GEO pricing in 2026: what tools, audits and agencies cost
By Matvei Belov, founder of Glowsearch · Updated
GEO, generative engine optimization, means getting your business named and linked in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Mode and the like. You can pay for it three ways: a tool that tracks your AI visibility, a one-off audit, or an agency retainer. We checked the published prices of 20 tools and 9 agencies in October 2026. Here's what each costs, and what you get.
The short version
- Tools: $19.99 to about $300 a month to track 20 questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode. Glowsearch Lite is $19.99, Peec AI $95, Semrush's AI toolkit $159, Otterly $307 for the same job.
- Audits: about $500 to $5,000 for a one-off report from agencies that publish a price.
- Agency retainers: about $3,000 to $8,000 a month for most agencies that publish prices, with a few under $1,000 and enterprise tiers from $12,000.
- Read what's included. Some retainers add off-site placements on top, and most agencies don't publish prices at all.
How much does GEO cost?
| What you buy | Typical published price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A tracking tool | $19.99 to $307 a month for 20 questions on three assistants | Answers collected on a schedule, who's named instead of you, the pages linked; some add an action plan |
| A one-off audit | $500 to $5,000 | A report on where you stand and what to fix; you do the work |
| An agency retainer | $3,000 to $8,000 a month, most often | Someone does the work: content, listings, outreach, reporting |
| Enterprise agency | $12,000 a month and up, or "contact us" | More assistants, more pages, PR, a team |
Published prices in US dollars, checked October 22, 2026. Tools priced for the same job; agencies as listed on their own sites.
What do GEO tools cost?
Tools track what the assistants say about you: they ask your questions, collect the answers, and show who's named and which pages are linked. We priced 20 of them for the same job, 20 questions tracked on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode, on the cheapest monthly plan that covers it:
| Tool | Per month | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Glowsearch Lite | $19.99 | About 1,560 answers a month, an action plan after every scan |
| Diploria | $29 | |
| LLM Visibility Lens | $29 | |
| Peekaboo | $30 | |
| Ahrefs | $50 | Custom prompts, sold without an Ahrefs subscription |
| LLM Pulse | $58 | Billed €49 |
| Peec AI | $95 | |
| Promptwatch | $95 | |
| Rankscale | $99 | $17 a month if billed yearly |
| Semrush | $159 | AI Visibility Toolkit plus a 50-prompt add-on |
| Knowatoa | $199 | Growth; Starter doesn't cover Gemini |
| AthenaHQ | $295 | |
| Otterly | $307 | Standard plus Gemini and AI Mode add-ons |
Seven more, including Profound and Scrunch, sell this only by quote or on bigger plans. The full table, with what each plan includes, is in AI visibility tool pricing. We make Glowsearch, so weigh our pick accordingly; every price comes from the vendor's own page.
A tool doesn't do the work for you. It tells you what to do. Glowsearch's action plan lists the directories, threads and pages to fix and drafts each one, which is most of what a small business needs.
What does a GEO audit cost?
An audit is a one-off look at how AI assistants answer your customers' questions and what to change. Agencies that publish a price:
| Agency | Audit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Avante Visibility | AI Visibility Check / Audit / Full GEO Audit | $500 / $1,500 / $5,000 |
| Tenten | GEO Audit | from $1,299, credited to a retainer |
| Red Engage | Standalone audit | $2,500 |
| DerivateX | Diagnostic | $3,500, credited to a retainer |
| KailxLabs | AI Citation Foundation Build (audit plus build) | $4,995 |
Before you buy one, try the free version: ask ChatGPT and AI Mode your customers' questions yourself, signed out, a few times each. Our free AI visibility check does it for three questions.
What do GEO agencies charge per month?
Of the agencies we found that publish monthly prices on their own sites:
| Agency | Plans per month |
|---|---|
| WebAloha | $333 (on-page) / $999 (full) |
| KailxLabs | $2,000 / $3,500 / $6,500 |
| WebFX | from $3,000 |
| OutreachBloom | $3,400 / $4,900 |
| Salienz | $3,499 / $5,499 |
| Red Engage | $4,500 / $7,000 / $14,000 |
| Tenten | from $4,999 |
| DerivateX | $5,000 / $8,000 / $12,000, plus off-site budget |
From each agency's own pricing or pricing-guide page, checked October 22, 2026. Prices as each page lists them with a $ sign; only Salienz says US dollars, and most pages don't name a market.
Most entry plans sit between $3,000 and $5,000 a month. What they include varies a lot: a set number of articles a month, Reddit and forum placements, listings, schema fixes, monthly or weekly reports. Some put off-site placements on top of the retainer, and some ask for a 90-day first term.
The only large survey we found is from First Page Sage, itself a GEO agency: it reports a median retainer of $6,850 a month from 1,146 quotes by 214 agencies, July to October 2026, with a median audit of $4,300. It doesn't say how the agencies were chosen, so treat it as one agency's view.
Many agencies publish no prices. That usually means larger, custom engagements.
Is a GEO agency worth it for a small business?
Sometimes. At $3,000 a month, an agency costs $36,000 a year. That's worth it if a few more customers from AI answers pay for it and you have no time to do the work.
For most small businesses, the work is short and concrete: a page per service, the right directories, Google reviews, crawler access, and a few honest replies on the threads the assistants read. Our data on Google reviews and which directories each assistant links shows where to start. A tool that tells you what to fix, plus a few hours a month, covers a lot of what a small retainer does.
Hire an agency when you've done that and need content and outreach at a scale you can't do yourself.
What to ask before you pay
- Which assistants and which questions? Your customers' questions, on the assistants they use.
- How do they measure? Real answers, asked repeatedly. In our data, half the businesses Gemini and AI Mode named appeared in only one of three asks.
- What's in the price? Articles, placements, listings, and whether off-site work costs extra.
- What's the minimum term?
- What do you own at the end? The pages, profiles and accounts should be yours.
Beware of promises. No one controls what an assistant says, so a guaranteed placement in ChatGPT isn't something an agency can deliver.
Questions people ask
A tracking tool costs $19.99 to about $300 a month for 20 questions on three assistants. Agencies that publish prices mostly charge $3,000 to $8,000 a month, with a few under $1,000 and enterprise plans from $12,000.
Usually priced in the same range. Many agencies sell GEO alongside SEO, and the work overlaps: pages that answer questions, listings, reviews and links. The tools are cheaper than most SEO suites.
Yes. Most of it is work a business owner can do: clear pages for each service, complete profiles on the directories for your trade, steady Google reviews, open crawler access and honest replies in the threads assistants link. A tool shows you which of those matter for your questions.
Of the 20 tools we priced, Glowsearch Lite is the cheapest for 20 questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode, at $19.99 a month. See AI visibility tool pricing for all of them.
Tool prices checked 2026-10-22; agency prices checked 2026-10-22.