How much to charge for GEO: pricing models for agencies
Published price ranges for GEO audits, add-ons and retainers, the four pricing models agencies use, and how to build a price from hours and tooling so the service stays profitable.
On this page
There's no market rate for GEO yet, and anyone who quotes one is selling something. What exists is a set of published ranges — mostly from agencies and tool vendors — and a simpler, more reliable method: price from the hours the work takes and the tooling it needs, then check the result against those ranges.
What agencies say they charge
The ranges below come from published pricing guides in 2026. Nearly all are written by agencies or vendors with an interest in the answer, so treat them as orientation, not benchmarks:
| Offer | Published ranges | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| One-off GEO / AI visibility audit | roughly $1,500–$5,000; boutique projects higher | Agency pricing guides |
| GEO add-on to an SEO retainer | roughly $500–$1,000 per month, or a 20–30% uplift on the existing retainer | Tool-vendor guides |
| Standalone GEO retainer, small business | roughly $1,500–$5,000 per month | Agency pricing guides |
| Standalone GEO retainer, common mid-range | roughly $3,000–$10,000 per month | Agency pricing guides |
| Enterprise | $10,000+ per month | Agency pricing guides |
The spread is wide because "GEO" (defined in GEO vs SEO vs AEO) covers everything from a monthly report to a content, PR and technical programme. Scope decides the price.
The four pricing models
1. Audit first
A fixed-price baseline: prompt set, competitor list, a month of tracked answers, gap analysis and priorities. It's the easiest yes, and it produces the evidence for everything after it. Price it like any SEO audit of similar effort.
2. Add-on to the SEO retainer
Monthly AI visibility reporting plus light optimisation, added to an existing retainer — either as a fixed add-on or a percentage uplift. Best for existing clients; the reporting keeps GEO visible every month.
3. Standalone retainer
A separate GEO scope: content for missing questions, source and listing outreach, entity clean-up, technical access, reporting. Best when there's a clear competitor gap and budget to close it.
4. Tiered packages
Three tiers that differ by number of tracked questions, engines, and the amount of optimisation work. Useful once you've done a few engagements and know what the work costs.
Build the price from the work
Take a monitoring-plus-light-optimisation add-on for a small business. An illustrative month:
| Item | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Review tracked answers and gaps | 1.5 | Read answers, update gap list |
| Report, commentary and recommendations | 1.5 | On top of an automatically produced report |
| Optimisation work | 4 | One page or two source/listing actions |
| Client call | 0.5 | |
| Total | 7.5 h |
At an internal cost of €60 an hour that's €450 of time. Add tooling — with a per-client tool, a few euros; with a per-domain or per-workspace tool, potentially €100–€400 per client — and a margin. A price of €750–€1,000 a month for this scope is coherent, and sits inside the published add-on range.
The same calculation done with manual tracking looks very different: 240 answers a month to run and log by hand is many hours per client before any optimisation happens. That's why tooling cost per client — and the time it saves — decides whether GEO is a profitable line or a loss leader.
Example packages
Illustrative structure, not a market benchmark — adjust to your hours and rates:
| Visibility | Growth | Programme | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracked questions / engines | 20 / 3 | 20–25 / 3 | 25+ / 3+ |
| Monthly AI visibility report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gap analysis and recommendations | Quarterly | Monthly | Monthly |
| Pages for missing questions | — | 1 per month | 2–4 per month |
| Source and listing outreach | — | 2 actions | Ongoing |
| Entity and technical review | Once | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Typical positioning | Add-on to SEO | Add-on or standalone | Standalone retainer |
Mistakes that make GEO unprofitable
- Pricing per prompt or per engine. Clients don't buy prompts; they buy answers to "are we recommended, and is it getting better?" Price the outcome you report, not the inputs.
- Giving the reporting away. Monthly evidence is the part clients see. Bundle it, but put a value on it.
- Promising positions. "We'll get you to #1 in ChatGPT" sets up a dispute you'll lose. Promise measured rates on fixed questions and visible work. See GEO deliverables and how to prove ROI.
- Ignoring tooling cost per client. A tool that costs €400 per client a month makes a €750 add-on unworkable. Compare tools on per-client cost — this comparison does the maths.
What Ranxii costs per client
Ranxii is priced per client so GEO margins survive: €49 a month for 5 clients, €99 for 20, €199 for 50 (excluding VAT). On the Agency plan that's about €5 per client for weekly tracking on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and a monthly report with your logo. Everything else in the price is your time and expertise.
Sources
Published ranges summarised from agency and vendor pricing guides, all 2026:
Stop checking these prompts by hand
Ranxii asks every client’s buyer questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity each week, stores every answer and prepares the monthly report. 14-day trial with 2 clients, no card.
Keep reading
- How to sell GEO to your SEO clients: the offer, the pitch and the first 90 daysA practical playbook for adding generative engine optimization to an SEO agency: who to pitch first, how to open with evidence, what to include, objections and a 90-day plan.
- GEO deliverables and how to prove ROI to clientsWhat a GEO retainer should deliver each month and quarter, and an honest way to show results — from mention rate to AI referral traffic — without overclaiming.
- The best AI visibility tools for SEO agencies in 2026Seven AI visibility tools compared on what agencies actually pay for: engines, prompt limits, cadence, client reporting and cost per client. Prices checked October 2026.