NotesNov 2, 2026
What does GEO tooling cost in 2026? Verified prices for 28 AI search tools
Paid AI search tools start between $20 and $800 per month across our 28 verified listings, with a median entry price of $80. Three tools have a real free tier and four offer a free audit. Every number was re-verified on the vendors' pricing pages on October 25, 2026.
Paid AI search (GEO) tooling costs between $20 and $800 per month in 2026. That is the short answer, drawn from the 28 vendor pricing pages we re-verified on October 25, 2026. The median entry price is $80 per month. Below is the full ladder, what free actually means at each vendor, and how to budget by team size.
What is the full price ladder for GEO tools?
Entry prices across the 28 tools we track span a 40x range. The cheapest paid entry is Rankscale at $20 per month; the most expensive public one is Evertune at $800 per month. Two vendors, AirOps and Bluefish, do not publish a usable entry price, so we mark them undisclosed rather than guess.
| Tool | Job | Entry price | Free option | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rankscale | Monitor | $20/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Scalenut | Workflows | $21/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| NEURONwriter | Optimize | $23/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Otterly AI | Monitor | $25/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Wellows | Monitor | $29/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Frase | Optimize | $39/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Monitor | $50/mo | None | 2026-10-25 |
| Heysurface | Autopilot | $50/mo | Real free tier | 2026-09-28 |
| Writesonic | Optimize | $79/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| LLMrefs | Monitor | $79/mo | Real free tier | 2026-10-25 |
| Peec AI | Monitor | $80/mo | None | 2026-10-25 |
| Surfer | Optimize | $82/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Nightwatch | Monitor | $85/mo, billed annually | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Semrush | Monitor | $99/mo, billed annually | None | 2026-10-25 |
| SE Visible (by SE Ranking) | Monitor | $99/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Search Atlas | Autopilot | $199/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Scrunch AI | Diagnose | $250/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Goodie AI | Optimize | $295/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| ChatFeatured | Autopilot | $500/mo | Free audit | 2026-10-25 |
| Gauge | Autopilot | $599/mo | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Evertune | Monitor | $800/mo | None | 2026-10-25 |
| Profound | Report | Trial, enterprise pricing not public | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| AthenaHQ | Optimize | Free plan, paid from $295/mo | Real free tier | 2026-10-25 |
| Geol.ai | Optimize | Free audit | Free audit | 2026-10-25 |
| Gumshoe | Diagnose | Free audit | Free audit | 2026-10-25 |
| HubSpot AI Search Grader | Diagnose | Free audit | Free audit | 2026-10-25 |
| AirOps | Workflows | Undisclosed | Trial | 2026-10-25 |
| Bluefish | Monitor | Undisclosed | None | 2026-10-25 |
Which AI search tools can I use for free?
Seven of the 28 tools let you see AI-search data without paying, but only three have a real free tier you can keep using. The rest offer a one-time audit or a trial that expires.
- Real free tiers: AthenaHQ (free plan with monthly credits), Heysurface (limited free monitoring), LLMrefs (free plan).
- Free one-time audits: Geol.ai, Gumshoe, HubSpot AI Search Grader, ChatFeatured. A snapshot, not an account.
- Trials that expire or need a card: Profound, Otterly AI, Rankscale, Wellows, and most of the rest.
What should a solo founder or freelancer budget?
A solo operator can start monitoring AI answers for $20 to $50 per month. Five verified options sit in that band: Rankscale ($20), Scalenut ($21, billed annually), NEURONwriter ($23), Otterly AI ($25, billed annually), and Wellows ($29).
What do teams and agencies pay?
The team band runs from $79 to $295 per month. Peec AI starts at $80, Writesonic at $79 billed annually, Semrush at $99 billed annually, and agency-grade optimizers like Goodie AI at $295.
What do enterprise platforms cost?
Enterprise AI visibility starts around $500 per month where prices are public: ChatFeatured at $500, Gauge at $599, Evertune at $800. Profound publishes a trial but not its enterprise pricing, and Bluefish does not publish a usable entry price.
Why do free claims in this market mislead?
Because vendors use the word free for four different things. We label every listing with exactly one of them, so you never have to guess:
- Real free tier: a plan that works indefinitely without a card (AthenaHQ, LLMrefs).
- Trial only: free means a few days, then a paywall. AirOps markets a free start but its app paywalls at $200, so we list it as trial only.
- Free audit: a one-time scan or report, not an account (HubSpot AI Search Grader).
- None: no free route at all (Peec AI, Semrush).
How do we verify these numbers?
Every price above comes from the vendor's live pricing page, read through a human-reviewed loop, never from marketing copy. Each listing shows two dates: when its pricing was last verified and when its features were last verified. When a vendor changes a price, the loop flags it and the listing is corrected within 72 hours. A price we cannot verify is listed as undisclosed. We do not guess.