A GEO agency (generative engine optimization, also called AEO) works on whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name and cite a B2B software brand when buyers ask which product to choose. This guide ranks twelve agencies on five public criteria: a baseline frozen before work starts, a flat fee rather than a percentage of ad spend, no setup fee stacked on month one, named engines and a stated method, and no long lock-in. Disclosure: 2 Steps Ahead is run by the same founder as this site. It is ranked here on the same five criteria as the other eleven agencies.
Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in GEO agencies
cannot hold places 1 to 3. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
How we ranked these
Setup: the baseline and the first month
Before an agency changes anything, someone has to measure how often AI assistants name your brand today. Without that baseline frozen in advance, no later number can be attributed to the agency's work, and a good result cannot be told apart from drift. We checked whether each agency measures first and keeps the starting point fixed. We also checked what month one costs: a setup or onboarding fee stacked on top of the first month is a cost that the normal monthly rate should already include, and any agency that adds one was marked down. In practice that means asking for the measurement method in writing, the date the baseline was taken, and whether the agency will re-measure the same prompts on the same engines each month. A baseline built after work has begun is not a baseline, and a vendor that cannot show one cannot show progress either.
The real price: flat fees against percentages of spend
Only two of the twelve agencies here publish what they charge. The rest quote privately, or have their rates reported by directories and trade press, and this page marks every reported figure as reported. Reported retainers run from about $3,500 to well over $20,000 a month. The structure matters as much as the size: a flat monthly fee is predictable, while a percentage of ad spend gives an agency an incentive to spend more of your money whatever the results. We marked down anything that scales with spend and noted where a fee is custom-quoted only. Reported prices also hide the structure around them: ask whether content production, technical fixes and PR are inside the retainer or billed on top, and whether the quote includes VAT. Two agencies with the same headline retainer can cost very different amounts once the extras are counted.
Getting your data out: engines, method and what you keep
A visibility score is only useful if you can see which assistants it covers and how it is produced. We looked at whether each agency names the engines it tracks, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews being the usual set, and whether it explains how a citation is counted instead of reporting a black-box number. We also asked what the client keeps on leaving: the baseline, the tracking data and the documentation. Agencies that bundle their own monitoring platform scored lower unless the data and method stay with the client. Ask for an export of prompt-level results, not only a dashboard score, and for documentation of any structured-data changes made on your site, so that nothing about your visibility depends on the agency staying.
Independence: lock-in terms and self-rankings
Three months is a defensible minimum for work that takes time to show, and six to twelve months is a flag. First Page Sage and iPullRank report six to twelve months, Uproer asks for an annual commitment with 60-day exit terms, and Digital Elevator offers either scoped one-off work or a twelve-month managed retainer. We also read the agencies' own roundups: Searchbloom, for one, ranks itself first in its own "best AI SEO agency" list without a public rubric to check it against. This ranking states its five criteria openly so a placement can be checked. Independence also means an agency tells you when a change has done nothing. A vendor paid on a long retainer has little reason to report that, which is the practical argument for short minimums and for reporting against a baseline you hold yourself.
Who it's for: B2B software, SaaS, ecommerce and enterprise
No agency here suits every buyer, so each entry says who it fits and where it stops fitting. Some are built for B2B software and SaaS only, among them 2 Steps Ahead, Optimist and GrowPad, which states a fit band of roughly $500K to $20M in ARR. Others are SEO-first agencies with AI search as one service line, aimed at ecommerce or national consumer brands, or combine AI search with PR. Enterprise buyers with six-figure budgets sit in a different part of the list than mid-market software companies with a fixed monthly budget. An ecommerce brand needs different content from a software vendor selling to a buying committee, so the right shortlist is two or three agencies whose stated fit matches your size, sector and appetite for commitment.
The 12 tools, reviewed
#1 2 Steps Ahead
Flat-fee AEO/GEO built only for mid-market and enterprise B2B software. · Netherlands · 2stepsahead.ai
Dedicated practice Published pricing B2B focus
2 Steps Ahead is an AI search visibility (AEO/GEO) agency built specifically for mid-market and enterprise B2B software and tech companies, run as one monthly service by a small senior team rather than bolted onto a broader SEO retainer. Three published packages: Core at €3,900/month, Scale at €5,900/month and Max at €7,900/month, all excluding VAT and covering the same seven engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, AI Overviews); the difference is tracked-prompt volume, not which engines get watched. No setup fee, a three-month minimum, and every result checked against a baseline frozen before anything changes.
