Affordable AEO services, meaning answer engine optimization that gets your business named in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, stop being agency retainers below $1,800 USD a month. That is the floor of the starter tier in First Page Sage's pricing report, published October 7, 2026. Under $1,000 a month you can buy a tool that tracks whether AI answers name you, an SEO or hosting plan that also keeps your pages readable to AI tools, or a free audit.
All agency figures below come from First Page Sage's GEO & AEO Pricing Statistics: 2026 Report. First Page Sage sells GEO and AEO services itself, so read it as an agency-published study. It states no country or currency. We treat its figures as USD, and none of them is Canada-specific.
Below, we cover where to buy AEO at each price. Whether to set aside new money for it at all is the question in our guide to AEO budgets.
Key facts
- Agency starter tier: $1,800 to $4,200 USD a month, median $2,950, usually with a 3-month minimum.
- Home services is the cheapest industry in the study, with a median of $3,190 a month.
- Only 23% of the 214 agencies studied publish any AEO pricing.
- Tracking tools list at $29 to $489 a month (Otterly, AthenaHQ, Semrush, Ahrefs).
- One-off AEO audits run $1,500 to $12,000, median $4,300.
What's the cheapest credible AEO service?
The cheapest AEO service that does real work, rather than only measuring, is an agency starter retainer at about $1,800 USD a month, or a one-off audit from $1,500. Anything below that is either software or AEO bundled into another service.
First Page Sage collected 1,146 price quotes from 214 agencies between July and October 2026. Its tiers look like this:
| Tier | Monthly range (USD) | Median | Typical minimum term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $1,800 to $4,200 | $2,950 | 3 months |
| Growth | $4,500 to $11,000 | $7,400 | 6 months |
| Advanced | $11,000 to $22,000 | $14,600 | not stated |
| Enterprise | $22,000 to $60,000+ | $31,500 | 12 months |
With the 3-month minimum, the cheapest starter retainer commits you to $5,400 before you can leave. At the median it is $8,850. In Canadian dollars, $1,800 USD is about CA$2,527 at the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4038 on October 27, 2026, before 13% Ontario HST.
Some agencies go lower by refusing to separate the work. eSEOspace sells combined SEO, GEO and AEO plans at $750 to $4,000 a month and states, "There is no GEO-only plan." 310 Creative puts entry retainers at $1,000 to $3,500. Both prices buy an SEO plan that includes AEO, not AEO on its own.
What does AEO under $1,000 a month get you?
Under $1,000 USD a month buys one of three things: a tool that shows where AI engines mention you, AEO work inside an SEO or hosting plan, or a single audit paid once. None of them includes an agency doing a dedicated AEO programme for you.
| Option | Typical cost (USD) | What you get | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracking tool, DIY | $29 to $489/mo | Reports on which prompts mention you, across named engines | Someone still has to rewrite pages, add schema and earn mentions. Usually that is you |
| AEO folded into an SEO or hosting plan | $750/mo and up for SEO plans; less for hosting plans | Ongoing site work with AEO as one part of it | AEO competes with everything else in the plan for attention |
| One-off audit | $1,500 to $12,000, median $4,300 | A list of fixes, delivered in 2 to 6 weeks | Nobody implements the list or checks it again later |
| Agency starter retainer (for comparison) | $1,800 to $4,200/mo | Dedicated AEO work, 3-month minimum | Price |
The tool route has the lowest price and the most hidden labour. A tool reports; it does not change your site. If your website is why AI engines skip you, the dashboard will say so every month until someone fixes it.
The folded route works when the plan states what AEO work is in scope. Ask for that list in writing. "AI-ready" on a pricing page is not a scope.
The audit route costs more up front and nothing after. First Page Sage found only 8% of agencies sell audits at all. Our AEO audit cost guide breaks down what each price level includes.
AEO pricing for home services and local businesses
Home services pay the least for AEO in First Page Sage's study: a median of $3,190 USD a month, in a range of $1,800 to $7,500. That median is still more than three times a $1,000 budget.
| Industry | Median monthly AEO price (USD) |
|---|---|
| Home services | $3,190 |
| Real estate | $4,460 |
| Ecommerce | $5,310 |
| Healthcare | $7,960 |
| Legal | $8,170 |
| Financial services | $9,850 |
The home services median rose 17% from 2025. Legal rose 42%.
