We read the four AEO pricing guides that AI engines cited most often in our measurement. The three written by agencies agree on one number: done-for-you answer engine optimization for a small or mid-size company starts around $1,500 to $2,000 a month. Past that, three of them print different prices for the same tool, and all four leave out three things a buyer needs before signing: what happens if the numbers do not move, which questions the agency will not take on, and how to tell a real move from noise. We read them on October 27, 2026. We sell an AEO service ourselves, so read this the way you would read theirs.
How we picked the four
On September 28 and October 12 we asked 20 frozen buyer questions five times each to Claude and to GPT-6 Sol, 400 answers in all, and kept every source each answer cited. Seven of the questions pulled in pricing pages, among them "How much should a seed-stage startup expect to spend on answer engine optimization?" and "Are there done-for-you AEO services that actually implement content, schema, and third-party listings instead of just reporting?" These four pages were cited in the most answers. Claude did nearly all of the citing; GPT-6 Sol's 200 answers cited one of the four pages once.
| Guide | Who publishes it | Date the page prints | Answers citing it (Sept 28 / Oct 12) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEO and GEO Pricing Guide | Digital Elevator, an agency that sells AI visibility from $3,500 | Last updated October 21, 2026 | 23 (16 / 7) |
| AEO Services Pricing | Stackmatix, a growth marketing agency | March 12, 2026 | 22 (7 / 15) |
| AEO and GEO Pricing in 2026 | OutreachBloom, an AI SEO agency that prints its own plans | No date printed | 17 (8 / 9) |
| AI Visibility Tool Pricing Compared | Ryze AI, a tool vendor | August 29, 2026 | 17 (8 / 9) |
Every one of them is written by a company that sells what it is pricing. Two say so in the text: Ryze calls its own product "disclosed up front", and OutreachBloom lists itself in its agency table as "OutreachBloom (that's us)". Ryze covers software only, so the agency comparisons below are about the other three.
Where they agree
The entry price for an agency doing the work is $1,500 to $2,000 a month. Stackmatix: "Small business AEO retainers typically range from $1,500 to $5,000 per month." OutreachBloom opens with "AEO and GEO services cost $2,000 to $10,000 per month for most B2B companies in 2026." Digital Elevator puts most credible mid-market retainers at $2,000 to $10,000, from pricing research by Eagles Media and WebFX.
Something cheaper exists, and nobody names it. Digital Elevator is the only guide with a band under $1,500: productized packages at $500 to $2,500 a month, described as "Template-based AI visibility work, limited customization." It names no company in that band, and its own plans start at $3,500. It is also the one that calls the very bottom suspect: SEO subscriptions "at the $99/month level" are "baseline SEO with AI-flavored marketing."
A one-off audit runs $1,000 to $4,000 at OutreachBloom and $1,000 to $5,000 at Stackmatix.
Where they disagree: one tool, four prices
Profound is the tool these guides quote most, and no two of the four sources below agree on what it costs.
| Source | What it says Profound costs | When it was read |
|---|---|---|
| Stackmatix | "Starting at $499/month (Lite), $1,499/month (Agency Growth)" | March 12, 2026 |
| Ryze AI | "$99 and $399, billed annually only" | August 2026 |
| OutreachBloom | "starts at $99 per month for ChatGPT tracking only" in one paragraph, "No published self-serve price" in its own vendor table | The table row says September 18 |
| Profound's pricing page, read by us | Brands get a free seven-day trial, then a custom Enterprise package; agencies pay $399 a month per client workspace | October 18, 2026 |
OutreachBloom's two figures on one page cannot both be right, but the other readings may each have been right on the day they were taken. They span seven months; if each was right on its day, Profound's page changed at least twice in that time, and a guide nobody re-reads goes on quoting the old number. Stackmatix's figures are seven months old and the page prints no update.
What none of the four says
| Before signing, a buyer asks | Digital Elevator | Stackmatix | OutreachBloom | Ryze AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What happens if the numbers do not move? | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Which of my questions will you refuse? | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| How are results measured: repeated samples, control brands? | Not stated | Not stated | "re-test your target questions monthly" | Not stated |
| What is the minimum term? | Not stated | Not stated | Other agencies' terms only: Siege Media 12 months with a 30-day out clause, RevenueZen month to month | Profound billed annually only; the other tools month to month |
| Where do the ranges come from? | Eagles Media and WebFX, no sample | No source given | First Page Sage: 1,146 quotes from 214 agencies, July 6 to October 2, 2026 | Each vendor's own pricing page |
Digital Elevator comes closest on the first row. It tells readers to "be cautious of agencies that guarantee specific placements in AI answers (no one can guarantee this)". That is right. It is also advice about other agencies, and it still leaves the buyer without the sentence that matters: what the report will say, and what the client still owes, when a quarter goes by and nothing has moved.
The second row is the one we found most useful. It came from the owner of another AEO agency, PromptMarketing, who said so in the first line of their reply in a September thread on r/DigitalMarketing about choosing an agency: "First, which of your buyer prompts will they refuse to take on. For a good share of prompts the assistants already have a finished answer from three big review sites, and nobody moves that in a quarter. An agency that takes every prompt is selling you the count." No guide asks it. The refusal list on our own pricing page started from that reply.
OutreachBloom deserves credit on the last row. It is the only one of the four that gives a sample size for its agency ranges, and the only one that prints its own plans with deliverable counts: Silver at $3,400 a month and Gold at $4,900. Its body text and its table disagree on how many Reddit engagements Silver includes (30 in the text, 40 in the table), which is the kind of slip a buyer should ask about before signing.
What we print on our own page
We are one of the companies these guides are about, so here is what our pricing page says after we read them, with the same warning about dates. As of October 27, 2026, a B2B startup pays $690 a month. The first two months are a pilot, $1,380 in all, and after that it is month to month. A local business pays $299 a month. The re-test arrives on day 60, and if nothing moved, the report says so in those words.
The page now also lists what we will not take on, starting with head-category questions the big review sites already answer, and links to how we measure: five samples per question per engine, and control brands we do no work for, so a move inside the noise is reported as noise.
How to use a pricing guide when you are buying
Read the date next to every price and click through to the vendor's own page before you build a budget on it. Four sources gave four prices for Profound.
Then take the first two rows of the last table, the ones all four guides leave blank, to every agency you talk to, ClawWorld included. Ask what the report says when nothing moved and what you still owe at that point. Ask which of your questions it will refuse. An agency that has a written answer to both has thought about the months where the work does not show, which is most of them at the start.
For a seed-stage startup our recommendation is plain: start at the bottom of these bands or below it, and do not sign for longer than it takes to see one honest re-test, about two months. Digital Elevator, Stackmatix and OutreachBloom all say the work takes three to six months to show in AI answers. That is a reason to measure early, and no reason to commit early. Two months is also the length of our own pilot; we set it there for this reason, and you should weigh the advice knowing that.