How Much Does GEO Cost? Agency vs Software vs In-House

Short answer

As of October 2026, published agency programs for AI search visibility run from about $775 to $10,000 a month, with WebFX's top public tier at $68,250. Self-serve trackers cost $29 to about $700 a month, and software that also writes pages starts at $39 a month (Frase) or $99 (Citepoint, which also drafts pitches). In-house, the closest US specialist roles have median salaries of $74,750 to $99,520 a year before benefits. The right option depends on who will do the work.

Key takeaways

Agencies publish retainers from $775 to $10,000 a month at The HOTH, from $3,000 at WebFX and from $10,000 at uSERP, often with a six-month commitment.
Trackers cost $29 to $699 a month on public brand plans. Citepoint's plans run $99 to $649 a month and include page writing and mentions.
BLS median pay in May 2025 was $74,750 for public relations specialists, $76,910 for writers and $78,760 for market research analysts, before benefits and payroll costs.
Third-party mentions are the cost people forget: a survey of SEO professionals put the average acceptable price of one high-quality link at $508.95.

What are you actually paying for?

GEO has five cost lines, whoever does the work:

Tracking. Asking the engines your buyer questions and reading the answers.
Pages. Answer-first pages on your own domain, such as comparisons and alternatives.
Mentions. Reviews, roundups, communities and press, where AI looks.
Technical access. Crawler rules, rendering, structured data.
Management. Strategy, approvals and reporting.

The three routes below differ in how they bundle those lines.

What do agencies charge?

Prices as published on each agency's own site, October 2026:

Agency	Published price	Commitment	What it says is included
The HOTH, AI Discover	$1,500, $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000 a month on its AI Discover page. Its AI visibility page says it starts at $775 a month	Not stated	Earned media, digital PR, content refresh, review and reputation management
WebFX, AI SEO	$3,000 a month up to $68,250 on its top public tier, then custom	Six months	Tiered by volume. The entry plan includes a baseline audit of 500 (50 prompts across 10 LLMs) and 3 assets a month
Discovered Labs, retainers	€6,995 or €10,995 a month, custom from €15,995	Six months for the best rate	For example, up to 20 content units a month and a four-person pod on the entry plan
uSERP, managed programs	From $10,000 a month	Six-month initial term	SEO and AI search programs

For context, an Ahrefs poll of 439 SEO providers (classic SEO, not GEO) found costs "usually range from $250 to $10,000 per month," with 63% of businesses spending $500 to $5,000, and agencies charging $3,209 a month on average. Ahrefs computed averages from the top of each price band, the page was last updated in August 2024, and the sample is worldwide, so treat it as a rough guide. WebFX's own estimate, which it says comes from "scouring data from across the web," is $1,500 to $50,000 or more a month for agency GEO, and $10 to $1,000 or more for do-it-yourself tools and software.

What does software cost?

Type	Tool	Public price, October 2026
Tracker	Otterly.AI	$29 (Lite), $189 (Standard), $489 (Premium) a month
Tracker	Peec AI	$95 (Starter), $245 (Pro), $495 (Advanced) a month billed monthly
Tracker	Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	$99 a month per domain, billed annually
Tracker	Ahrefs Brand Radar	From $199 a month for one platform's AI index, $699 for all models, custom prompt packages $50 to $250 a month
Tracker	Profound	Brands: free trial, then custom Enterprise pricing. Agencies: Agency Growth, $99 a month plus $399 a month per client workspace
Content and tracking	Surfer, Frase	Surfer from $49 a month billed yearly (AI tracking from $82), Frase from $39 a month billed yearly or $49 month to month
Full loop	Citepoint	$99, $199, $299 and $649 a month

Our comparison of AI visibility tools covers what each includes. The main trade-off is that trackers show the problem and leave the work to you, while full-loop software also writes and publishes the pages and drafts the pitches.

What does in-house cost?

