AEO Armory vs HubSpot AEO Grader: what each one checks, and who should use which.

HubSpot's AEO Grader and AEO Armory both promise a free read on how AI sees your business, so people compare them. They answer different questions. HubSpot's grader asks AI models how they characterize your brand and scores the result. AEO Armory asks the questions your customers ask, records who gets recommended, then audits your website and tells you what to fix. AEO Armory is our tool, so we have kept to facts from both products' own pages, checked November 2026.

Side by side

HubSpot facts are from its AEO Grader page; AEO Armory facts are from the app itself.

How HubSpot's AEO Grader works

You enter your company name, location (a city, country, region or global), your products or services described the way customers would, and your industry. The grader sends that to three models at once, which its page lists as GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity and Gemini, and cross-validates the results.

You get a composite score out of 100 built from five dimensions, weighted toward sentiment:

• Sentiment, up to 40 points: how AI characterizes the brand.
• Presence quality, up to 20.
• Brand recognition, up to 20.
• Share of voice, up to 10, relative to competitors.
• Market competition, up to 10, with labels such as Leader, Challenger or Niche Player, and Innovator, Disruptor or Traditionalist.

HubSpot says the snapshot is ready in under two minutes, that any brand can be analyzed (including competitors), and that results are based on each model's training data, are AI-generated and are not guaranteed. The page says no account is required, though you complete a form to access the full report.

How AEO Armory works

You create a free account with your email and a one-time code, then enter your website, what you sell and where. AEO Armory writes 8 questions a customer would ask, asks them on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and records whether you were named, in what position, who was named instead and which sites were cited. That becomes an AI visibility score.

It then reads up to 15 pages of your site and scores 9 readiness checks, from AI crawler access and JavaScript rendering to structured data and plain-English readability. Everything ends in a prioritized fix list with evidence, steps and ready-to-paste text, a fix checker to confirm changes are live, and a prompt plan of 15 to 30 questions to target.

The real difference: perception vs performance

HubSpot's grader measures what models believe about your brand. That is useful for established companies, where the question is tone: does AI call you a leader or an also-ran, and is the description accurate? It is less useful for a small or local business the models know little about, which may simply score low.

AEO Armory measures what happens when a customer asks for what you sell without naming you. For most small and mid-size businesses that is the question that matters: does AI put you on the shortlist? Because it also reads your site, it can point to causes, such as a blocked crawler or a missing pricing page, rather than only the outcome.

Where each falls short

HubSpot AEO Grader

• Does not read your website, per its page, so it cannot tell you which page or setting to change
• A one-time snapshot; ongoing tracking is HubSpot's paid AEO product
• Brand-level, so it says little about specific customer questions or local searches

AEO Armory

• Two engines today, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode; no Perplexity or Gemini
• No sentiment score: it records whether and where you are named, not the tone
• Answers are collected as a US user in English, so it suits US businesses best
• Needs a free account, and the free plan allows 3 reports a day

Who should use which

• Local or small business: AEO Armory. You need to know whether you are recommended for "best [service] in [city]" and what to fix, not a brand sentiment score.
• Established brand, marketing or comms team: run both. HubSpot's grader shows how AI describes you; AEO Armory shows which customer questions you win and lose, and why.
• Already on HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro or Enterprise: HubSpot says ongoing AEO tracking is included, so the grader is a natural first step. Use an audit alongside it to find the site-level fixes.

Both are free, so the cheapest way to decide is to run both on your own business. Start with a free AEO Armory report.

Frequently asked questions

Is HubSpot's AEO Grader free?

Yes. HubSpot describes it as a free, one-time check with no account required, though you complete a form to see the full report. Ongoing tracking is HubSpot AEO, listed at $50 a month (checked November 2026).

Which AI engines does HubSpot's AEO Grader use?

Its page lists GPT-5.4 mini from OpenAI, Perplexity and Gemini. AEO Armory uses ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.

Does HubSpot's AEO Grader check my website?

Its page does not mention crawling your site; it says results are based on each model's training data. AEO Armory reads up to 15 pages and scores 9 readiness checks.

Which is better for a local business?

Usually AEO Armory, because it tests customer questions with your location and gives a fix list. Brand-perception scores tend to be low for businesses the models know little about.