How Much Does AEO Cost?
AEO pricing typically runs as a monthly retainer, commonly from around one to several thousand dollars per month per location for local service businesses, or as a fixed-scope sprint. Cost depends on competition, number of locations, the amount of entity cleanup and content required, and whether third-party placement work is included. Verifiable results and a guarantee matter more than the raw number.
Why AEO is usually priced monthly
AEO is not a one-time fix. AI answers churn as engines re-crawl and re-weight sources, so presence has to be maintained. Entity consistency degrades as new listings and mentions appear. Content freshness matters. That ongoing nature is why most credible AEO work is a retainer rather than a single project fee. You are paying to reach the citation threshold and then stay above it.
What drives the price up or down
Number of locations. Each location multiplies the entity work, the content, and the maintenance. Multi-location practices cost more because there is genuinely more to unify and hold.
Competition in your market. A thin-competition market is faster and cheaper to win. A saturated market with entrenched, heavily-reviewed competitors requires more content and more third-party work to break through.
Starting condition. A practice with clean data, real reviews, and existing mentions needs less cleanup than one whose data is fragmented across the web.
Scope of off-site work. Directory placement, editorial third-party mentions, and community presence add cost but are often where commercial "best agency" and "best med spa" citations actually come from.
What you should actually evaluate
Do not shop on price alone. Evaluate what is guaranteed, how success is defined, and whether the result is verifiable from a logged-out session. A lower retainer with vague deliverables and no verifiable guarantee is more expensive than a higher one that delivers a reproducible result and refunds you if it does not. The right question is not "what does it cost" but "what am I guaranteed, how is it verified, and what happens if it does not work."
Want this done for your practice — and verified from a clean, logged-out session?
Book a strategy call