What AI search visibility costs in 2026

56.9% of sellers publish a paid price. Tools sell for a median $199 a month, services for a median $5,125, and only three sellers put money behind a measured outcome. Prices, guarantees and checkout paths of 123 sellers, read from their own pages on 25 Sep 2026.

Key figures

• 56.9% publish a paid price (70 of 123 companies with a verified in-category price row, seen 25 Sep 2026)
• 35.8% sell a paid offer without a call (44 of 123); tools 60.9%, services 3.7%
• $199 against $5,125 a month: median tool subscription (129 offers) against median service retainer (34 offers)
• 3 of 123 companies tie money to a measured outcome

Report: Study2_What_AI_Search_Visibility_Costs_2026-09.pdf (27 pages). Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22982430 (CC BY 4.0).

Who publishes a price

70 of 123 companies (56.9%) publish a paid price on their own site; 49 (39.8%) show nothing but Custom, Not published or Contact sales. Tools publish far more often than services: 48 of 69 platforms and suites (69.6%) against 22 of 54 service firms (40.7%). Platforms 80.9%, suites 45.5%, agencies 37.3%.

Who sells without a call

44 of 123 companies (35.8%) sell at least one paid offer without a sales call. Among tools it is 42 of 69 (60.9%); among services 2 of 54 (3.7%), both of them self-serve audit sellers. No agency in this sample was recorded as selling a paid AI search visibility offer by card. Caveat: 13 of 301 market rows carry an inferred self-serve flag.

Price bands

163 paid monthly offers from 65 companies. Tools: median $199 a month, p25 $99, p75 $399, range $9.80 to $6,000 (129 offers). Services: median $5,125, p25 $3,249.75, p75 $10,000, range $99 to $68,250 (34 offers). The most crowded band is $100 to 249 a month: 35 offers from 31 companies, all tools. One-time offers: 17 from 10 companies, median $499 ($344.50 without iPullRank's three range rows).

Entry prices and what they buy

Median entry price (each company's lowest paid price): tools $97 (48 companies), services $3,749.50 (22 companies). 40 of 70 entry offers (57.1%) state an engine count (median 4); 40 (57.1%) state a prompt, keyword, brand or seat limit; only 18 (25.7%) state how many AI answers the price buys. Where stated, the median price per answer is $0.0196 (min $0.0044, max $1.7556).

Guarantees

Of 54 companies with verified guarantee rows, 10 carry any guarantee wording (Algomizer, Citant.ai, Embarque, GEO Score, GEOHATS, KKV Labs, RankZero, Semrush, citation.ly, uSERP) and only 3 tie money to a measured outcome (Citant.ai, KKV Labs, citation.ly). Against the price universe that is 8 of 123 (6.5%). In 3 of the 11 wording rows the seller measures its own outcome. The verbatim wording table is in the report (extra figure: charts/extra_guarantee_groups.png).

Checkout and free tools

Of 49 traced checkout paths, 1 reached a live payment page, 14 stopped at an account signup before any payment page, and 26 were not traced. Only 2 paths were followed to a card or details step, both without an account: a base too small to headline. 66 companies offer a free checker or grader; 30 run it with no email or account, 5 ask for an email, 14 for an account, 1 for a card (extra figures: charts/extra_checkout_status.png, charts/extra_free_gate.png).

Method

Source: Broadcastwell Research's September 2026 seller-price survey: 137 seller profiles read live on 25 Sep 2026, a structured read of each seller's live website. Only rows whose price was seen on the seller's own live page that day count; reported, inferred and unknown rows are excluded, as are off-category and benchmark rows; adjacent rows are kept separate. 123 companies carry 301 verified in-category offers. Tools = platforms and suites (69); services = agencies and self-serve audit sellers (54). Bands: under $50, $50 to 99, $100 to 249, $250 to 499, $500 to 999, $1,000 to 2,999, $3,000 to 9,999, $10,000+; lower bound inclusive. EUR prices converted at a flat rate of 1.08 dollars per euro. Every share is a count over the fully enumerated set, so no interval is attached. Recomputed by scripts/study2_pricing.py, kept with the dataset. Broadcastwell sells in this market; its own prices are shown once, unscored, and counted nowhere.

Limitations

Prices seen once on one day; EUR converted at a flat rate; some sellers show different prices by region; 26 checkout paths not traced and a card-without-account base of 2; self-serve flag inferred on 13 rows; the universe is a 137-profile sample, not every seller; ranges recorded at the low end; label inconsistencies on four no-price firms; guarantee wording read, not tested; no causal claim; the publisher sells in this market.

How to cite

Broadcastwell Research. (2026). What AI search visibility costs in 2026: prices, guarantees and checkout paths of 123 sellers (Version 1.0) [Data set and report]. Broadcastwell. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22982430

Dataset and report: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22982430 (CC BY 4.0).