> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cognerd.in/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Core Concepts: AI Visibility, GEO, AEO, and Credits > Understand the key ideas behind CogNerd — AI Visibility Score, GEO, AEO, Brand Monitor, Content Studio, credits, and platform coverage. CogNerd is built around a set of concepts that are specific to AI search — a channel that works differently from traditional search engines. Before you start optimizing, it helps to understand what these terms mean, why they matter, and how CogNerd uses them. This page explains each one. Your AI Visibility Score is a single number between 0 and 100 that measures how often and how prominently your brand appears in AI-generated answers across all the platforms CogNerd monitors. A score of 0 means your brand was not mentioned in any AI answers across the platforms analyzed. A score of 100 means your brand appeared prominently and positively in answers on every platform. Most brands start somewhere in the middle. The score is calculated from several signals: * **Mention frequency** — how often your brand name appears in generated answers * **Answer position** — whether your brand appears early in the answer or as an afterthought * **Sentiment** — whether the mention is positive, neutral, or negative * **Platform breadth** — how many different AI platforms mentioned your brand * **Citation quality** — whether AI platforms cited your URLs as sources You can view your score by platform in `/dashboard/visibility`. Track it over time to measure whether your optimization efforts are working. Don't fixate on the raw number in isolation. Focus on the trend — is your score improving after you deploy GEO assets or publish new content? Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring your brand's online presence so that AI models can accurately understand, represent, and cite you. It's the AI-search equivalent of on-page SEO — but instead of optimizing for keyword relevance, you're providing structured data that AI crawlers and training pipelines can consume directly. CogNerd's GEO Assets tool generates seven files that form the foundation of a GEO-optimized web presence: | File | Purpose | | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `llms.txt` | A machine-readable brand summary written for large language models | | `robots.txt` | AI-aware crawl rules that invite AI bots while controlling what they access | | `sitemap.xml` | A structured map of your site's content | | `site.jsonld` | Schema.org JSON-LD markup describing your website | | `organization.jsonld` | Schema.org JSON-LD markup describing your organization | | `website.jsonld` | Additional structured data about your web presence | | `entities.json` | A graph of named entities associated with your brand | Once generated, you deploy these files to your website's root directory. AI crawlers that index your site will find and parse them, giving AI models a clean, authoritative source of information about your brand. Generating GEO Assets costs **20 credits** and runs as a background job. You'll get a job ID you can use to check progress via the API. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the discipline of improving your brand's likelihood of being cited in AI-generated answers. While GEO focuses on the technical infrastructure (structured files), AEO covers a broader set of factors: * Whether your brand has clear, unambiguous factual information available online * Whether your content is written in a way that AI models can extract and cite confidently * Whether your schema.org markup correctly represents your brand's category, services, and relationships * Whether your website has the technical signals that correlate with AI citation CogNerd's **AEO Report** is a full audit of your brand's AI-search readiness. It runs technical diagnostics against your domain, scores each factor, and produces a prioritized list of actions. The report is available as a PDF export. The AEO Report costs **50 credits** and is the most thorough analysis CogNerd offers. It's best run after you've completed your initial setup and deployed your GEO Assets, so the audit reflects your current state. The AEO Report is accessible from `/dashboard/diagnostics`. Brand Monitor is CogNerd's core analysis engine. When you run an analysis, Brand Monitor submits queries to AI platforms on your behalf and records how each platform responds — whether it mentions your brand, what it says, and what sources it cites. **How it works:** Brand Monitor uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) to stream results as they arrive. You see each platform's response appear in real time as CogNerd receives it, rather than waiting for all platforms to finish before seeing any results. **What you see:** * Which platforms mentioned your brand (and