GEO Pricing 2026: What 22 Agencies Charge for AI Search Optimization
Built from the prices 22 agencies publish for generative engine optimization (GEO), plus the plan prices of 8 AI visibility tools. Captured 10 November 2026. Every row links to its source in the download below.
Short answer: among 12 agencies that sell a standalone GEO retainer in US dollars, the cheapest monthly plan has a median of $2,045. That median hides a split market: 5 start under $1,000 and 6 start at $2,500 or more, with only one in between. UK agencies that publish GEO prices start at £390 to £450 a month, Indian agencies at ₹24,000 to ₹55,000. Tracking software, if the agency does not include it, adds $20 to $295 a month at entry level.
middle half $574 to $4,200
agency’s SEO plan (3 of 4)
AI visibility tools
14 USD · 4 GBP · 3 INR · 1 EUR
How much does GEO cost per month?
Published GEO retainers in US dollars start anywhere from $349 to $10,000 a month. The useful finding is the gap: almost nobody prices between $1,000 and $2,500, because the two ends are selling different things.
Cheapest monthly GEO retainer each agency publishes, USD only, standalone GEO (not add-ons or bundles). Six of the twelve are “from” prices. Source: agencies’ own pages, captured 10 Nov 2026.
| Currency | Agencies | Cheapest entry plan | Highest published plan | How it is sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 14 | $297 (bundle) / $349 (standalone) | $13,000 | 12 standalone retainers, 1 bundle with web and SEO, 1 add-on to SEO |
| GBP | 4 | £79 per order / £390 a month | £10,000 | 1 standalone, 1 SEO-plus-AI plan, 1 included in SEO at no extra cost, 1 per-order shop |
| INR | 3 | ₹24,000 | ₹3,00,000+ | 3 standalone; one quotes indicative ranges only |
| EUR | 1 | €2,500 | €5,000 | Standalone, 3-month minimum |
What does a GEO retainer include at each price?
Only 4 of the 22 agencies publish how many AI prompts or buyer questions they track. That number is the clearest way to compare plans, so ask for it in every quote.
| Agency and plan | Monthly price | Prompts or questions tracked | Content and off-site work |
|---|---|---|---|
| NeuralAdX, GEO Visibility Boost (UK) | £450 + VAT | 5 prompts, 5 competitors | 1 enhanced page, 2 benchmark reports, 1 recorded live AI test |
| Brandify, Starter (US) | $479 | 10 prompts | 1 page improved, up to 10 directory and citation listings, Google Business Profile |
| Brandify, Growth (US) | $799 | competitor AI monitoring | 4 posts or pages, up to 50 citation actions |
| Pomegranate, Entry / Starter / Growth (UK) | £390 / £740 / £1,495+ | 12 / 25 / 40 questions on 4 assistants | About 7, 14 and 30 hours of work, off-site mentions, entity and schema work from Starter |
| SEO Vendor, Starter / Premium (US) | $599 / $2,499 | not stated | 10 to 40 pages, 9K to 37.5K words, on-site and off-site GEO posts |
| GEO.solutions, Starter / Authority | from $1,590 / $4,490 | not stated | 5 to 20 briefs and articles a month |
| Verticality (US and Canada) | $2,500 to $7,500 | 130 questions, daily | Placements on the pages each assistant cites |
Deliverables as each agency lists them on its pricing page, 10 Nov 2026. “Not stated” means the plan does not give a number.
Does GEO cost more than SEO?
At the same agency, yes. Three agencies in this sample publish SEO and GEO prices side by side, and the GEO price is 50% to 100% higher at each level. A fourth includes AI search work in its SEO plans at no extra charge.
Same agency, same level: the SEO plan versus the same plan with GEO added (Pomegranate, Lifted Websites) or the matching AI search package (SEO Discovery). Prices before VAT or GST where stated. Source: agencies’ pricing pages, 8 and 10 Nov 2026.
Across the wider market, most SEO agencies now mention AI search but very few charge for it separately. In our SEO pricing index of 92 agencies, 38 mention AI search, GEO or AEO in their plans and 4 put a separate price on it.
| Market | SEO agencies in the index | Mention AI search in plans | Price GEO separately |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | 33 | 15 | 2 |
| UK | 29 | 11 | 1 |
| India | 30 | 12 | 1 |
So a GEO quote can mean three different things: a separate retainer, a premium tier of an SEO plan, or a line in a plan you already pay for. Ask which one you are being sold before you compare prices.
