Generative Engine Optimization Services: Costs and What You Get

Generative engine optimization services get your brand named and cited in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. A real scope covers about 11 deliverables, and 3 of them are plain SEO. Published 2026 retainers run from $1,000 to $15,000+ a month, and most sellers say to expect early signals in 60 to 90 days.

How GEO, AEO and SEO differ

The three labels overlap, and most sellers price GEO and AEO as one service. Many sell the same scope as answer engine optimization services.

The term GEO comes from a 2023 paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and five co-authors at Princeton and IIT Delhi, which the authors presented at KDD 2024. They tested nine ways to rewrite source pages across 10,000 queries and found that “GEO can boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses” (Aggarwal et al., arXiv 2311.09735).

Google uses both labels too, with a warning. Its guide to generative AI features says “many suggested ‘hacks’ aren’t effective or supported by how Google Search actually works” (Google Search Central). Our SEO vs AEO vs GEO infographic puts all three side by side, with diagrams.

The 11 jobs a GEO service should do

Percepture, OrangeMantra, Power Digital and the other GEO service pages that rank on page one use different names for the same 11 items. None of these pages shows a dollar figure.

Seven items are new work. Three (5, 7 and 10) belong in any decent SEO retainer. Item 6 helps both channels, so pay for it once, under one budget line.

The jobs that are plain SEO

Google answers part of this itself. Its page on AI features says “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” Google only needs to index a page and find it “eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet” (Google Search Central, AI features). That rule covers Google’s AI surfaces only, so it says nothing about ChatGPT or Perplexity. It still puts items 5, 7 and 10 inside normal SEO.

Sellers oversell schema more than any other item. Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema between August 2025 and March 2026, against 4,000 matched pages that didn’t. Citations rose 2.2% on ChatGPT and 2.4% in AI Mode, both within the noise, and fell 4.6% in AI Overviews. Louise Linehan of Ahrefs wrote: “Adding schema produced no major uplift in citations on any platform” (Ahrefs, May 2026).

Google agrees. It says “Structured data isn’t required for generative AI search,” and that Google Search ignores AI text files such as llms.txt. Keep schema as hygiene. Don’t pay a premium for it, and walk away from a GEO package built around llms.txt.

The jobs that are new work

A classic SEO retainer doesn’t cover items 1 to 4, 8, 9 and 11. Item 9 is the hardest. HubSpot calls off-site authority building “labor-intensive and ongoing” and names it the widest cost swing between lean and big programs (HubSpot, Sep 2026). Cheap quotes tend to drop it first, so ask how many off-site placements you get each month and where.

How much GEO costs in 2026

Few sellers publish prices. Power Digital’s GEO page says “Pricing is scoped to the work,” and the other service pages list no prices at all. Every source below sells GEO or AEO work or software, and none publishes a median.

The three mid-market bands overlap at $4,000 to $5,000 a month. That’s a fair place to start the conversation for a company with $1M to $100M in revenue that wants most of the 11 items across three or more engines.

Shelby Paolella of 310 Creative writes that quotes under $1,500 a month that claim full scope usually come from SEO shops with a new label. A quote that low can still make sense, as long as it covers a narrow scope and says so.

What not to pay extra for

1. Tracking. A self-serve tool starts near $29 a month. A large “AI platform fee” needs a line-by-line breakdown.
2. Schema and technical fixes. Google calls them normal SEO, and Ahrefs found schema alone didn’t lift citations. You can test whether your site lets AI bots in with our free AI crawler access checker.
3. Search Console and GA4 AI reports. Both tools cost nothing.
4. The prompt list. You paid for the research, so you own it, along with the logs.

When it’s fair to pay more

1. Off-site work: trade press, review programs, directory cleanup and forum answers.
2. New pages for buyer questions your site doesn’t answer today.
3. More engines, markets or languages in the tracking set.

If a seller pitches “AI SEO services” or calls itself an “AI SEO agency”, ask which meaning it sells before you compare prices. We run GEO inside our AI SEO services, next to classic SEO under one budget, and our pricing page shows where that work starts.

Your first 90 days

Sellers publish different clocks, and none of these five pages shows first-party data behind its numbers.

