Canonical: https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/
Description: GEO retainers we checked on 16 September 2026 run from $3,000 to $68,250 a month. Ours is $5,000 to $12,000, and here is what that fee buys.
Published: 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
Modified: 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z

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# How Much Do GEO Services Cost in 2026?

By [**Ian McGavin**](https://www.strataigize.com/about/team/ian/), Co-Founder & CMO · Published September 16, 2026 · 5 min read

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the work of getting your brand named inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode, typically costs $3,000 to $12,000 a month at the shops that publish a number. We charge $5,000 to $12,000 a month. WebFX starts at $3,000 and publishes tiers to $68,250. Optimist sells a $7,500 one-time roadmap, then $3,000 to $4,000 a month. Those three figures were live on their sites on 16 September 2026. A quote with no prompt list, no repetition count and no original evidence is a content retainer with a new label.

In this article

1.  [The published GEO prices, checked 16 September 2026](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#the-published-geo-prices-checked-16-september-2026)
2.  [What $5,000 to $12,000 a month actually buys](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#what-5000-to-12000-a-month-actually-buys)
3.  [What the fee does not buy](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#what-the-fee-does-not-buy)
4.  [How to read a quote that hides the price](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#how-to-read-a-quote-that-hides-the-price)
5.  [A number only we can put on this page](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#a-number-only-we-can-put-on-this-page)
6.  [How much do generative engine optimization (GEO) services cost?](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/how-much-do-geo-services-cost/#how-much-do-generative-engine-optimization-geo-services-cost)

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Ask what GEO costs and most agencies say it depends, then book a call. Three shops publish a number you can read without talking to sales. We are one of them. The other two are [WebFX](https://www.webfx.com/seo/services/ai-search-optimization/) and [Optimist](https://www.yesoptimist.com/). We opened those pages on 16 September 2026 and copied the figures below.

## The published GEO prices, checked 16 September 2026

| Shop | What they publish | What that fee is for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| WebFX | $3,000 / month, then $5,250, $7,500, $12,000, $23,250, $34,500, $68,250 | AI query research, content, and their OmniSEO tracking. Higher tiers buy more prompts and more monthly assets. |
| Optimist | $7,500 one-time roadmap. Advisory from $3,000 / month. Full service from $4,000 / month | B2B content and AI-visibility work. Advisory means they brief, you write. Full service means they write. |
| Strataigize (us) | $5,000 to $12,000 / month ([pricing page](https://www.strataigize.com/pricing/)) | Entity work, answer-first pages, original numbers, earned mentions, and a fixed prompt panel re-run on a schedule. |
| Directive, Silverback, Minuttia, Crackle PR | No service price on the pages we opened today | Crackle last published $12,000 / month when we checked 3 August 2026. Confirm before you budget. |

WebFX’s own FAQ uses the same question a buyer types: “How much do generative engine optimization services cost?” Their answer starts at $3,000 a month. That is why their page gets cited and a buried FAQ on a service page does not.

## What $5,000 to $12,000 a month actually buys

The fee is not for a file named `llms.txt` or a schema package. Google [says Search does not use llms.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide), and a [1,885-page test](https://ahrefs.com/blog/schema-ai-citations/) found adding schema cut AI Overview citations by 4.6%. You are paying for four jobs.

1.  **A shortlist of the questions your buyers already ask.** We write them down, lock the wording, and re-ask the same engines on a schedule. One before-and-after screenshot is noise. [Google AI Mode](https://seranking.com/blog/ai-mode-research/) kept only 9.2% of URLs across three runs of the same keywords in one day.
2.  **Pages that answer those questions in the first screen**, with a number or a test only you could have produced. Rank still matters: [Ahrefs found an association between organic rank and AI citations](https://ahrefs.com/blog/search-rankings-ai-citations). A page with nothing original to lift does not get lifted.
3.  **Mentions on other people’s sites.** Directories, roundups, reviews. clutch.co was the most-cited domain in our own category pull (667 citations against our site’s 480, 30 days to 12 September 2026). The engines already treat third-party pages as evidence.
4.  **A monthly read of share, not activity.** Mentions and citations on the locked prompts, with the date and the engine named. Qualified enquiries stay a separate line. A citation is not a visit, and a visit is not a customer.