Where it falls short
Built only for mid-market and enterprise B2B software, so a consumer brand, an ecommerce store or a company outside software gets less from the practice. It is a small senior team, which means capacity is limited by design, and the packages differ by tracked-prompt volume and number of markets rather than by which engines are watched.
Wrong for
A consumer or ecommerce brand outside B2B software; the practice is built around that buyer specifically, with no generalist bench behind it.
Pricing: €3,900–€7,900/month, published (none)
Visit 2 Steps Ahead →
#2 Graphite Growth
Off-site-heavy AEO from an in-house AI research team, clients like Webflow. · United States · graphite.io
Dedicated practice Custom quote B2B focus
Graphite Growth is a research-driven growth agency, founded by CEO Ethan Smith, that runs its AEO practice through an in-house AI research team led by Chief AI Officer Gregory Druck, PhD, analyzing citation patterns and answer-engine behavior at scale rather than applying a generic content playbook. Its client roster includes Webflow, BetterUp and MasterClass, and its AEO work leans harder on off-site signals (PR, Reddit, affiliate and editorial citations) than most others here. Graphite publishes results including a 94% share-of-voice increase for Webflow and a 936% revenue increase for Fourthwall; these are the agency's own reported figures, not independently verified, and pricing is by custom quote only.
Where it falls short
Pricing is by custom quote only, so a buyer cannot compare cost before a first call. The published results, including the 94% share-of-voice increase for Webflow and the 936% revenue increase for Fourthwall, are the agency's own figures and are not independently verified. Off-site work compounds on top of on-site fundamentals, not instead of them.
Wrong for
A brand that has not yet done the on-site technical and content work; off-site signals compound on top of that, not instead of it.
Pricing: Custom quote (none)
Visit Graphite Growth →
#3 First Page Sage
GEO pioneer with enterprise clients, $8K–$20K/month, 6–12 month lock-in. · United States · firstpagesage.com
Dedicated practice Reported pricing B2B focus
First Page Sage describes itself as having pioneered the GEO discipline and structures its offering around six elements, including a full AEO audit of how prospective customers use answer engines and technical implementation of structured data and schema markup. It publicly lists an enterprise client roster including Microsoft, Salesforce, US Bank, Logitech, Cadence and VeriSign. Reported pricing runs $8,000 to $20,000 a month, with a 6-to-12-month minimum contract, well past the three-month bar this list treats as defensible.
Where it falls short
Reported pricing of $8,000 to $20,000 a month sits at the top of this list, and the 6-to-12-month minimum contract is well past the three-month bar this ranking treats as defensible. Buyers who cannot commit for half a year or more have little room to test the work before the commitment is made.
Wrong for
A company that wants to keep its options open after three months; the minimum term here runs two to four times longer than that.
Pricing: $8K–$20K/month, reported (none)
Visit First Page Sage →
#4 iPullRank
Mike King's Relevance Engineering practice, enterprise budgets from $12K/month. · United States · ipullrank.com
Dedicated practice Reported pricing B2B focus
iPullRank is an SEO and content agency led by founder Mike King, built around what he calls Relevance Engineering: applying information-retrieval theory to how content gets selected and cited by AI models, rather than treating AI search as SEO with new keywords bolted on. Reported client work spans SAP, American Express, HSBC, SanDisk and General Mills. Ongoing budgets reportedly start around $12,000 a month, enterprise engagements can run $50,000 or more per project, and typical minimums run 6 to 12 months.
Where it falls short
Ongoing budgets reportedly start around $12,000 a month, enterprise engagements can run $50,000 or more per project, and typical minimums run 6 to 12 months. For a smaller B2B software company the entry price and the commitment are both high, and the pricing is reported by third parties rather than published by the agency.
Wrong for
A smaller B2B software company without an enterprise-sized budget; reported minimums start well above what a typical mid-market retainer costs.
Pricing: $12K+/month, reported (none)
Visit iPullRank →
#5 Optimist
B2B-only AEO reporting results in pipeline and revenue terms. · United States · yesoptimist.com
Dedicated practice Custom quote B2B focus
Optimist is an AEO agency built specifically for B2B technology companies, running audits of brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews plus competitive AI-visibility analysis and entity optimization. It reports results in pipeline and revenue terms rather than citation counts alone, and publishes no rate card; industry-wide, comparable dedicated AEO retainers run roughly $4,000 to $25,000+ a month depending on scope.
Where it falls short
Optimist publishes no rate card, so scope and price start from a blank page and cannot be compared before a first conversation. Industry-wide, comparable dedicated AEO retainers run roughly $4,000 to $25,000 or more a month depending on scope, which is a wide range for a buyer to plan a budget around.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants published pricing to compare before the first call; scope and price here start from a blank page.
