How much does answer engine optimization cost per month?
Software that only tracks your visibility had reported entry prices of $29–$295 a month in September 2026. A managed programme, where someone else writes the pages and fixes the markup, is usually quoted at $1,000–$8,000. We charge $99–$799.
Those three bands cover almost every quote you will see, and the gap between the first and the last is not margin — it is a different purchase. Below is the full spread with where each figure came from, the five things that actually move the number, and the point at which you should not be paying anyone yet.
The four price bands
| Band | Typical monthly | What you get | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | $0 | You ask the engines by hand and fix your own pages | Sites under roughly twenty pages, or anyone not yet sure this matters |
| Tracking software | $29–$295 reported, Sep 2026 | Scheduled checks, dashboards, competitor comparison. No writing. | Teams with someone in-house who will act on the findings |
| Managed programme | $1,000–$8,000 | Tracking plus content, structured data and outreach done for you | Brands with budget and no spare capacity |
| Enterprise | $10,000–$25,000+ reported, Sep 2026 | Many markets, languages and brands, digital PR, deep reporting | Large organisations with procurement |
Where every figure on this page comes from. Our own prices — $99, $299, $799 — are ours and are exact. Every other number on this page, including the four bands above, is what Perplexity reported on 19 September 2026 in a run we stored and published, not a price we have independently verified. The tracking band is the span of the reported entry prices in the table further down, from Otterly at about $29 to AthenaHQ at about $295; Perplexity’s own summary put do-it-yourself and tooling together at $0–$500. Prices in this category move quickly — check the vendor’s own page before you rely on anything here.
Where those numbers come from
On 19 September 2026 we put the question “How much does answer engine optimization cost per month?” to Perplexity through its API, as part of our own published audit. This is what it told buyers, citing ten sources:
- DIY and tools: $0–$500 a month, plus your team’s time.
- Basic small-business programme: $1,000–$2,500 a month.
- Mid-market managed service: $2,000–$8,000 a month — which it described as the most common range.
- Enterprise: $10,000–$25,000+ a month.
- One-off audit or setup: $500–$5,000.
That is worth knowing for a reason beyond the numbers: it is what a prospective buyer is being told right now when they ask. If your quote sits far outside it, you will be arguing against the engine’s summary before you have said anything.
To repeat, because it matters: these are what Perplexity reported, dated, from a run we stored. We have not independently audited any other vendor’s books. Treat them as the market’s current public answer, not as verified prices.
Published tool prices, as the engines report them
Asked separately for alternatives to Profound, the same run returned these figures. Again: reported, dated 19 September 2026, not verified by us.
| Tool | Reported entry price | Positioned as |
|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | ~$29/month | Budget tracking for small teams and agencies |
| HubSpot AEO | $50/month | Simple tracking inside a wider marketing suite |
| Peec AI | ~$95/month | Prompt-level visibility and citation analysis |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | ~$99/month per domain | AI visibility beside conventional SEO data |
| AthenaHQ | ~$295/month | Broad engine coverage with dashboards and attribution |
| Profound | Quoted | Enterprise, many markets and languages |
Notice the shape: tracking is cheap and getting cheaper, because querying an API and charting the result is not hard. Everything above $500 is being charged for labour.
The five things that actually set your price
- How many questions are tracked. This is the main meter in almost every tool. Twenty-five questions and two hundred are very different bills.
- How many engines, and how they are checked. An engine with a public API is cheap to add. Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot have no API, so anyone covering them is either doing it by hand or scraping. Ask which.
- How many brands and markets. Each extra brand or country multiplies the question set, and that multiplies everything downstream.
- Who does the fixing. The single biggest divide on this page. A dashboard is software margin; writing twenty pages a month is a salary.
- Whether anyone is building third-party sources. Getting listed accurately on the review sites and directories the engines already cite is slow, relationship-shaped work and it is priced accordingly. It is also, in our reading of the citation data, where a lot of the movement is.
What we charge, and what it does not include
Our prices are $99, $299 and $799 a month, month to month, no setup fee. They are listed in full on the plans section. The honest framing:
| Plan | Monthly | Tracked questions | Engines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99 | Up to 25 | 1 — Perplexity |
| Growth | $299 | Up to 100 | All engines we track |
| Scale | $799 | Custom sets, multi-market | All engines we track, by market |
“All engines we track” means Perplexity today. It is the only engine we hold an API key for. ChatGPT and Claude adapters are built and waiting on keys; Gemini is not built. Google AI Overviews and Copilot expose no API, so for Scale clients we review them by hand and say so in the report rather than pretending to automate them. We would rather lose the sale than have you discover that in month two.
We sit below the $1,000–$2,500 “basic programme” band because we are narrower than the agencies in it. That is the trade, stated plainly: less coverage, less money.
When you should not pay anyone, including us
- Your site is under about twenty pages. Measuring an empty site tells you what you already know. Spend the money on content first.
- You have an in-house SEO who only needs the numbers. Buy a $29 tracker — Otterly and Peec AI are both cheaper than us and give you more charts. Pay for work, not for data you already know how to act on.
- Nobody on your side will action the report. This is the most common way money is wasted in this category. A dashboard nobody opens is the most expensive thing on this page.
- You were promised placement. Nobody can sell you a guaranteed mention in an AI answer. Anyone quoting a price for one is selling something they do not control.
Five questions to ask before you sign
- Which engines do you query through an API, and which do you check by hand?
- How many questions and how many brands does this price cover?
- Can I see one real report — not a sample deck — before I buy?
- Who writes the pages: you, or me?
- What happens to my data and my question history if I leave?
Vagueness on any of these predicts vagueness later. The fourth one usually explains the whole price difference by itself.
Common questions
How much does answer engine optimization cost per month?
Software that only tracks your visibility had reported entry prices between $29 and $295 a month when we checked on 19 September 2026 — Otterly at about $29 and AthenaHQ at about $295 were the ends of that range. Perplexity’s own summary put do-it-yourself and tooling at $0 to $500. A managed programme where someone else does the writing and the technical work is commonly quoted between $1,000 and $8,000 a month, and enterprise contracts across many markets run higher again. Bungad charges $99, $299 or $799 a month, below the usual managed range, because we cover one engine automatically rather than a dozen surfaces.
Why is the price range for AEO so wide?
Because the label covers two different purchases. A tracker tells you what the engines say and stops there. A managed programme also writes the pages, fixes the structured data and builds third-party sources, which is labour and priced like labour. Five things drive the number: how many questions are tracked, how many engines and markets, how many brands, who does the fixing, and whether anyone is pursuing mentions on outside sources.
Is there a free way to do AEO?
Yes. The do-it-yourself band costs nothing: you ask the engines by hand and fix your own pages. For a site under roughly twenty pages that is the right first step, and paying anyone before that is premature. The step-by-step version of the free method is set out separately at bungad.com/aeo-for-small-business.
What should I ask before paying for AEO?
Ask which engines are actually queried through an API and which are checked by hand, because ‘all the AI platforms’ almost always means some are manual. Ask how many questions and brands the price covers. Ask to see one real report before you buy. Ask what happens to your data if you leave. And treat any guarantee of placement in AI answers as disqualifying, because nobody controls that.
Find out what you would be paying for
Enter your domain. We ask Perplexity three of your buyers’ questions and show you who gets named today — before you spend anything.
3 questions on Perplexity, free. A domain checked in the last week is served from that stored run rather than asked again, and the daily free allowance resets at midnight UTC.