How much does AI SEO cost?
What the market charges to get you into AI answers, which parts are rebadged SEO, and the honest one-time setup we do instead.
Updated July 2026
AI SEO runs anywhere from free to $3,000 a month across the market: nothing but your time if you do the groundwork yourself, roughly $100 to $500 a month for AI visibility monitoring tools, and $1,000 to $3,000 a month for agency retainers sold as GEO or AEO. At A Visual Identity, the AI visibility setup is a one-time $500, and we tell you honestly whether any ongoing work would earn its keep.
A caution before the numbers: AI SEO is young, and a lot of what is sold under the name is ordinary search work with a new sticker. That is not all bad, because the fundamentals genuinely matter to AI answers, but you should know exactly what you are buying. This guide separates the real additions from the rebranding.
What the market charges for AI SEO
| What you buy | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | $0, plus your weekends | Fill out your Google Business Profile completely, publish your real prices, answer real questions on your site, keep your listings consistent. Genuinely effective, if it actually gets done. |
| AI visibility monitoring tools | $100 to $500 a month | Dashboards that track whether ChatGPT and friends mention your brand. Useful measurement, but the tools only watch. Someone still has to do the work that changes the answers. |
| Agency GEO or AEO retainers | $1,000 to $3,000 a month | Some are excellent, and many are a normal SEO retainer with AI on the slide deck. Ask precisely what will change on your site and how mentions will be measured before you sign. |
| One-time setup | $500 to $2,500 | The structural work done once: business facts made legible to assistants, answer pages published, profile and listings squared away, and a measured baseline. Ongoing work only if the measurements argue for it. |
What actually moves the price
Whether your facts agree with themselves
If your hours, address, services, and prices differ across your site, your Google profile, and your listings, assistants trust none of it. Cleaning that up is often the bulk of the first project.
How much answering content exists
Assistants cite pages that genuinely answer questions. If your site has none, they need writing, and that is real work worth budgeting honestly.
Your review footprint
When someone asks for the best plumber nearby, assistants lean hard on review count, recency, and rating. A simple habit of asking happy customers moves this more than any technical trick.
Competition in your niche
If nobody in your trade is legible to AI yet, the early mover wins cheaply. If competitors already publish clean facts and answers, matching them takes more.
How often you want it measured
A baseline plus periodic re-checks covers most small businesses. Weekly tracking across many questions and assistants is where the monthly tools and retainers start to earn a place.
What we charge
One time, fixed quote. If your niche would genuinely benefit from ongoing tracking and content, we show you exactly what the monthly work would look like before you commit to anything.
Getting recommended by AI
from $500One time: your services, prices, and facts published the way assistants read best, your Google profile squared away, answer-first pages planned, and a measured baseline of who AI names today.
A brand new website
from $1,500When the honest finding is that your current site gives the assistants nothing worth citing, this is the fix.
Common questions
Keep reading
The service behind these numbers, and what everything else costs.
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