How much do AI visibility tools cost?
Tracking tools start at $20 to $295 a month on their published plans, with a median entry price of $97 across the eight we checked. If your agency’s retainer does not include one, budget for it on top.
| Tool | Entry plan | Higher plans | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rankscale | from $20 | $99 / $229 / $385 / $780 | Credit-based; the $20 entry is billed yearly |
| GeoGryphon | $29 | $79 | Free tier and one-off $19 audits |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | from $50 | $199 index access | Add-on to an Ahrefs subscription (plans from $129) |
| Peec AI | $95 | $245 / $495 | Daily tracking; extra AI models cost more |
| GEO Toolbox | $99 | $199 / $399 | 50 tracked prompts on the entry plan |
| Scrunch | $250 | custom | Separate agency plans |
| AthenaHQ | $295 | custom | Credit-based starter plan |
| Goodie | $295 | $999 | 7-day free trial |
Before paying for any of these, run a free baseline: our tool lets you check your AI visibility on 15 signals in about three minutes.
What does Google say about paying for GEO?
Google’s own guide, last updated 10 July 2026, says optimizing for its AI features “is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”
- No special files or formats: for Google Search you can ignore “chunking” content and AI text files such as llms.txt, according to Google’s AI optimization guide.
- No special schema: structured data is not required for its generative AI features, though it still helps with rich results.
- Page factories are spam: writing separate pages for every variation of a question, including AI “fan-out” queries, mainly to influence rankings or AI answers breaches Google’s scaled content abuse policy.
- Measure it for free: Search Console now has a Generative AI performance report for Google’s AI features.
Google speaks only for Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini each choose sources their own way, which is why prompt tracking across several assistants is the part of a GEO retainer that is genuinely new work. The rest (pages that answer the question directly, a site AI crawlers can read, and other sites mentioning you) is SEO done well.
Red flags in GEO quotes
GEO is a young market and quotes vary more than SEO quotes do. These are the items worth questioning before you sign.
- llms.txt or “AI chunking” sold as deliverables: Google says to ignore both for Google Search. If they appear as paid line items, ask what result they are meant to produce and where.
- No prompt count: 18 of the 22 agencies do not publish how many prompts they track. “AI visibility monitoring” without a number, a list of assistants and a frequency is not a deliverable.
- Citation guarantees: one UK agency attaches an “AI citation guarantee” to its £5,000 and £10,000 plans, subject to eligibility. No agency controls what an AI assistant says. Read the terms and ask what you get back if it is missed.
- Hundreds of near-identical pages: a plan that promises a page for every question variation risks Google’s scaled content abuse policy. Ask how each page differs and who checks it.
- Set-up fees with no output: set-up charges in this sample run from $199 to a $2,800 foundation month. Ask for the list of what the set-up month produces.
- Paying twice for tracking: if the agency uses a tool such as Otterly, Peec or Profound, ask whether its cost is inside the retainer or billed to you as well.
What we see when we compare GEO quotes
The price split tells you what you are buying. Under $1,000 a month you are buying a package: a fixed number of pages, posts or tracked prompts, run mostly by process. From $2,500 you are paying for people: strategy, original content and the outreach that gets you mentioned on sites the assistants trust. Both can be the right buy. The expensive mistake is paying programme prices for package work.
When a client sends us a GEO proposal, we ask for three numbers first: how many buyer prompts are tracked, on which assistants, and how many pieces of content or third-party mentions ship each month. Only four of the 22 agencies in this index publish the first one.
The work that moved AI answers for Moving Hub, from zero to 2,460 AI citations in 90 days, was mostly SEO done thoroughly: answer-first pages, a crawlable site and earned mentions. No AI text file was involved.
Jahid Hussain, Founder, Paradigm Media Networks · runs SEO and GEO programmes for clients in the US, UK and India
GEO quote checker: is your price high or low?
Enter the monthly GEO price you were quoted in US dollars. The checker places it against the 12 standalone USD retainers in this index.
If not, we add the $97 median entry tool price to compare like for like.
Send the proposal and we reply within 48 hours (business days) with what looks fair and what to ask.
PMN’s GEO pricing, for comparison
These are Paradigm Media Networks’ own prices, not survey data. Our standalone GEO services start from $2,000 a month and are scoped by the assistants and prompts you need to win. GEO is also built into every bundled plan below, alongside SEO and ads.
