AI SEO costs small businesses more at agencies, Seotal study finds

A new Seotal Research study finds agencies charge a median $750 a month for AI SEO, about 20% more than their regular SEO packages at firms that publish both prices. Freelancers advertising AI search skills are cheaper on average, while self-serve tools start at $29 a month.

Why it matters: - AI SEO is becoming a new line item for small businesses trying to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews. - The study suggests many businesses may pay a premium for branding rather than for meaningfully different work. - Seotal Research says the cheapest path can start at $29 a month for do-it-yourself tracking.

What happened: - Seotal Research analyzed 60 agency price lists, 88 software plans and 1,460 freelancer profiles to map what AI SEO costs. - The study found the median entry price for an agency AI SEO package is $750 a month. - At 13 of 21 agencies that publish both AI SEO and standard SEO pricing, the AI SEO package costs more, with a median price of 1.20 times the SEO package. - Five agencies charge the same for both services, and three charge less for AI SEO. - AI SEO is also sold as generative engine optimization, or GEO, and answer engine optimization, or AEO.

The details: - The middle half of agency monthly price lists runs from $461 to $2,000. - Four agencies require a six-month minimum term. - Thirty-five of 95 agencies offering AI search work, or 37%, do not publish prices and instead ask visitors to book a call. - The median entry plan across 17 AI visibility trackers is $99 a month. - The cheapest tracking tools cost $29 a month. - The cost per tracked prompt varies eightfold between tools. - Freelancer.com profiles listing GEO, AEO or ChatGPT Search Optimization skills ask a median $14.50 an hour. - AI search freelancers in Pakistan ask $11 an hour, compared with $25 an hour for SEO-only freelancers. - Five hundred five of the 660 freelancer profiles with AI search skills have no client reviews.

Between the lines: - Ali, Seotal’s co-founder and SEO/GEO lead, said most agency AI SEO offerings cover work small businesses already need, including pages AI crawlers can read, consistent business facts and structured data. - The pricing gap appears to reflect packaging and positioning as much as technical complexity. - The freelancer market looks younger and less proven than the agency market, based on low review counts and lower hourly rates. - Seotal Research’s data suggests buyers may need to compare contract length, scope and deliverables before accepting an AI SEO premium.

What small businesses can expect: - A do-it-yourself setup with a tracking tool starts at $29 a month and runs up to $129 a month. - A freelancer plus a tracker can cost $189 to $599 a month, assuming 20 hours of work. - An agency package typically costs $461 to $2,000 a month. - Founders should ask what the AI package adds before paying extra for the label.

What was studied: - Seotal Research collected agency prices from about 120 providers found through searches for AI SEO, GEO, AEO and LLM optimization pricing in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, the Philippines and Singapore. - The tool dataset covered the pricing pages of 27 AI visibility tools and SEO suites at monthly billing. - The freelancer dataset used the public Freelancer.com directory and compared profiles with AI search skills against 200 SEO-only profiles each in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the US.

What's next: - Seotal Research says it publishes original data on search and AI visibility at its research page. - Small businesses will likely keep seeing more AI search packages as agencies and freelancers compete to rank clients in AI answers. - Buyers are likely to face wider price variation until the category settles on standard deliverables and pricing.