Pricing: Custom quote (none)
Visit Optimist →
#6 Digital Elevator
Free 30-day AI Visibility Report before any retainer is signed. · United States · thedigitalelevator.com
Dedicated practice Custom quote B2B focus
Digital Elevator was founded in 2010 with a background in biotech, healthcare and ecommerce marketing, before building out a dedicated AI Visibility / AEO product across three pillars: technical and measurement, content, and off-site signals. Its flagship offer is a free 30-day AI Visibility Report mapping how a brand appears across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews before any retainer is signed. Beyond that, engagements run either as scoped productized work with no ongoing commitment, or as 12-month managed SEO retainers, well past the three-month bar here.
Where it falls short
The free report is the strongest part of the offer rather than ongoing execution. Beyond it, the ongoing option is a 12-month managed SEO retainer, well past the three-month bar this list treats as defensible, while the scoped productized work avoids a commitment but is a one-off rather than a continuing practice.
Wrong for
A team that wants heavy hands-on content production; the free report is the strongest part of the offer, not ongoing execution.
Pricing: Custom quote (none)
Visit Digital Elevator →
#7 GrowPad
SaaS-only GEO/AEO/LLMO from day one, built for $500K–$20M ARR companies. · Spain · growpad.pro
Dedicated practice Custom quote B2B focus
GrowPad was founded in 2020 and is based in Alicante, Spain, built exclusively for SaaS and B2B tech companies rather than as a generalist agency with AI bolted on; GEO, AEO and LLMO sit at the center of a client's strategy from day one, not as add-ons to an existing SEO retainer. GrowPad reports a 5.0-star rating across 38 verified Clutch reviews and Google Agency of Tomorrow recognition, third-party but self-selected distinctions worth weighing as such. Pricing is by custom quote; the agency states it is built for SaaS companies roughly $500K to $20M in ARR.
Where it falls short
Pricing is by custom quote, and the agency states its own fit band, roughly $500K to $20M in ARR, so larger or non-SaaS companies sit outside it. The 5.0-star Clutch rating and the Google Agency of Tomorrow recognition are third-party but self-selected distinctions and are worth weighing as such.
Wrong for
An enterprise well above $20M ARR, or a company outside SaaS; the agency states its own fit band explicitly.
Pricing: Custom quote (none)
Visit GrowPad →
#8 Omniscient Digital
Full-service B2B SaaS content and SEO, GEO folded in, from $10K/month. · United States · beomniscient.com
Added service line Reported pricing SEO-led
Omniscient Digital is a content and SEO agency built specifically for funded B2B software companies, offering SEO strategy, technical SEO, link building, digital PR and generative engine optimization as one scope rather than GEO sold as a standalone add-on. Full-service engagements reportedly start at $10,000 a month, strategy-only work at $15,000. Omniscient publishes named case studies, including 810% organic session growth and over $4M in blog-attributed ARR for Jasper and an 81% LLM-visibility increase for Convert; these are the agency's own published figures.
Where it falls short
Full-service engagements reportedly start at $10,000 a month and strategy-only work at $15,000, and GEO is folded into a broader content and SEO scope rather than sold as its own practice. The case-study figures, including 810% organic session growth for Jasper, are the agency's own published numbers.
Wrong for
A pre-funding or pre-PMF startup; the stated fit assumes product-market fit is already in place and a growth horizon of six to twelve months.
Pricing: From $10K/month, reported (none)
Visit Omniscient Digital →
#9 NoGood
Premium growth marketing agency, AEO as one line, $20K+/month average. · United States · nogood.io
Added service line Reported pricing SEO-led
NoGood is a growth marketing agency founded in New York in 2016 by Mostafa ElBermawy, with AEO as one line inside a broader paid, lifecycle, SEO and performance-branding offering rather than a dedicated practice, tracked through its own AI-visibility monitoring platform. NoGood states its average retainer runs above $20,000 a month and does not publish standard package pricing; third-party directories list a typical minimum project size around $50,000. Published case studies name Inflection AI, MongoDB, SteelSeries, Gelato and Spring Health.
Where it falls short
NoGood states its average retainer runs above $20,000 a month and does not publish standard package pricing; third-party directories list a typical minimum project size around $50,000. AEO sits inside a broader scope, so it does not get its own line item or its own reporting.
Wrong for
A company that wants AEO run as its own line item with its own reporting; here it sits inside a broader scope.
