The four price bands, and what each one buys
“GEO” and “AI visibility” cover four very different products at four very different prices. Knowing which one you’re being sold is most of the battle.
| Tier | Typical price | What you get | What you don’t |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated tools | $19–199/mo | Bulk content or auto-publishing on autopilot | Strategy, approval, accountability |
| Monitoring dashboards | $29–700/mo | Tracking of where you appear in AI answers | The work that earns the citation |
| Done-for-you (SMB) | $1,500–5,000/mo | Strategy plus execution, retainer-based | Often meeting-heavy; some are relabeled SEO |
| Agencies / enterprise | $3,000–30,000/mo | Deep entity work, competitive intel, PR | Speed; a small-business price |
One line item that’s new in 2026: paid placements inside AI answers. ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode now carry ads, so ad spend is a real budget option — but it’s a different thing from the four tiers above, which are all about earning the recommendation. An ad buys a slot next to the answer; it doesn’t make you the answer. Here’s how the two compare, and when each is worth it.
The number to be suspicious of
Watch the extremes. At the bottom, a $19–99/mo tool that promises agency-grade output for pennies is selling volume, and volume is not the lever — search platforms penalize scaled, low-effort content. At the top, any agency that guarantees a specific AI placement or promises results in under 90 days is, bluntly, overpromising. The honest timeline is 90 to 120 days, and no one can guarantee inclusion because it’s probabilistic.
What honest done-for-you pricing looks like
The gap in the market is the middle: strategy-grade work, at a price between the tools and the agencies, without the meeting overhead. Here’s how we price it, in public, as one example of what that middle should cost:
- Measure — a free directional report, or a rigorous $495 baseline that underwrites the guarantee, credited toward what comes next.
- Fix — a one-time $1,500–2,500 sprint that implements the specific fixes, done for you and approved by you.
- Hold — $995/mo to keep building and refreshing, or $99/mo to simply hold and watch a position you’ve already earned.
The reason there’s a monthly at all: the engines replace most of the sources they cite within weeks, so a citation you win once has to be actively held. The full breakdown is here, and unlike most of the category, there’s no call required to see it.
How to decide what to spend
Start by measuring, not buying. A free or low-cost report tells you where you actually stand across the six engines — and whether your problem is a missing directory profile you can fix in an afternoon or a content gap worth a real engagement. Spending before you measure is how businesses overpay for the wrong tier.