The line-item version of that scope is on the [GEO service page](https://www.strataigize.com/generative-engine-optimization/). The free [GEO visibility checker](https://www.strataigize.com/tools/geo-visibility/) is a 90-second self-score, not the live engine panel.

## What the fee does not buy

It does not buy a guaranteed mention. It does not buy paid placement under a ChatGPT answer. That is [ChatGPT Ads](https://www.strataigize.com/services/paid-advertising/chatgpt-ads/), a different product. It does not replace a site that cannot be crawled. If GPTBot or Google-Extended get a challenge page, the writing never gets read.

It also does not replace a growth retainer. GEO puts you on the shortlist a buyer asks an assistant to name. Paid media, the store listing and the paywall decide whether that shortlist turns into revenue. We run those as one program when the account needs it. Do not hire GEO to fix a paywall nobody is allowed to change.

## How to read a quote that hides the price

Ask for four things in writing. The shops that cannot produce them are selling hours.

-   The prompt list, word for word, and how many times each prompt is re-run. Seven or eight repeats is the floor we use, because one pull is a coin flip.
-   One original number or test they will publish on your site in the first 60 days. If the plan is only rewrites of pages you already have, the engine already has that text.
-   Which third-party sites they will try to earn a mention on, and how they will log the attempt.
-   The kill rule. If citation share on the locked set has not moved after a stated window, what stops.

Bring a competitor quote to the [audit](https://www.strataigize.com/audit/). We will tell you whether the scope matches the fee. The $7,500 [AI Opportunity Audit](https://www.strataigize.com/offers/ai-opportunity-audit/) is a separate two-week automation inventory. It is not a GEO fee, and it is credited toward a build if you proceed.

## A number only we can put on this page

We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity “How much do generative engine optimization (GEO) services cost?” 44 times each in the 30 days to 12 September 2026 (HubSpot AEO, business unit Strataigize). Zero of those 132 answers named us, even though the $5,000 to $12,000 band has been on [our pricing page](https://www.strataigize.com/pricing/) the whole time. The answers reached for shops that put the price in the heading. This page exists so the next pull has somewhere to land.

We measure our own unbranded presence the same way we would measure a client. A 2 September 2026 pull across ChatGPT and Perplexity (25 runs per prompt, 750 answers) cited us in 144 of 150 branded answers and 7 of 600 unbranded ones. Branded recall is fine. Category discovery is the work.

## How much do generative engine optimization (GEO) services cost?

Compare recurring fees separately from a one-time roadmap. On 16 September 2026, WebFX started at $3,000 a month with published tiers to $68,250, Optimist sold a $7,500 roadmap and retainers from $3,000 to $4,000 a month, and Strataigize published $5,000 to $12,000 a month. Confirm the current scope before you sign. Our growth consultation is free.

If you want the vendor list, not only the fee, start with [the GEO agencies we judged on the same three tests we apply to ourselves](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/best-generative-engine-optimization-agencies/). If the words GEO, AEO and SEO are still colliding, [AEO vs GEO vs SEO](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/) separates them. To hire the program rather than read about it, go to [generative engine optimization](https://www.strataigize.com/generative-engine-optimization/).

Author

**Ian McGavin**, Co-founded Strataigize in 2022. AI operations, business strategy, and AI-search visibility.

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## Related reading

[All SEO & AI Search articles →](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/topics/seo-geo/)

[Does Google Penalize AI Content? What the Sources SayGoogle permits useful AI-assisted content and prohibits spam. What its policies and research support, and where detection claims overreach.](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/does-google-penalize-ai-content/)[What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?What GEO means, how AI search finds sources, and how to improve access and evidence while measuring citations, useful visits and enquiries separately.](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/what-is-generative-engine-optimization/)[AEO vs GEO vs SEO: What Is the Difference in 2026?AEO, GEO, and SEO compared: what each term means, where they overlap, which one your business needs first, and how to measure all three.](https://www.strataigize.com/insights/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo/)

## Be the answer AI gives.

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