How much does AEO cost in Australia?

What you are actually paying for

AEO retainers cover the work that makes AI engines cite and recommend a business: entity and structured-data engineering, answer-shaped content, corroborating mentions across the web, and ongoing measurement of how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot and Claude describe the brand. Unlike ads, the work persists after you stop paying — but be realistic: AI visibility is more volatile than traditional SEO. Models retrain, sources shift, and citations can drop. Gains hold best when they are backed by real authority, not tricks.

Typical AEO price ranges in Australia (2026)

• One-off AI visibility audit: $500–$1,500. A point-in-time read of how AI engines see the business. Cited AI's consultant-reviewed AI Visibility Audit is free; our paid one-off in this category is the Google Business Profile & Entity Setup at $790.
• Entry retainer (single local brand): $290–$800/month. Foundations, entity work and answer monitoring for one location or service area. Honest framing: this tier maintains and monitors — it moves the needle in low-competition local niches, not contested markets. Cited AI's Starter plan is $290/month.
• Growth retainer (competitive category): $800–$2,500/month. This is the zone where real outcomes start: content production, corroborating mentions and multi-engine tracking together. Cited AI's Growth plan is $990/month.
• Enterprise / national: $3,000+/month. Multiple brands, markets or highly contested categories.

What moves the price up or down

• Competition: being the recommended conveyancer in Ballina costs less than being the recommended mortgage broker in Sydney.
• Number of locations and services: each one is a separate set of questions AI engines answer.
• Starting position: a brand AI engines already know needs less foundational work than one they have never seen.
• Content production: whether the agency writes your answer content or optimises what you produce.

What you actually get at each tier

"AEO" is not yet a standardised deliverable — every agency defines it differently, and it is often bundled into SEO, content or PR. So ignore the label and ask what is actually shipped each month:

• Entry (~$290–$800): answer monitoring across the six major engines, schema and entity fixes, and quarterly recommendations. Maintenance and visibility — not a growth engine on its own.
• Growth (~$800–$2,500): everything above plus answer-shaped content produced for you, corroborating mentions built off-site, and monthly share-of-answer reporting. In our view, this is the minimum stack needed to shift recommendations in competitive categories.
• Enterprise ($3,000–$8,000+): the full stack across multiple brands, locations or hard categories — closer to digital PR plus technical SEO plus content, run as one program.

If a provider cannot tell you exactly which of those deliverables you are buying, you are buying a label.

The honest caveats no pricing page should skip

• No one can guarantee placements. AI engines decide what they cite. Anyone promising a guaranteed recommendation is overselling.
• Visibility is volatile. Models retrain and refresh sources; a citation held in March can drop in June. Budget for maintenance, not a one-off win.
• Measurement is still maturing. "Share of answer" tooling is young and partly manual across the industry. Ask any agency how they measure — a good one will be upfront about the limits.
• Much of the work is off-site. In our experience, mentions and third-party authority tend to matter more than backlinks for AI visibility, which makes AEO closer to digital PR than to classic on-page SEO.

How AEO pricing compares with SEO

In our experience, Australian SEO retainers commonly run $750–$5,000+ per month, so AEO is usually the cheaper line item — and the two overlap: entity work, structured data and authoritative content strengthen both. If you already pay for SEO, AEO is best treated as a layer on top rather than a replacement. See AEO vs SEO: what's the difference?

How to judge value before you sign

• Ask for a baseline: how do the six major engines describe and recommend you today?
• Ask what is measured monthly — share of answer and citations, not just rankings.
• Ask which engines are covered. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot and Claude behave differently.
• Be wary of guaranteed placements — no agency controls what an AI engine says.