Generative Engine Optimization Cost: 55 Providers' Prices
Generative engine optimization is the practice of getting a brand retrieved, cited and named in the answers AI assistants give.
TL;DR: Generative engine optimization (GEO) agency pricing starts near $500 a month and runs past $30,000 at enterprise level, and the Strategi pricing survey of 55 providers, checked 24 Oct 2026, found 34 publishing a GEO or AI-search price. First Page Sage, which sells GEO services, reports a median retainer of $6,850 per month for Q3 2026 across its dataset of 214 agencies. AI visibility tools start at $29 a month and only track: they do not write, fix or earn mentions. Compare every offer on its total cost over the minimum term, because the monthly fee alone hides the commitment. All of these are US-dollar figures, and no India-specific benchmark is published.
How much does generative engine optimization cost per month?
Generative engine optimization is the practice of getting a brand retrieved, cited and named in the answers AI assistants give. A managed program cost a median of $6,850 a month in Q3 2026, by First Page Sage's count of 1,146 quotes from 214 agencies, up 66% since the first quarter of 2024. Those quotes mix pricing pages, client proposals and signed contracts in undisclosed proportions.
No independent survey of GEO prices is published. Every figure in this market, including the Strategi pricing survey, comes from a company with something to sell, so each one is a seller's benchmark.
First Page Sage's October 2026 report sorts the market into four tiers, and the spread inside them tells a buyer more than the median does.
| Tier | Monthly range | Median | Typical term | Deliverables a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $1,800 to $4,200 | $2,950 | 3 months | 3.4 |
| Growth | $4,500 to $11,000 | $7,400 | 6 months | 6.5 |
| Advanced | $11,000 to $22,000 | $14,600 | 6 months | 9.8 |
| Enterprise | $22,000 to $60,000+ | $31,500 | 12 months | 14.2 |
Enterprise clients pay 10.7 times the Starter median for 4.2 times the deliverables, a gap First Page Sage attributes to added PR, multi-market work and senior staffing. The report does not define a deliverable, so output counts may not compare across agencies.
RevvGrowth, a GEO agency focused on B2B SaaS, gives different bands: $3,000 to $7,000 at entry and $15,000 to $25,000+ at enterprise. The gap reflects method, since First Page Sage discloses a sample while RevvGrowth publishes none and frames its tiers around SaaS companies.
Retainers remain the default: First Page Sage classifies 68% of agencies as selling on a monthly retainer, based on the model each uses for most engagements. Its GEO median sits 45% above its $4,740 median for traditional SEO retainers, which compares prices rather than like-for-like work. First Page Sage gives no geographic breakdown, and no published figure exists for India, so none of these prices is an Indian rate.
What do agencies charge compared with tools?
AI visibility tools start at $29 a month, and outside two plans near $500, published agency entry prices start at $3,000, according to the Strategi pricing survey of 55 providers (35 agencies or done-for-you services, 20 tools), checked 24 Oct 2026. An AI visibility tool is software that tracks how often a brand appears in AI answers. As Tribeup Academy, which sells a service alternative, puts it, a tool shows the problem but does not fix it, so the technical and content work stays in-house or gets bought separately.
Those dashboard numbers are estimates, and Strategi reads every third-party tool metric directionally rather than as a measurement. The tables below show published list prices read on each provider's own site on 24 Oct 2026. Private quotes differ.
