How Much Does an AI Visibility Audit Cost in 2026?
Most AI visibility audits cost between $99 and $3,500, based on the prices that providers published in September and November 2026. Automated scans sit at the low end. Audits with manual review sit at the high end. A consulting engagement can cost $8,000 to $25,000, and some providers sell the audit as a monthly plan instead: one published plan starts at $200 a month. The price depends mostly on how many AI engines are tested, how many questions are asked, and whether anyone acts on the results.
Price levels
| Level | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Automated scan | Free to $99 | A crawl of your site and a readiness score. No questions are asked to the AI engines. |
| Snapshot | About $300 | A set of buyer questions tested once against a few engines. |
| Full audit | $497 to $3,500 | More questions, a competitor comparison, and a written report. |
| Consulting engagement | $8,000 to $25,000 | A baseline across engines, a gap analysis, and prioritized recommendations, for a larger company. |
| Monthly plan | From $200 a month | The measurement repeated on a schedule, often with ongoing work. |
| Audit and execution | $500 to $5,000 | The audit, plus work on third-party pages that AI engines read. |
What moves the price
Two audits with the same name can differ in price by a factor of ten. Five things explain most of the gap:
- How many questions are asked. Each question has to be written, put to the engines, and read. A longer list costs more.
- How many engines are tested. Each AI engine answers differently, so each one is measured separately.
- How many times each question is asked. Asking once is cheaper. Asking more than once is what separates a real result from chance.
- Whether competitors are compared. Knowing who is named instead of you takes more reading than knowing whether you are named.
- Whether anyone acts on the findings. An audit that stops at a report costs less than one that includes work on third-party pages. This is the largest step in the table above.
One-time audit or monthly plan?
Providers sell an audit in two ways. A one-time audit gives you a dated measurement and a report, for a single payment. A monthly plan repeats the measurement and usually includes ongoing work. A one-time audit fits a first look or a pitch to a client. A monthly plan fits a brand that keeps working on the result. Before you pay, check what renews and how you cancel.
Free check or paid audit?
A free check reads your own site: whether AI crawlers can reach it, whether your pages carry structured data, and whether your brand is clearly defined. Start there, because it costs nothing. Several free tools do it, including our entity checker.
A paid audit answers a different question: when a buyer asks an AI engine for a recommendation, is your brand named, and who is named instead? That takes real questions put to the engines, more than once, and someone who reads the answers. Pay for an audit when you need that second answer.
What the price should buy
Ask these questions before you pay for an audit:
- Which engines are tested, and how many times? An AI engine can give a different answer to the same question. One run per question can't tell a real result from chance. We have measured it on our own runs.
- Is the result given with a margin of error? On 20 questions, a gap of less than about 20 points between two tests is noise.
- Does anyone act on the findings? A report tells you where you're missing. It doesn't put you on the pages that AI engines read. That part is off-page work.
- Is paid placement disclosed? If a provider buys a placement, the page should show it as sponsored and the report should say it was paid.
What no audit can promise
No provider controls what an AI engine answers. An audit can measure whether you're named today and compare that with a later test. It can't guarantee a citation, and it can't guarantee that a later test shows progress. A high readiness score doesn't guarantee it either: we saw stores scoring 90/100 that ChatGPT still didn't name.
What the Citation Sprint includes
The Citation Sprint costs $490, paid once:
- A site audit.
- A citation test on 20 buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, with a confidence interval.
- Three off-page placements, pursued for you. A paid placement is marked as sponsored on the page and reported as paid.
- A re-test after 30 days on the same questions, compared with the first test.
The Sprint comes with a 14-day refund guarantee. It doesn't renew, and there's nothing to cancel. See pricing for the details.
Frequently asked questions
Between $99 and $3,500 for most offers published in September and November 2026. Automated scans sit at the low end. Audits with manual review sit at the high end. A consulting engagement can cost $8,000 to $25,000.
A free check tells you whether AI crawlers can read your site. It doesn't tell you whether AI engines name you when a buyer asks a question.
AI engines don't give the same answer every time. A sound test asks each question more than once and reports a range, not a single number.
No. Nobody controls what an AI engine answers. Be careful with any offer that promises it.
An automated scan takes minutes. Providers that publish a delivery time for a full audit quote 5 to 10 business days. A before-and-after comparison takes longer: the Citation Sprint re-tests after 30 days.
Both exist. Some providers sell a one-time audit, and others sell a monthly plan that repeats the measurement. The Citation Sprint is paid once and doesn't renew.
Yes. The Citation Sprint report can be delivered under your agency's brand. See white-label AEO and GEO fulfillment for agencies.