Pricing: $20K+/month, reported (none)
Visit NoGood →
#10 Searchbloom
US SEO agency with AEO alongside core SEO/PPC, ranks itself #1 in its own roundup. · United States · searchbloom.com
Added service line Reported pricing SEO-led
Searchbloom is a US-focused SEO agency whose AEO work sits alongside its core SEO and PPC service rather than as a separate discipline. Searchbloom publishes its own "best AI SEO agency" roundups and ranks itself first in at least one of them, worth the same scrutiny this list applies to its own #1 placement, minus a public rubric to check it against. By its own published research, mid-market AI-search engagements industry-wide run $2,500 to $10,000 a month, and its own services are reported to start around $5,000 to $15,000+ depending on scope.
Where it falls short
Searchbloom ranks itself first in at least one of its own "best AI SEO agency" roundups, with no public rubric to check the placement against. AEO sits alongside its core SEO and PPC service rather than as a separate discipline, and the pricing is reported rather than published.
Wrong for
A buyer who wants a self-ranking checked against an independent, published rubric rather than the agency's own roundup.
Pricing: $5K–$15K+/month, reported (none)
Visit Searchbloom →
#11 Uproer
SEO-first GEO/AEO for ecommerce and national brands, 12-month commitment. · United States · uproer.com
Added service line Reported pricing SEO-led
Uproer is a search marketing agency based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, offering SEO, Paid Search and GEO/AEO for ecommerce and national brands; despite appearing in some directories as Netherlands-based, its published address and team are US-based. Its stated position is that GEO and AEO cannot succeed without a strong SEO foundation underneath them. Engagements start with a one-month paid strategy project, then move to an ongoing retainer that asks for an annual commitment with 60-day exit terms, longer than the three-month bar this list treats as defensible.
Where it falls short
Engagements start with a one-month paid strategy project, then move to an ongoing retainer that asks for an annual commitment with 60-day exit terms, longer than the three-month bar this list treats as defensible. The agency's stated view is that GEO and AEO cannot succeed without a strong SEO foundation.
Wrong for
A B2B software buyer looking for a dedicated AEO practice with a short minimum term; both the focus and the lock-in point elsewhere.
Pricing: Annual retainer, reported (none)
Visit Uproer →
#12 Percepture
PR-plus-GEO agency with published AI Search pricing, $3.5K–$15K/month. · United States · percepture.com
Added service line Published pricing SEO-led
Percepture is a New York-based marketing agency operating since 2004, combining public relations and digital PR with AI-search and SEO visibility rather than treating either as a separate purchase. It is one of the few agencies on this list to publish AI Search (GEO) pricing directly: content and technical-foundation work runs $3,500 to $7,500 a month, and a combined SEO, GEO and PR package runs $7,500 to $15,000 a month.
Where it falls short
Percepture combines public relations with AI search, so a buyer who wants GEO as a purely technical practice pays for a PR component they may not use. Published packages start at $3,500 a month for content and technical foundation, and the combined package runs up to $15,000 a month.
Wrong for
A brand that wants AI search handled as a purely technical practice with no public relations or earned-media component attached to it.
Pricing: $3.5K–$15K/month, published (none)
Visit Percepture →
What the data says about this market
Of the twelve agencies ranked here, 10 are headquartered in the United States, one in Spain and one in the Netherlands. 2 publish their prices; the others quote privately or have their pricing reported by third parties, which the entries mark. 7 run a dedicated GEO or AEO practice; the rest treat AI visibility as one service line alongside SEO, content or paid media.
The category is young and its vendors rank each other. Several agencies on this list publish their own "best GEO agency" lists, and some place themselves first. That is why this ranking states its five criteria in the open: any reader can check a placement against them rather than take it on faith. Where an agency does not state a price, a method or a contract length, the entry says so instead of filling the gap. Reported prices are marked as reported, and results an agency publishes about itself are described as its own figures. The aim of every entry is the same: say what the agency states, say where that statement comes from, and say who it suits and who it does not, so a buyer can narrow twelve names to a shortlist of two or three before a single sales call.
How the criteria were applied: each agency was read against the same five tests, in the same order, using what it publishes about itself and, where it publishes nothing, what directories and trade press report. 2 Steps Ahead is placed first because its own pricing page states all five: a frozen baseline, a flat monthly fee, no setup fee, named engines and a three-month minimum. An agency that meets fewer of the five ranks lower regardless of its size or reputation, which is why well-known names with reported six-to-twelve-month minimums sit further down than their client rosters might suggest. The test is about commercial terms and transparency, not about which agency does the best work.
