How Much Does AI Search Optimization (GEO/AEO) Cost?

Published 2026 pricing guides place GEO/AEO at roughly $29–$489/month for self-serve tools, $1,500–$5,000 for one-time audits, and $2,000–$8,000/month for mid-market agency retainers. Archer Web Strategies publishes its pricing: assessments start at $750, projects run $2,500–$8,000, and retainers start at $1,500/month.

The three price tiers, and what each buys

Tier	Typical 2026 range	What you get	Who it fits
Self-serve tools	$29–$489/month	Citation monitoring and recommendations. You do the work.	Businesses with an in-house marketer
Productized AI SEO platforms	From roughly $699–$900/month	Automated page generation and publishing at volume, light human review	Businesses that want quantity and can supervise quality
One-time audit or build	$1,500–$5,000	AI visibility audit, schema, restructuring of existing pages	Single-location businesses in less contested categories
Consultant / agency retainer	$2,000–$8,000/month (mid-market); $10,000+ enterprise	Strategy, content production, off-site citation work, measurement	Contested categories where visibility is worth real revenue

These are industry ranges compiled from publicly published 2026 pricing guides, not Archer’s rates. The spread is wide because “GEO” is three different products wearing one label: measurement software, automated content, and full-service strategy.

What Archer charges

Unlike most providers in this category, our pricing is published:

Engagement	Investment	What you get
AI Readiness Assessment & Strategy Session	Starts at $750	Five-dimension assessment, prioritized roadmap, 30/60/90-day plan.
Project engagements (GEO build, operations automation)	$2,500–$8,000	Scoped, fixed-fee implementation with defined deliverables.
Ongoing strategy & implementation retainer	from $1,500/month	Monthly strategy, execution, measurement, and optimization.

Why we publish it: quote-gated pricing forces you onto a sales call to learn whether a provider is even in your budget. We would rather you arrive knowing the numbers.

The cost trap to avoid

The most expensive mistake is not any sticker price. It is paying monthly for a dashboard that measures your invisibility while nobody produces the citable pages, reviews, and third-party mentions that change it. Before signing anything, ask who does the implementation and where the off-site work happens.

Frequently asked questions

Why do most GEO agencies hide their pricing?

Scope varies widely, measurement standards are immature, and most programs are scoped by hand after a discovery call. Those are real reasons, but published market data now exists, so hidden rate cards mostly protect margins.

Is a $700–900/month AI SEO platform good value?

For businesses that want high content volume and can supervise quality, yes, it can be. You trade senior strategy and hands-on implementation for automation and price. See our comparison of AI SEO platforms versus GEO consultants for a fuller breakdown.

What does a $750 assessment actually include?

Archer’s AI Readiness Assessment covers five dimensions: current tech stack, operational bottlenecks addressable by AI, data quality, team readiness, and ROI potential by function. You leave with a prioritized 30/60/90-day roadmap whether or not you continue with us.

Are there long-term contracts?

Archer projects are fixed-scope and fixed-fee. Retainers are monthly. We do not require annual commitments to start.