Guide · AI search

AEO Agency: What It Costs, Top Agencies, and When AI Is Enough

By Votrix AI Editorial TeamUpdated October 22, 20269 min read

Short answer

An AEO agency gets your brand mentioned and cited in AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Published prices run from about $2,500 for a one-time audit to $4,000–€11,000 a month for done-for-you programs. Hire one if you are a B2B company with that budget. With less than about $2,000 a month, use an AI tool and do the fundamentals yourself.

Question 01What does an AEO agency actually do?

An AEO (answer engine optimization) agency works to get your brand named, linked and described accurately when people ask AI assistants about your category. In practice, the work is SEO fundamentals plus three additions: tracking what AI answers say, rewriting pages so they answer questions directly, and earning mentions on the third-party sites those answers cite.

Agencies use different labels (AEO, GEO, AI SEO, LLM optimization) for largely the same work. So judge an agency by its deliverables, not its acronym. Here is what a typical engagement should produce, based on the deliverable lists that agencies such as Discovered Labs and Flying Cat publish:

What an agency cannot do is choose what ChatGPT or Google says. Google states that its AI Overviews and AI Mode have no additional technical requirements beyond normal Search eligibility, and no special schema. That puts a hard ceiling on what "AI optimization" can promise. More on this under red flags.

Question 02How much does an AEO agency cost in 2026?

AEO agencies that publish prices charge $2,500–$5,000 for a one-time audit. Their monthly retainers run from $2,000 for advice only to $4,000–€11,000 for done-for-you content and outreach. Enterprise programs start well above that.

We checked the published pricing of seven AEO agencies in October 2026. Four publish real numbers:

Two things stand out:

1. Done-for-you starts at about $4,000 a month. Below that, you are buying advice and doing the work yourself.
2. Almost every published offer targets B2B SaaS. The packages are built around long sales cycles, demo requests and pipeline attribution. A local business, an e-commerce shop or a solo consultant is paying for a model designed for someone else.

Two caveats. Optimist and Omniscient publish their prices inside "best agency" lists they wrote themselves, so read their rankings with that in mind. And prices change, so confirm with each agency before you budget.

Question 03Should you hire an agency, build in-house, or use AI?

Choose by budget and by who will do the work. With $4,000 or more a month and a B2B sales cycle, an agency makes sense. If you already employ a marketer, keep the work in-house and buy one outside audit. Under about $2,000 a month, use an AI tool plus your own time.

Decision rules:

• Under ~$2,000 a month, or under ~50 pages: skip the agency. Fix crawl access, rewrite your top 10 pages to answer questions directly, keep your business facts consistent, and track a fixed prompt set monthly. An AI tool can do most of this.
• $4,000+ a month, B2B, and a team that can approve content quickly: hire an agency, and pick one that publishes prices and offers a short or month-to-month term.
• You already have an SEO or content marketer: keep execution in-house and buy a one-time audit ($2,500–$5,000) for an outside baseline.

For a broader look at automated options versus a traditional firm, see our guide to an AI alternative to an SEO agency.

Question 04What are the red flags in an AEO proposal?

The biggest red flag is a guarantee. No agency controls which sources an AI model retrieves or how it phrases an answer, so any promise of a specific citation or "#1 in ChatGPT" is a sales line.

Watch for these six:

1. Guaranteed citations or AI rankings. Answers vary by user, location and date, and platforms change models without notice.
2. "Proprietary AI schema" as the main deliverable. Google says no special markup is required for its AI features. Schema should describe what is already on the page.
3. A visibility score with no raw data. Insist on the prompt list, dated answer captures and cited URLs. A single 0–100 score cannot be audited.
4. Long lock-in with no exit. Discovered Labs sells month-to-month, so 12-month contracts are a choice, not an industry rule.
5. Vague "placements" or "Reddit mentions." Ask exactly how they are produced. Undisclosed promotional posting can break platform rules and damage your reputation.
6. The agency owns your data. Content, analytics accounts and prompt history should stay with you if you leave.

Question 05What should you ask before signing?

Ask questions that force a specific, checkable answer. If the agency answers in generalities, its reports will be general too.

1. Which AI platforms, prompts and locations will the baseline cover? Can we see the list?
2. What will you ship in the first 30 days, and what do you need from us to ship it?
3. How do you define a mention, a citation and a recommendation?
4. How will you separate AI referral traffic and leads from other organic traffic?
5. Which content, technical and outreach work does the fee include, and what is extra?
6. How are third-party mentions earned, and are they disclosed?
7. What is the minimum term, and what happens to our data if we cancel?
8. Which of your clients look like us in size and industry?

If you want a vendor-neutral scorecard to compare several firms, our page on how to evaluate a GEO agency walks through the criteria.

Question 06How does Riya compare to an AEO agency?

Riya, Votrix AI's SEO & GEO manager (our product), does the execution layer of AEO without a retainer: site audits and fixes, keyword planning, optimized content, and visibility tracking in Google and AI assistants. She does not replace an agency's PR and relationship work.

If your gap is execution (pages not fixed, content not written, nobody tracking answers), Riya covers it at a fraction of a retainer. If your gap is authority (nobody credible writes about you), you need PR, whether from an agency or your own team. You can see how the work is sequenced on our AI search optimization services page.

Part 07Frequently asked questions about AEO agencies

What is an AEO agency?

An AEO agency is a marketing firm that works to get a brand mentioned, cited and accurately described in AI-generated answers from tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Typical services are AI visibility audits, answer-first content, technical and schema fixes, earned third-party mentions, and tracking of citations over time.

Which AEO agencies are considered the best?

No independent ranking exists. Most "best AEO agency" lists are written by agencies that rank themselves first. Among agencies with published pricing, Flying Cat, Optimist and Discovered Labs focus on B2B SaaS and tech, while iPullRank serves large enterprises. Pick the one whose clients match your size and industry and that shares raw data.

What does AEO stand for, and how is it different from SEO and GEO?

AEO stands for answer engine optimization. SEO aims to rank pages in search results. AEO and GEO (generative engine optimization) aim to get a brand included in AI-generated answers. In practice, AEO and GEO describe the same work, and both depend on SEO basics such as crawlable pages, clear content and accurate facts.

How much does an AEO agency cost?

Published prices in October 2026 range from $2,500–$5,000 for a one-time audit to $2,000 a month for advice only. Done-for-you programs cost $4,000–€11,000 a month, and enterprise projects start around $50,000. Ask for a scoped quote, because agencies bundle very different work under the same label.

Can AI replace an AEO agency?

AI tools can handle most AEO execution: audits, technical fixes, content drafts and visibility tracking. They cannot build relationships with journalists, editors and communities, which is how earned mentions happen. A small business can usually start with AI and add PR help later if a lack of authority turns out to be the main gap.

Question 08Which option should you choose?

Start with your budget and your bottleneck. With less than about $2,000 a month, an agency retainer will buy advice, not results; put that money into fixing and tracking your own pages. If you are a B2B company with $4,000 or more a month and the main gap is authority, hire an agency that publishes its prices and shares raw data.

If you want the execution done without a retainer, see how Riya works as your SEO & GEO manager.

Want Riya to run this playbook for you?

She audits your site, plans keywords, drafts optimized pages for you to review and tracks how often AI assistants recommend you. Free to hire; you pay only for completed work.

Hire Riya free → Meet Riya