| Tool | Published monthly price | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | $29 | 15 prompts |
| Peec AI | $95, $245 or $495 | EUR 85, 205 or 425 in Europe |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99 | Per domain, standalone |
| Searchable Pro | $125 | None listed |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | From $199 | Free Ahrefs account |
| Scrunch | $250 | 125 prompts |
| AthenaHQ | $295 | None listed |
| Goodie | $354 | $295 billed annually |
| Agency | Entry band | Published price | Minimum term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategi | Under $1,000 | $499, $999 or $2,499 a month | Month to month |
| Thrive Agency | Under $1,000 | From $500 a month | Month to month |
| WebFX | $2,000 to $5,000 | $3,000 a month | 6 months |
| OuterBox | $2,000 to $5,000 | $3,000 a month | Month to month |
| RevenueZen | $2,000 to $5,000 | $3,000 a month | Month to month |
| Digital Elevator | $2,000 to $5,000 | $3,495 a month | 3 months |
| Quoleady | $2,000 to $5,000 | $3,500 a month | 3 months |
| Tenten | $2,000 to $5,000 | From $4,999 a month | Month to month |
| Obility | $5,000+ | $5,450 a month | Not stated |
| First Page Sage | $5,000+ | $6,000 to $12,000 a month | Month to month |
| SeoProfy | $5,000+ | From $6,000 | Not stated |
| Rock The Rankings | $5,000+ | $6,000 to $16,000 a month | Not stated |
| GoPoint | $5,000+ | $8,000 to $12,000 a month | 12 months |
| Siege Media | $5,000+ | $8,000 a month content minimum | 12 months, 30-day out |
| Omniscient Digital | $5,000+ | From $120,000 a year | Not stated |
| NoGood | $5,000+ | Averages above $20,000 a month | Not stated |
| iPullRank | $5,000+ | $30,000 to $150,000, period not stated | Not stated |
| SearchTides | $5,000+ | $45,000 one-time sprint | One sprint |
Strategi reports that its plans at $499, $999 and $2,499 a month run month to month with no minimum term and no setup fee. The freelancer tier is less documented: an undated estimate from Tribeup Academy puts freelancers at $500 to $2,000 a month, without citing a dataset.
Why do only some providers publish a price?
Only 16 of 35 agencies (46%) publish a GEO price in the Strategi pricing survey of 55 providers, checked 24 Oct 2026, against 18 of 20 tools. Another 5 agencies publish only a minimum or an average, and 16 providers publish nothing, among them Go Fish Digital, Omnius, Foundation, Directive and Single Grain.
In First Page Sage's dataset of 214 agencies, compiled July 6 to October 2, 2026, , and fewer published full tiers.
The two shares differ because the samples do: 35 agencies checked one by one against 214 whose selection First Page Sage does not state. Tools can publish because they sell a countable unit such as prompts, domains or workspaces, while agency scope gets negotiated. RevvGrowth shows the pattern: it publishes market-wide ranges but says its own GEO programs are custom-priced, and it notes that some agencies sell audits while others bundle content, technical work, authority building and citation tracking.
An unpublished price also creates work for the buyer. Forrester's State of Business Buying, 2026, as cited by ThirdMeta, puts procurement professionals as decision-makers in 53% of business buying cycles, a general finding rather than a GEO one. A procurement reviewer needs comparable numbers, so any unpublished provider on a shortlist needs a written quote covering scope, term and extras. Strategi's AI SEO agency comparison covers that shortlist.
What does $500, $3,000 and $10,000 a month buy?
Each step buys more scope, and the term often changes with it. At $500 a buyer gets content or capped specialist hours, at $3,000 a defined agency program, and at $10,000 a wider program with a longer commitment.
About $500: Thrive Agency starts at $500 a month, month to month, per the Strategi pricing survey of 55 providers, checked 24 Oct 2026. Strategi reports that Starter at $499 is content only: 10 blog posts a month, a site check with the fix list handed over, and 50 buyer questions tracked on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. GTMLab's Essential plan at US$499 covers 40 prompts across 3 engines and 30 logged tasks, each about 60 minutes of specialist work.
About $3,000: WebFX starts here on a 6-month commitment, while OuterBox and RevenueZen run month to month, per the same survey. First Page Sage's October 2026 report puts the Starter tier median at $2,950 for 3.4 deliverables a month.
About $10,000: Hashmeta AI's pricing page lists its top package at US$10,000 a month on a 12-month minimum, covering managed SEO, AEO and GEO. GoPoint includes AI search in an $8,000 to $12,000 retainer on a 12-month term, per the Strategi pricing survey of 55 providers, checked 24 Oct 2026. First Page Sage's Growth tier stops at $11,000, so this money buys PR and multi-market work only at some agencies.
Price and scope do not line up neatly across providers. Strategi reports that Growth at $999 includes 15 posts and 5 money pages a month plus every technical fix, and that Scale at $2,499 adds listings, review collection, Reddit and Quora and 50 publisher pitches a month. The company's platform does the research, drafting, technical fixes and daily tracking, while specialists set the strategy and approve every change. No independent study measures whether paid GEO returns its cost at any of these prices.