Across these five sellers, 90 days buys you a baseline, the fixes and early signals. It rarely buys you pipeline yet. A good provider ships something you can open at every stage of the first quarter.

Expect impressions first, citations second and clicks third. Search Console shows your pages inside AI features before an engine names you by brand, and named mentions come before AI visits add up to leads.

How to tell GEO is working

Answer engines don’t give the same reply every time. HubSpot notes that “they can give different answers to the same prompts”, so one screenshot from one day proves nothing. Measure the same six things every month, against the day-one baseline.

Google counts AI Overview and AI Mode appearances inside the normal Performance report, under the Web search type, and points site owners to its Generative AI performance report. Our guide to Search Console AI visibility reports walks through both. For the visit and lead side, turn on the GA4 AI assistant traffic channel before any change goes live.

Give credit carefully. If your provider also fixes SEO, some gains will come from rankings. Ask how the report splits GEO gains from SEO gains, and judge the trend over at least three monthly readings.

Check the proposal before you sign

Ask these seven questions on the first call.

1. Which of the 11 deliverables does this quote include, line by line?
2. Which of those does our current SEO retainer already cover?
3. How many prompts will you track, on which engines, how many runs each, and how often?
4. Which outside sources shape what engines say about us today, and what will you do about each one?
5. What will you ship by day 30, day 60 and day 90?
6. How will you report leads, and how will you separate GEO gains from SEO gains?
7. If we leave, do we keep the prompts, logs, content and access?

Walk away from four things: a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT, schema or llms.txt sold as the main fix, a baseline built from one day of screenshots, and a 12-month lock-in with reports you lose on exit. For broader vetting, use our 10 questions to ask before signing an AI-powered marketing contract.

What to do this week

1. Run five buyer questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Log who each engine names: you, a rival or no one.
2. Mark your last SEO or GEO proposal against the 11 deliverables above. Cross out items 5, 7 and 10 if your SEO retainer already pays for them, then price what’s left.
3. Get a baseline you can hold any provider to. Our free SEO, GEO and AEO audit checks your site and how AI engines answer questions in your category, and we reply within 24 hours.

If you’d rather do the page work in-house first, our guide on how to get your business named by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI covers the on-page steps.

FAQ

What is the difference between a GEO audit and an SEO audit?

An SEO audit checks whether search engines can crawl, index and rank your pages: technical health, content, links and keywords. A GEO audit asks whether AI engines name and cite you. It runs real buyer prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI, logs which sources they cite and checks your facts across the web. The best audits cover both, because GEO builds on SEO.

How much do generative engine optimization services cost?

Published 2026 ranges run from about $29 to $489 a month for a self-serve tracking tool, $1,500 to $7,500 for a one-time audit, and $1,000 to $15,000+ a month for retainers, per HubSpot and 310 Creative. Enterprise programs start near $15,000 a month. The mid-market bands from three sellers overlap at $4,000 to $5,000 a month.

Do you need both GEO and SEO?

Yes, if your buyers use AI tools to research vendors. Google says its AI features need no special work beyond good SEO, so SEO stays the base. GEO adds what SEO skips: prompt tracking, citation-source analysis, off-site mentions, entity cleanup and lead reporting from AI visits. Pay for the shared work, such as schema and technical fixes, once.

What is the difference between AEO and SEO?

SEO works to rank your pages and win the click from search results. AEO works to make your page the direct answer, in featured snippets, People Also Ask, voice results and AI answers. Most sellers now treat AEO and GEO as one service. SEO tracks rankings and clicks, while AEO tracks answer wins and citations.

How long do GEO services take to show results?

Sellers disagree. 310 Creative says first gains appear in 30 to 60 days and ROI takes 3 to 6 months. HubSpot says to expect early signals in the first 60 to 90 days. OrangeMantra points to first citations in 8 to 12 weeks. Plan for a baseline and fixes in the first quarter, and judge the trend over at least three monthly readings.

Is GEO just SEO with a new name?

Partly. Answer-first rewrites, schema and technical access belong in any SEO retainer, and Google says its AI features need no special optimization. Prompt tracking, citation-source maps, competitor share of voice, entity cleanup, off-site mentions and AI lead reporting are new work. A fair GEO quote charges for the new work and leaves the SEO basics on the SEO bill.