answer, plus free single checks. (2026-10-21) ## Optional - [Homepage](https://cheapseats.dev/index.md) - [Source code](https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats) - [Config repo template](https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats-config-template) - [Full text of every page](https://cheapseats.dev/llms-full.txt)