Frequently Asked Questions
How HiBot audits work, what you get, and how to read the results. Something missing? Email us.
What is HiBot?
HiBot measures how AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google surface, recommend, and represent your brand when customers ask about your category. You get a 0 to 100 HiBot Score, the word-for-word answers behind it, and a prioritized plan for what to fix first. See what a real audit finds in our case studies.
What is the ANSWER framework?
ANSWER is the six-category methodology behind every audit, mapped to how customers actually decide: Appearance (does AI name you unprompted), Nomination (does it put you forward for specific use cases), Showdown (how you fare head to head against named competitors), Worth (whether your price and value are represented accurately), Expertise (whether your features are described accurately), and Reputation (whether your standing and trust signals are reflected accurately). Each category is scored 0 to 100 and blended by weight into the headline score. The full methodology is in our free whitepaper, and the short version is Meet ANSWER: the 6 things AI decides about your brand.
How is an audit actually run?
By people, on purpose. Trained specialists ask every approved question by hand, in logged-out, neutral sessions set to your target market and language, and record each engine's answer word for word. Scoring then happens on those stored answers only. Automated tools query AI through logged-in accounts or APIs, which see different answers than your customers do, so we never audit that way. We wrote up the whole process in How an ANSWER Audit Is Run and How an ANSWER Audit Is Scored.
Do you need access to my website or accounts?
No. We never ask for logins, analytics access, or code on your site. Specialists work from public, logged-out AI sessions, and the only thing we read on your website is its public pages, which we use to verify flagged claims before they reach your claims log.
What is the difference between Pulse and Panorama?
Both plans deliver the same full report. HiBot Pulse ($199 one time) asks 25 customer questions across 3 AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google), one run per question. HiBot Panorama ($499 one time) asks 50 questions across 5 engines (everything in Pulse + Claude and Grok), with 2 runs per question averaged for consistency. Recurring monthly or quarterly audits cost less per audit ($159 for Pulse, $399 for Panorama) and unlock trend tracking across runs. See pricing.
How long does an audit take?
About one business day for Pulse and about two for Panorama, measured from the moment you approve your questionnaire to the delivered report. Human capture is the reason it takes hours instead of seconds, and also the reason the answers match what customers really see.
What do I get in the report?
A score dashboard with letter grades across all six ANSWER dimensions, competitive standing with share of voice, a question-by-engine presence matrix, a site-verified log of the claims AI states as fact, a citations and sources log, every verbatim engine answer, prioritized recommendations grounded in real quotes, and a 90-day roadmap with one-click calendar reminders. Reports export to Word, PDF, and CSV. The features page walks through every section, and the sample audit report shows a complete deliverable start to finish.
Does HiBot work for non-English markets?
Yes, in 26 languages on every plan. Your questions are generated natively in your market's language, not translated, and specialists capture the answers in that language too. A brand selling in Germany gets audited the way a German customer would actually ask.
Can I target a specific country or market?
Yes. You set a target geography for each brand, and every capture session is run for that market. The setting is locked in as a capture condition, so re-audits stay comparable cycle after cycle.
Do you track my competitors?
Yes. You name the competitors that matter, and the audit tracks them throughout: head-to-head Showdown questions, a share-of-voice leaderboard showing who AI names instead of you, per-engine coverage, and flags when a competitor overtakes you on a question between runs. Our Showdown guide explains how the head-to-heads work.
Do I control the questions?
Yes. We generate a questionnaire tailored to your brand, and you review, edit, and approve every question before capture begins. Nothing is asked that you have not signed off on.
Can I add my own questions later?
Yes. On re-audits your approved baseline set is locked and reused so trends compare like for like, and questions you add are tracked as a separate expansion set. You get both: clean trend lines and room to grow the audit.
How does tracking over time work?
Recurring audits (monthly or quarterly) rerun your locked question set and line the results up: headline and per-dimension trend history, question-level changes, false claims tracked as new, persisted, or corrected in accuracy over time, and drift flags on moves that matter. You can log dated timeline notes about changes you made, so each new run reads against what you actually did.
Can I audit more than one brand?
Yes. One account holds as many brands as you need, each with its own competitors, target market, language, and audit history. Agencies routinely run a brand per client from a single login.
Does HiBot fix the problems it finds?
No, and that separation is deliberate: the party grading your visibility should not be selling you the fix. Every recommendation comes with evidence, steps, and an owner, so your own team or agency can implement it. Your next audit then measures whether it worked.
Can I send recommendations to the tools my team uses?
Yes. Connect Slack, Asana, Trello, or Jira and send any recommendation straight from the report as a message or task. Roadmap deadlines also come with one-click calendar reminders.
Can I white-label reports for my agency?
Yes. Put your own brand name and logo on every report and the deliverable goes neutral: no HiBot product names, ready to hand to your client under your banner.
Who can see my report?
Only your account. Reports are private client data, served through authenticated downloads that verify ownership on every request. We never publish your results, use them in marketing, or share them with anyone else.
Can my AI assistant use HiBot?
Yes, over MCP (the Model Context Protocol). A free public server gives any assistant our methodology, plans, case studies, and research, with no account needed. Customers can also mint an API key so their own AI agent reads their audit data and logs progress on recommendations. Setup for both is on the developers page.
How do I pay?
By card, processed by Stripe. Buy a single audit one time, or choose a recurring monthly or quarterly plan at the lower per-audit price. Your invoices live in your account.
How do I cancel a recurring plan?
Anytime, from the invoices page in your account. Cancellation stops future audits at the end of the current paid period, and every report already delivered stays yours.
What is your refund policy?
Fees are non-refundable once an audit has begun, because each audit involves human and AI work performed specifically for you. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us and we will work with you in good faith. The details are in our terms of service.
Every audit is run by hand and delivered as a full, scored report.
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