What should be in the price, and what is extra?
A GEO price should cover four jobs: technical access, pages built on buyer questions, off-site mentions and measurement. A retainer that skips them may be "repackaging a tracking dashboard as a service". Strategi's view is that anything short of new content types, answer formats, query strategy and consistent facts across surfaces is SEO with new vocabulary and a second invoice.
How to compare two quotes
GTMLab advises comparing recurring fees, setup costs, additional implementation costs and the minimum contract commitment. It is one vendor's formula rather than an industry standard, but it turns two unlike quotes into one number.
Multiply the recurring fee by the committed months. A $3,000 plan on six months is $18,000 before extras, whatever the monthly figure suggests.
Add setup and additional implementation. A low retainer can still leave technical fixes and page production to be billed separately, so get both in writing.
Add separately billed tools and placements. These sit outside the headline fee at some providers, and placements are the item most worth pricing line by line.
Price the exit. GTMLab notes that a handover fee, a publishing dependency or a tool account held only by the agency can affect the real cost of changing providers. Record who owns the content, tracking accounts and data.
Treat guarantees as an item to read closely. ThatWare advises caution with guarantees framed like keyword rankings, because answers change with prompts, context, model updates and retrieval sources. Performance-based pricing is rare at 5% of agencies, and First Page Sage reports that buyers it surveyed had difficulty agreeing how results are counted, without giving a percentage. Strategi offers no guarantee on any plan, and its plans exclude LinkedIn, paid ads, website rebuilds, social media, strategy calls and monthly reports (clients get a live dashboard).
Sources
GEO & AEO Pricing Statistics: 2026 Report – First Page Sage (First Page Sage, 2026-10-07)
GEO Agency Pricing: Costs and Plans Explained A PPC agency that speaks SaaS (Gartner, 2024-02-19)
How Much Does GEO Optimization Cost for a Small Business? (Tribeup Academy)
GEO Agency Cost Per Month: 2026 B2B SaaS Pricing Guide (Forrester, 2026-01-01)
GEO Services Cost in 2026: Pricing, Scope & Contracts (WebFX, reported by GTMLab, 2026-10-22)
Frequently asked questions
- How much does generative engine optimization cost per month?
- Generative engine optimization costs a median of $6,850 per month in Q3 2026, according to First Page Sage, which sells GEO services and counted 214 agencies. Published offers run from about $500 a month to more than $30,000 at enterprise level. These are US-dollar figures, not India-specific rates.
- How much does generative engine optimization cost in India?
- No published benchmark exists for generative engine optimization prices in India. First Page Sage gives no geographic breakdown, and its prices are in US dollars. An Indian buyer should collect written quotes and treat US figures as an international reference rather than a local rate.
- What does a generative engine optimization agency actually do every month?
- A generative engine optimization agency should fix technical access, publish pages that answer real buyer questions, earn off-site mentions and measure results against a baseline. The split varies by plan, and some retainers cover little beyond tracking. Ask for the monthly list of pages, fixes and placements before signing a contract.
- Can an agency guarantee that ChatGPT will name my brand?
- No agency can honestly promise that ChatGPT will name a brand every time, because answers change with prompts, context, model updates and retrieval sources. ThatWare advises caution with ranking-style guarantees, and GTMLab says its own guarantee is no such promise. Any guarantee needs a written target and written measurement conditions.
- How long does generative engine optimization take to show results?
- With Strategi, first pages and fixes go live in month 1, and generative engine optimization results usually start to show in months 2 to 3, then build. Give the work at least 90 days to judge, because Google rankings and AI answers take time to settle. No independent timing benchmark is published, and Strategi offers no guarantee on any plan.
- Does every company need generative engine optimization?
- Generative engine optimization does not suit every company. It fits businesses whose buyers research with AI before choosing. Strategi says no when buyers do not use AI to research or buy, or when a market is too small for AI visibility to return anything, and it usually points those companies to outbound instead.
Price your shortlist over the full term
Add up each shortlisted provider's cost across its minimum term, then set it against Strategi's plans at $499, $999 and $2,499 a month, which run month to month with no setup fee. If the scope is still unclear, start with Strategi's free AI visibility check: a full check of the site, the 5 issues costing it most and the first 5 topics to publish, in about 30 minutes.