What the reported figures do and do not show: most of the numbers on this page are not independently verified. Prices reported by directories can be out of date, case-study results such as share-of-voice or revenue increases are published by the agencies themselves, and review ratings are third-party but self-selected. We mark each of these as reported or as the agency's own figure and leave out claims we could not trace to a public source. A buyer should treat every figure here as a reason to ask a question, and should request the baseline and the method behind any result before relying on it.
The 12 ranked vendors, counted
- Headquarters by region: North America 10, Europe 2
- By country: United States 10, Netherlands 1, Spain 1
- Pricing model: Monthly retainer 6, Custom quote 4, Annual retainer 1, Flat monthly packages 1
- Free option: None 12
Counted from the 12 vendors on this page. More in our market data.
For the wider market behind GEO agencies, read our report The Global Shift to ICT Services,
or browse all industry reports.
Questions and answers
What is the best AI search visibility agency in 2026?
By the rubric this list uses, 2 Steps Ahead, for a mid-market or enterprise B2B software company specifically: it is the only agency here that publishes pricing, scope and lock-in on one page rather than behind a custom quote. For a different buyer profile, an agency lower on this list scored for a narrower fit may be the better match; the comparison table above exists to make that check possible.
Why is 2 Steps Ahead ranked first on its own site?
Because it is the only agency on this list that discloses all five rubric points on a public pricing page, which is the same standard applied to the other 11. Check the pricing page against the rubric yourself rather than taking the ranking on faith. That is the entire point of publishing the rubric instead of just the order.
Do these agencies compete for the same clients?
Some do directly; others treat AI search visibility as one line inside a broader retainer. The "AI search visibility" column above says which is which, since that changes how a proposal from each will actually read.
How was this list ranked?
By the five-point rubric for position #1, and by how central AI search visibility is to each agency's stated practice for the rest, both explained in full above. It will be revisited as pricing pages and public positioning change.
What does a GEO agency actually do?
A GEO agency works on whether AI assistants name and cite your brand when buyers ask which product to choose. In practice that means measuring how often you appear today, researching the questions buyers ask, fixing the technical structure assistants read, producing content they can quote, and building the third-party sources they cite. Which of those an agency leans on differs: Graphite Growth stresses off-site signals, First Page Sage an audit and schema markup, Percepture public relations. Ask any agency which of these it would do first for your brand, and why, before comparing prices.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
GEO stands for generative engine optimization and AEO for answer engine optimization. Agencies on this list use the two terms almost interchangeably, and GrowPad adds a third, LLMO. All describe the same job: making a brand visible and quotable inside AI-generated answers. When comparing agencies, ignore the label and look at the method, the engines covered and how results are measured.
How much does a GEO agency cost?
Reported retainers on this list run from about $3,500 a month to well over $20,000, with iPullRank reportedly starting around $12,000 and NoGood stating an average above $20,000. Only 2 Steps Ahead and Percepture publish their rates. The others quote privately, so reported figures should be treated as indications, and a comparable quote from each shortlisted agency is the only reliable way to compare.
How long should a GEO contract be?
Three months is a defensible minimum for work that takes time to show, and six to twelve months is a flag. On this list First Page Sage and iPullRank report minimums of six to twelve months, Uproer asks for an annual retainer with 60-day exit terms, and Digital Elevator offers either scoped one-off work or a twelve-month managed retainer. A shorter term lets you test the work before you commit to it.
Which AI assistants should a GEO agency cover?
At minimum ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, which are the engines Optimist and Digital Elevator name. 2 Steps Ahead lists seven, adding Copilot and Grok. The point is that the agency names the engines and says how a citation is counted, so the number it reports means something you can check.
Can an SEO agency do GEO?
Several can. Searchbloom, Omniscient Digital, NoGood and Uproer all treat AI visibility as a service line within broader SEO, content or paid work, and Uproer states that GEO cannot succeed without a strong SEO foundation underneath it. The trade-off is that AI search then sits inside a larger scope and may not get its own reporting, which is why the entries note where it is a dedicated practice and where it is an added line.
How do I check what a GEO agency claims it achieved?
Ask for the baseline that was frozen before the work started and compare every later figure against it. Results that agencies publish about themselves, such as Graphite Growth's reported 94% share-of-voice increase for Webflow or Omniscient Digital's 810% organic session growth for Jasper, are the agency's own figures and are not independently verified. A frozen baseline is what makes a claim checkable, and an agency that will not share how its baseline was taken, or which prompts and engines it covered, is asking you to take the number on trust.