Set-up: $350 / £250 / ₹25,000 on Starter, $1,000 / £750 / ₹65,000 on Search and above, waived on a 6-month term. INR prices are before 18% GST. Full scope on PMN’s plans page.
GEO pricing FAQ
How much does GEO cost per month in 2026?
Among 12 agencies that publish a standalone GEO retainer in US dollars, the cheapest plan has a median of $2,045 a month, with the middle half between $574 and $4,200. Packages start from $349 and agency programmes run to $13,000 a month. UK agencies that publish GEO prices start at £390 to £450 a month, and Indian agencies at ₹24,000 to ₹55,000.
Is $500 a month enough for GEO?
$500 buys a package, not a programme. In this sample, plans around that price track 5 to 10 AI prompts and improve one page or a handful of listings a month. That can work for a local business in a quiet category. For a competitive category, the agencies that publish prices start at $2,500 for work that includes content and earned mentions.
Does GEO cost more than SEO?
At the same agency it usually does. Three agencies that publish both prices charge 50% to 100% more for the GEO version of a plan; a fourth includes AI search work in its SEO plans at no extra cost. Across 92 SEO agencies we track, 38 mention AI search and only 4 price it separately.
How much do AI visibility tracking tools cost?
Published entry plans for eight tools run from $20 a month (Rankscale, billed yearly) to $295 (AthenaHQ, Goodie), with a median of $97. Higher plans go up to about $999 a month. Check whether your agency already pays for one before buying your own.
Do I need an llms.txt file to show up in AI answers?
Not for Google. Google's AI optimization guide says you can ignore AI text files such as llms.txt, and content chunking, for Google Search. Other assistants have not committed to using it either, so treat it as optional, not as a paid deliverable.
Can a GEO agency guarantee that ChatGPT will cite my brand?
No one controls what an AI assistant says. One agency in this sample offers an AI citation guarantee on its top plans, subject to eligibility terms. If you see one, read what happens when it is missed, usually more work rather than money back.
What should a GEO retainer include?
At minimum: a named list of AI assistants, a fixed set of buyer prompts tracked at a stated frequency, a monthly report showing where you are mentioned and cited, and a count of the content and third-party mentions delivered. Only 4 of the 22 agencies here publish their prompt count, so ask for it.
Why do some GEO agencies charge a set-up fee?
The first month usually goes on an AI visibility audit, technical fixes so assistants can read the site, and building the prompt set. Set-up charges in this sample run from $199 to a $2,800 foundation month. A fair set-up fee comes with a written list of what it produces.
Is GEO different from SEO?
Google says optimizing for its AI features is still SEO. The new parts of GEO are tracking how several AI assistants answer your buyers' questions and earning mentions on the sources those assistants cite. Most of the work that helps, such as clear answer-first pages and a crawlable site, also helps Google rankings.
Method, sources and data download
- Sample: 22 agencies that publish a price for GEO, AEO, LLM SEO or AI search optimization on their own website: 14 price in USD, 4 in GBP, 3 in INR and 1 in EUR. Three come from the agencies already in our SEO pricing index. Directories, marketplaces and PMN were excluded. Some prices appear in an agency’s own pricing guide rather than a pricing page; the CSV says which.
- Tools: 8 AI visibility tools with self-serve prices on the vendor’s own pricing page. Tools that only quote on request were left out.
- Collection: every page was read by hand on 10 November 2026. We record prices as facts and do not reuse agencies’ wording. No automated queries were sent to Google or to any AI assistant.
- Measures: entry = cheapest published monthly GEO plan; medians use only the 12 standalone USD retainers. No currency conversion is applied.
- Limits: GEO is a young category and agencies that only quote on request are not here, so this is a picture of published prices, not every deal. Small GBP, INR and EUR samples are shown as ranges, not medians.
- How we used AI: AI research tools helped find pricing pages. Every price was checked against its source page, and the findings were reviewed by Jahid Hussain.
- Refresh: every 90 days. Next update due February 2027.
Change log: 10 Nov 2026, first edition. This page replaces our earlier GEO cost article. Spotted an error or want your agency’s published GEO prices included? Email info@paradigmmedianetworks.com.
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- What the deliverables are worth: prompts tracked, assistants covered, content and mentions counted against what the same budget buys elsewhere.
- Line items to question: set-up fees, llms.txt-style deliverables and any citation guarantee.
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