How much does AI search optimisation (GEO) cost in the UK?

It is budget season. Your finance director wants next year's numbers, and somewhere on the list is a line nobody quite knows how to fill: whatever we are doing about AI search. You know buyers are asking ChatGPT and Gemini who to hire. You have proposals from three agencies at three very different prices, each describing a slightly different thing.

Some of those agencies will call the work GEO (generative engine optimisation) or AEO (answer engine optimisation). Both mean the same practical job: getting your firm named and cited when buyers ask ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity or Claude. Others call it AI SEO. Google's own guide names GEO and AEO and says that, for Google's AI features, optimising for them is still SEO. The label matters less than what the fee buys.

UK agencies now publish their price ranges, so there is a market rate to compare against. This guide sets out what those ranges are, what each level usually buys, what tools and audits cost, and then the method we would use to choose your own number: start from what a new client is worth to you.

#How much does GEO cost per month in the UK?

Published UK price guides put most monthly retainers between about £800 and £10,000, with enterprise work above that. The ranges below come from UK agencies' own pricing guides, so treat them as what sellers say the market charges, not as an independent survey.

MarGen's guide, updated in June 2026, sets out the four monthly bands and says the entry band typically includes two to four content pieces a month, basic schema markup and monthly reporting. Jason Burns, an independent UK consultant, gives the day rates and audit prices. Gripped, which works with B2B software firms, quotes £3,000 to £8,000 for a standalone audit. The spread is wide because the same three letters cover very different amounts of work.

For our own fees, see what it costs.

#Why do quotes for the same work vary so much?

Because providers are quoting for different jobs under the same name. Before you compare prices, check which of these each proposal actually includes:

• Monitoring. Running your buyers' questions through the assistants and reporting what they say. Cheap to deliver with a tool.
• Content. Pages and articles that answer buyer questions plainly. Cost depends on how many pieces, and whether someone senior interviews your experts.
• Earned coverage. Trade press commentary, listings, reviews and awards. This is the expensive, slow part, and it matters: Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini found earned media made up 84% of them.
• Website work. Fixing a site that assistants cannot read or trust. Sometimes quoted separately, sometimes left out entirely.
• Seniority and commitment. A strategist with sector knowledge costs more than a junior account manager, and some providers ask for minimum terms of three or twelve months.

For example, two proposals at £1,000 and £4,000 a month may both be fair prices. They are rarely prices for the same thing. We cover what the lower end usually leaves out in whether a cheap AI search package will work.

#What do AI visibility tracking tools cost?

Of the tools we checked, entry plans ranged from $29 to $199 a month, priced mainly by how many questions you track. These are list prices in US dollars as shown on each vendor's pricing page in September 2026.

A tool tells you where you stand. It does not write pages or earn coverage, so a tool-only budget works for a firm with a marketer who can act on what it shows. Our guide to finding out whether ChatGPT recommends your firm sets out the manual method, which costs nothing but time.

#How much does an AI visibility audit cost?

Published UK audit prices run from about £500 for a short prioritised action plan to £5,000 or more for a full audit (Jason Burns), and Gripped quotes £3,000 to £8,000 for B2B software firms. A useful audit records what the assistants say today for your buyers' questions, checks that AI crawlers can read your site, and ranks the fixes.

We offer two entry points: the free Growth Review, 30 minutes with David Adams and three fixes in writing, and the Paid Discovery, a week of work with every finding ranked and the fixes written so your own team can ship them. TCC Group shows what a one-week plan can do: "1 week to a plan TCC's own team built the new site from."

#Is £1,000 a month enough to get recommended by ChatGPT?

Sometimes, but only if the rest is already in place. £1,000 a month sits in MarGen's entry band, which buys monitoring and a small amount of content. That can be enough for a firm with a strong website, a clear specialism and existing trade coverage. It is rarely enough for a firm that also needs its site fixed and its reputation built, because earned coverage is the part a small retainer leaves out.

If £1,000 a month is the ceiling, spend it on the foundations first: a site that answers your buyers' main questions, accurate listings, and a monthly check of what the assistants say.

#How do we set the right budget for our firm?

Start from what a new client is worth and how many you need, not from the price list. Then any quote becomes something you can judge: does it plausibly produce the clients that would repay it? The method takes an afternoon with your finance director and a spreadsheet.

#Step 1: Work out what a new client is worth

Use gross profit over the life of a typical client, not first-year fees. For example, if an average client pays £15,000 a year, your gross margin is 50% and clients stay three years, each new client is worth £7,500 a year in gross profit, or £22,500 over the relationship. If you do not know your average client lifetime, look at the last twenty clients you lost and count how long each stayed.

#Step 2: Work out how many extra clients would repay the spend

Divide a candidate budget by the value of a client. In the example, £3,000 a month is £36,000 a year. Over a client's lifetime you break even at £36,000 divided by £22,500, which is 1.6, so two new clients. If your finance director wants the money back within the year, it is £36,000 divided by £7,500, which is 4.8, so five. Show both: the lifetime figure is the true return, and the same-year figure is the cash question.

