How Much Does AEO Cost?
In 2026, Answer Engine Optimization typically costs $500 to $5,000 for a one-time audit and $2,000 to $10,000 per month for a managed program. The range depends on how competitive your category is, how many buyer questions you want to win, and how much off-site authority work it takes to get cited. SourceRank AI's audit is $2,580, and managed plans run $3,500 to $9,500 per month.
You are not paying for content. You are paying to be the name an AI gives when your buyer asks.
What drives the price
Three things move an AEO quote more than anything else. Together they decide how much work it takes to get you into the answer.
Category competitiveness
If well-known competitors are already cited for your buyer questions, it takes more source authority to displace them. Crowded categories cost more than open ones.
Question coverage
Winning five buyer questions is cheaper than winning fifty. The more of your category's high-intent prompts you want to own, the larger the program.
Off-site authority needed
Most of AEO is earning mentions on the third-party sources models trust. If you start with little of that footprint, there is more outreach to do, and that is where the work concentrates.
What AEO costs across the market
Rough 2026 ranges, useful for sanity-checking any quote you receive.
One-time audit: $500 to $5,000
A baseline of where you show up across answer engines and who is named instead of you. The cheap end is a thin automated report; the high end includes a real roadmap. SourceRank AI's audit is $2,580 and is credited toward your first month if you start a plan.
Managed retainer: $2,000 to $10,000 per month
An ongoing program that measures, fixes structure and entity signals, earns citations, and reports on a cadence. Mid-market programs cluster around $3,000 to $6,000 per month. SourceRank AI runs Foundation at $3,500, Growth at $5,500, and Category Lead at $9,500.
How to think about the return
AEO traffic is small today but converts far better than most channels, because the buyer arrives already told why you fit. A handful of cited buyer questions, won and held, can return more than a much larger spend on channels your competitors are also crowding.
The honest caveat: nobody can guarantee a position in an AI answer, and you should distrust anyone who does. What you are buying is measurement you can trust and a system pointed at the signals that actually move the answer. See where you stand first, then choose the level.
Start with the number, not the contract
The Visibility Audit shows where AI ranks you today and who is named instead, engine by engine. It is the cheapest way to see whether a managed program is worth it for your category. SourceRank AI is a Danish Lead Co company, built on the measurement discipline Frederik Jakobsen and the team refined across more than 1,000 campaigns.
How to choose an AEO agency
What to look for, and the red flags that should make you walk.
Read the answer ->How is AI visibility measured?
How to put a real, honest number on whether AI names you.
Read the answer ->Common questions
Is the audit credited toward a plan?
Yes. The $2,580 AI Visibility Audit is credited toward your first month if you start a plan within 30 days.
Why is AEO priced like a retainer?
Because authority compounds. Citations and entity signals build over months, so the highest-value AEO runs continuously rather than as a one-off project.