which didn't) * The full text of AI-generated answers containing your brand * Sentiment classification for each mention * URLs cited as sources in answers that mention your brand * Side-by-side competitor mentions for the same queries **Platforms monitored:** ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, You.com, and 10+ additional platforms. Platform coverage varies by plan. Each brand analysis costs **30 credits**. Results are saved to your account so you can review historical analyses in `/dashboard/visibility`. Content Studio generates AI-optimized written content — blog posts and social content — built to increase the likelihood that AI platforms will cite your brand in relevant answers. AI models are trained on web content. When you publish authoritative, well-structured content that clearly associates your brand with specific topics, AI models are more likely to cite you when answering questions about those topics. Content Studio produces two types of blog content: | Type | Length | Cost | | --------------- | ------------------- | ---------- | | Short blog post | \~800–1,200 words | 10 credits | | Long blog post | \~2,000–3,500 words | 30 credits | Content Studio also generates social content (summaries, LinkedIn posts, tweets) to accompany blog posts at no additional cost. Access Content Studio from `/dashboard/content`. Publish Content Studio output to your actual blog and link to it from your `sitemap.xml`. Content that's indexed and cited elsewhere on the web has a stronger influence on AI answers than content that exists only on CogNerd. Credits are CogNerd's in-platform currency. Every action that queries AI platforms or generates assets costs credits. Your credit balance is shown in **Settings** (`/dashboard/settings`). **Credit costs by action:** | Action | Credits | | --------------------- | ------- | | AI Chat query | 5 | | Short blog post | 10 | | GEO Assets generation | 20 | | Brand analysis | 30 | | Long blog post | 30 | | AEO Report | 50 | Credits are included with your subscription plan and reset on your billing cycle. You can purchase additional credits if you run out before your next billing date. Credits are deducted when you trigger an action, not when it completes. If an analysis fails partway through due to an external API error, some credits may still be consumed for the platforms that responded before the failure. CogNerd offers three plans with different limits on brands, platform coverage, and API access. | Feature | Monitor | Optimize | Enterprise | | ------------ | ------- | -------- | ---------- | | Price | \$49/mo | \$149/mo | Custom | | Brands | 1 | 5 | Unlimited | | AI platforms | 2 | All | All | | API access | No | Yes | Yes | | AEO Reports | Add-on | Included | Included | **Monitor** is suited for individual brands that want to track their AI mentions on the two most important platforms. **Optimize** is the primary plan for marketing teams and agencies — it covers all monitored platforms, supports up to five brands, and includes API access for custom integrations. **Enterprise** is for organizations that need custom brand limits, dedicated support, or white-label reporting. [Book a demo](https://calendly.com/hub-cognerd/30min) to discuss Enterprise pricing. API access (available on Optimize and Enterprise) lets you trigger analyses, generate GEO assets, and retrieve results programmatically. See the [API reference](/api/overview) for details. CogNerd monitors how your brand appears on the AI platforms that matter most for AI search: * **ChatGPT** (OpenAI) * **Claude** (Anthropic) * **Gemini** (Google) * **DeepSeek** * **Grok** (xAI) * **Perplexity** * **Microsoft Copilot** * **You.com** * 10+ additional platforms Platform availability depends on your plan. Monitor plan accounts cover 2 platforms. Optimize and Enterprise accounts cover all available platforms. CogNerd adds new platforms as they reach significant adoption. Platform additions are announced in the changelog and reflected in your Brand Monitor dashboard automatically. ## How the concepts connect Understanding how these pieces fit together helps you build an effective AI visibility strategy: Run a **Brand Monitor** analysis to get your current **AI Visibility Score** and see where you're being mentioned — and where you're not. Generate **GEO Assets** to give AI crawlers structured, accurate information about your brand. This is the highest-leverage starting point for most brands. Run an **AEO Report** to get a full technical diagnostic. The report tells you exactly what's missing and what to fix first. Use **Content Studio** to publish AI-optimized content that associates your brand with the topics you want to be cited for. Re-run Brand Monitor analyses regularly. Watch your **AI Visibility Score** improve as your GEO assets get indexed and your content gets published.