The closest US occupations in the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, with median annual pay in May 2025:

Role	Median annual pay	Per month, before benefits
Public relations specialists	$74,750	about $6,229
Writers and authors	$76,910	about $6,409
Market research analysts	$78,760	about $6,563
Web developers and digital designers	$99,520	about $8,293
Advertising, promotions and marketing managers	$165,780	about $13,815

Monthly figures are our arithmetic from BLS's annual medians, and they exclude benefits and employer payroll costs. Most small teams don't hire a full role for GEO. They give a fraction of a writer's, an analyst's and a developer's time to it and buy a tracker. Add that time to the software cost when you compare options.

What costs are easy to miss?

Mentions. Coverage on the sites AI cites is not free. In Editorial.Link's survey of 518 SEO professionals, the 412 participants who answered put the average acceptable price for one high-quality backlink at $508.95. That is a mean, from a self-selected sample, and it measures what people consider acceptable. List prices show a similar range: The HOTH sells exclusive media links at $300 (DR 30+ US news sites) and $450 (DR 60+), and uSERP lists DR 60+ links at $600 to $900 each.
Disclosure. Google's spam policies treat buying links for ranking purposes as link spam, and say paid links are allowed only when qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". See digital PR for AI citations.
Page production at scale. The HOTH lists AEO-ready content refresh at $40 a page.
Review profiles and reputation management. The HOTH lists review and reputation management from $275 a month.
Your own time reading and approving the work.

What does a do-it-yourself month cost, in practice?

A worked example, using our arithmetic and the BLS writer median of $76,910 a year, which is about $37 an hour at 2,080 working hours. A writer who spends 8 hours a week on GEO pages is about 35 hours a month, or roughly $1,280 of salary cost before benefits. Add a $189 a month tracker and the do-it-yourself route comes to about $1,470 a month. That is cheaper than most of the published agency prices above, but it is your team's time, and it doesn't include earning mentions.

How do the options compare?

Option	Monthly cost	Who does the work	Fits when
Tracker only	$29 to about $700	You	You have writers and PR, and need numbers
Full-loop software	$99 to $649	Software, with your approval	You have no one to write pages or pitch
Agency	$775 to $10,000 and up	The agency	You want a team and relationships, and can commit for six months
In-house role	About $6,200 to $8,300 per specialist role, before benefits	You	GEO is a core channel and you have volume

How do you decide?

Start by measuring. A tracker or a free scan tells you whether AI already recommends you for your buyer questions, and which competitors it names instead, before you spend on the work. Then match the route to the gap. If the gap is pages, software is the cheapest route. If it is relationships and coverage, an agency or in-house PR is. Be wary of anyone who sells placement, because no engine lets you buy a spot in its organic answers. Google says indexing and serving "isn't guaranteed" even for pages that meet every requirement, and OpenAI says its product results are organic. Citepoint's free scan shows who AI recommends for three of your questions in a minute or two.

Frequently asked questions

Is GEO more expensive than SEO?

It overlaps with SEO, so the foundations cost the same. The extra costs are tracking AI answers and earning mentions on the sources AI cites. Published GEO agency prices overlap with classic SEO retainers, which Ahrefs found to run $250 to $10,000 a month.

What is the cheapest way to start?

A free scan to see who AI recommends for a few of your questions, then a low-cost tracker, such as Otterly.AI's Lite plan at $29 a month for 15 prompts, or software that also writes pages, from $39 a month billed yearly at Frase, or $99 a month for Citepoint, which also drafts the pitches for mentions. Fix your own pages and profiles before paying for anything else.

Do I need an agency?

Only if you need relationship-led PR or a team to run the program. Agencies publish prices from $775 a month and often ask for six months. If your gap is pages, software costs far less.

Are annual plans cheaper?

Usually. Otterly.AI and Peec AI each show roughly 15% off for annual billing, Semrush's toolkit is listed as billed annually, and Citepoint's yearly plans give two months free. Check each vendor's page.

Can I pay to be recommended by an AI assistant?

Not inside organic answers. OpenAI describes ChatGPT's product results as organic and unsponsored, and Google says indexing and serving isn't guaranteed. You can pay for work that improves your odds, such as pages and coverage, but not for the placement.