#Step 3: Check the target against your enquiry numbers

Turn the client target into enquiries, using your own win rate. If you win one in three qualified proposals, two extra clients means six extra qualified proposals a year, roughly one every two months. For a firm with a clear specialism that is a modest target; in a crowded national market it may take longer.

#Step 4: Choose the level of effort your market needs

Run a quick check of who the assistants name for your buyers' questions today, using our guide to measuring AI share of voice against competitors. If you are already named for some important questions, you are holding ground and a smaller budget may do. If a rival is named for most of them, you are catching up and need foundations plus a year of coverage. If you want to be the default answer in a contested market, expect original research and regular senior commentary.

#Step 5: Add your own team's time and a contingency

Nobody can write expert content about your firm without your experts. For example, six hours a month from you and two senior colleagues, at an illustrative charge-out rate of £200 an hour, is £1,200 a month of time that would otherwise be billed. Add a contingency of about a tenth of the external spend for things you cannot predict, such as an awards entry or a website fix.

#What does the money actually pay for?

Three jobs, and most wasted spend comes from paying for one and assuming it covers the others. A website that answers buyer questions, in plain language and readable by AI crawlers. Coverage and proof elsewhere, because assistants recommend firms they find described consistently in places they trust. And measurement, the smallest line, without which you cannot tell your board anything at month six.

As a starting point, a first-year split of roughly half on website and content, a third on coverage and proof, and the rest on measurement and contingency suits many firms. Shift more to coverage if your website is already strong.

#How should we phase the spend over twelve months?

Front-load the foundations, then settle into a steady rhythm. In months one to three, measure where you stand, fix what stops the assistants reading or trusting your site, and write the core pages. In months four to nine, publish every month, earn coverage and track the same questions. In months ten to twelve, compare with the baseline, count enquiries by source and set next year's level.

Change can come sooner than a year. Assistants that search the web live can reflect a new page within weeks, while answers drawn from a model's memory change only when it is retrained, which takes months. ID-Pal is the dated example: "UK buyer questions where AI names ID-Pal: none in May, two in August, four in September 2026."

#Should we hire, use an agency or mix the two?

For most founder-led firms with £1m to £20m+ revenue, a mix works best: outside specialists for the work that needs press contacts, website skills and measurement, and one person inside who owns it. One hire rarely brings all of those, and a new in-house marketer will need salary, employer costs, tools and months to build relationships with editors.

A mix can also mean an outside plan that your own team delivers. TCC Group took that route: "TCC chose to build it with its own team, and the new tcc.group is live, built to the plan, with nothing about it depending on Fortitude."

#How do we present the budget to the finance director?

Present three numbers and one agreement: the cost of doing nothing, the investment (fees, tools, internal time and contingency over twelve months), the break-even target from Step 2, and the review points. At month three, foundations done and a baseline recorded. At month six, named more often for the target questions. At month twelve, enquiries and wins by source against the target. Our guides to what inaction is costing you and making the business case to your board cover both ends.

#What to do this month

1. Pull your average client fee, gross margin and client lifetime, and calculate what a new client is worth.
2. Pick a candidate monthly budget and work out the break-even number of clients on a lifetime and a same-year basis.
3. Ask ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Gemini ten of your buyers' main questions and note who is named, so you know your position.
4. Put each proposal you have into the table above: which of monitoring, content, coverage and website work does it include?
5. List the internal hours the work will need and who will own it.
6. Agree the budget, contingency and review points with your finance director.

#Frequently asked questions

#What does an AI SEO agency charge?

The same as a GEO or AEO agency, because it is the same work under a different name. Expect entry retainers of about £800 to £2,000 a month and programmes of £2,000 to £10,000 a month (MarGen, June 2026). Ask for a line-by-line list of what is included before comparing.

#What share of our marketing budget should go on AI search?

There is no reliable published benchmark, and a percentage borrowed from another firm ignores what your clients are worth. Set the amount with the value method above, then compare it with what you spend on channels that stop the moment you stop paying. We make that comparison in whether being named by ChatGPT is cheaper than Google Ads.

#Can a provider guarantee we will be recommended?

No. Nobody can guarantee what an AI assistant will say, so be wary of anyone who promises a place in ChatGPT's answers. A provider can guarantee effort, reporting and outcomes it controls, such as pages published, coverage secured and meetings held.

#Can we pay ChatGPT to be recommended instead?

Not inside the answer. ChatGPT has shown labelled ads to UK users on its Free and Go plans since 11 August 2026, and OpenAI says the ads do not change the answer itself. Being named in the answer is still earned.

#Do we need to include the cost of a new website?

Only if your current site stops the assistants reading or trusting your firm. If it is slow, thin, hard for crawlers to read or vague about what you do, fixing it usually gives the best return in the first year. See what a B2B website costs in the UK.

#What if we can only afford a small budget?

Spend it on the foundations first and set review points further out, because a smaller budget usually means slower progress.

Published ranges tell you what the market charges; your client value tells you what you can afford to pay. For our own fees, see what it costs, or book a free Growth Review and we will work through your numbers with you.

#Sources