# How AEOmeter collects AI answers in your browser

> How the AEOmeter Chrome extension sends your prompts to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google, reads the finished answers and reports them, and what pauses a check.

AEOmeter asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google your prompts from your own Chrome, signed in as you, then reads the finished answers and turns them into reports. Here is every step, including what can stop a check.

## Step by step

1. **Set up in the web app** Add your brand, competitors and prompts, pick the engines for each prompt and set a daily schedule in your timezone. A schedule queues checks. It does not run them by itself.
2. **The extension connects** Install the AEOmeter BETA Chrome extension and click Connect. Sign in to ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity in that same Chrome, as you normally would. Monitoring shows which engine sessions are ready.
3. **Checks run in background tabs** Queued checks open in background tabs grouped as "AEOmeter". Each prompt goes to all its selected engines at once, and the next prompt starts when all of them finish. Chrome shows a "started debugging this browser" banner while this happens.
4. **Private mode where available** Before asking, the extension turns on each engine's private mode: temporary chat in ChatGPT, incognito in Claude and Perplexity, and non-personalized results on Google. This is best effort, because engines move these settings around.
5. **Real input, finished answers** The prompt is typed into the engine's own chat box, the same way you would. The extension waits until the engine shows the answer is finished, up to 10 minutes, then reads it as Markdown with its cited sources. For Perplexity, sources come from the thread data.
6. **Upload the answer, nothing else** Only the answer text, its sources and run diagnostics are uploaded. The page itself, your cookies and your account tokens stay in your browser.
7. **Reports with the math shown** Mentions are matched against your aliases and citations against your domains. Visibility, owned citation rate and share of voice are calculated with explicit denominators, and every number links to its answer.

## What pauses a check

Sometimes an engine wants a human. When that happens, AEOmeter stops and tells you instead of guessing.

- **Login wall.** You were signed out of an engine. Sign back in in that Chrome and resume.
- **Verification or CAPTCHA.** The engine asked you to prove you are human. You solve it yourself. AEOmeter never bypasses a CAPTCHA.
- **Rate limit.** The engine asked you to slow down. The check waits until you resume it.

A paused check shows a red "!" badge on the extension icon. Open the toolbar popup to pause, resume or skip. A prompt is never sent twice, and a failed or skipped check never counts as a miss in your numbers.

## Why collect from a browser

- **The answers your buyers see.** Your buyers use the ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity apps and Google search, not a developer API. AEOmeter reads answers from those same consumer apps.
- **Signed in like a real person.** Checks run in a normal Chrome session with your own accounts, the way a buyer would ask.
- **Low collection cost.** The work happens on your machine, so collecting answers costs very little to run.

Other tools also collect from web interfaces. What AEOmeter adds is that it runs in your own browser and shows you the raw evidence.

## The trade-off: your Chrome has to be open

Checks run only while Chrome is open, connected and signed in to each engine. If your laptop stays closed for a week, nothing is collected that week. AEOmeter shows the next scheduled time and the last actual capture side by side, so a gap in your data is visible instead of hidden behind zeros.

## Privacy

- The extension never captures provider cookies or account tokens.
- It uploads the latest answer and its sources, not the page.
- Your prompts go only to the AI engines you selected for them.
- Site analytics load only after you consent and exclude prompts, answers and brand identifiers.

Read the [privacy policy](https://aeometer.com/privacy).

## Questions

### Can I keep working while checks run?

Yes. Checks run in background tabs in their own "AEOmeter" tab group. You can use Chrome as normal, though closing those tabs or signing out of an engine can interrupt a check.

### Which browser do I need?

Google Chrome on a computer. The extension is called AEOmeter BETA and is not yet searchable in the Chrome Web Store, so the app walks you through installing it after [sign-up](https://aeometer.com/sign-up).

### How long does a check take?

As long as the engine takes to finish its answer. The extension waits for each engine's finished state and gives up after 10 minutes.

### Will a prompt ever be sent twice?

No. AEOmeter never sends the same prompt twice for one check. If the answer cannot be read, the check shows as failed and stays out of your numbers.

### Why does Chrome show a debugging banner?

The extension uses Chrome's debugger API to type into each engine's chat box like a person would. Chrome shows the banner whenever an extension uses that API.

### What if an engine changes its page?

Engines redesign often, so the adapters are experimental. When one breaks, checks for that engine fail visibly and we fix the adapter. See [troubleshooting](https://aeometer.com/help/troubleshooting).

---

- Web page: https://aeometer.com/how-it-works
- Start tracking your brand: https://aeometer.com/sign-up
- All pages for AI agents: https://aeometer.com/llms.txt