The study does not explain why home services cost less. Our reading, not its finding: a plumber or renovation firm usually has fewer services and one service area, so there is less to cover.
Local businesses also have a cheaper lever that no AEO invoice covers. AI assistants lean on the same sources as local search, such as your Google Business Profile, reviews and directory listings. We wrote about how that works in how ChatGPT recommends local businesses. If you are in the GTA and comparing SEO quotes that bundle AEO, our Toronto SEO cost guide has the local CAD ranges.
Free AEO tools vs paid services
Free AEO tools let you check whether AI engines mention you. Paid tools track it every day across more prompts. A paid service changes the result. Most small businesses should start free, then pay for whichever of the three they are missing.
Each price below is the list price on the vendor's pricing page, checked October 28, 2026, in USD before tax:
| Tool | Free option | Paid entry | Higher plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | none listed | Lite $29/mo (15 prompts) | Standard $189/mo (100), Premium $489/mo (400) |
| AthenaHQ | Essential, 300 credits | Starter $295/mo (3,600 credits) | Enterprise, custom |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | no free trial | $99/mo | n/a |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | none listed | add-on from $199/mo | on top of an Ahrefs plan (Lite $129/mo, billed annually) |
| Profound | 7-day trial, 50 prompts a day | no public paid price | Enterprise, custom |
Otterly's Lite plan at $29 a month is the cheapest paid tracker here. Ahrefs' cheapest AI tracking costs at least $328 a month, because Brand Radar sits on top of a base plan. Profound removed its $99 and $399 plans between September 14 and 21, 2026, according to PricingSaaS. Our Profound pricing breakdown covers what changed.
You can also test by hand. Type the questions your customers ask into ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and note who gets named. It costs nothing and tells you whether a paid tracker would show you anything new. Our guide to measuring AI search visibility sets out a repeatable version.
A $189 tracker and a $1,800 retainer are not two prices for one thing. If you already know AI engines skip you, more tracking will not change that.
Questions to ask a low-cost AEO provider
Ask a cheap AEO provider what they will change on your site each month, what they will report, and what happens when you stop paying. Vague answers to any of the three are the warning sign, not the low price.
With 77% of agencies in the study publishing no pricing, you will usually get answers on a sales call. Take this list:
- What work is done each month? Names of pages, schema types, listings. "Optimization" alone is not an answer.
- Which AI engines and prompts do you track, and can I see the raw results? A report with no prompts in it cannot be checked.
- Is AEO a separate line, or part of the SEO plan? If it is billed as both, see GEO vs AEO services cost before you pay twice.
- What is the minimum term? The starter-tier norm is 3 months. Longer at this price is worth questioning.
- Who owns the content and the site changes if I leave?
- Is the price in USD or CAD, and does it include HST? The First Page Sage figures and every tool price in this post are in USD. Our own prices are in CAD, plus HST.
What the low end won't do
A budget under $1,000 a month will not pay for digital PR, original research or a team running AEO full time. First Page Sage reports digital PR is included by 33% of agencies at the Growth tier ($4,500 a month and up) and 71% at Advanced, and original research by 29% and 64%. Below that, getting other sites to mention you is your job.
A tool alone will not get you cited. Citations come from changes to your site and to what other sites say about you, which our guide to getting cited lists.
We did not test the tools above against each other or request agency quotes. Every price here is what the seller publishes, and tool prices carry no effective date, so check them before you buy. The market-wide picture, including audit and tool ranges, is on our AEO cost comparison.
Where Space & Story fits
Our monthly plans are Local at CA$300, Growth at CA$700 and Authority at CA$2,000 and up, all in Canadian dollars plus HST, and AEO work is included in every plan rather than sold separately. Website builds start at CA$5,000. Full details are on our pricing page. Our free 24-page AI search audit is delivered within 24 hours.