How much does AEO cost for a small medical practice in 2026?

If you own a small practice, you’ve probably had at least one call this year from someone offering to get you “into ChatGPT”. The quotes vary wildly. We’ve seen $29 a month software and $5,000 a month retainers sold for what sounds like the same job.

This post breaks down what AEO (answer engine optimization, also called GEO or AI visibility work) actually costs for one independent dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, optometry or med spa practice in the US. Every named price below was checked on the vendor’s own site or taken from a cited study, as of November 2026. Vendor prices change, so treat them as a snapshot.

What are the four ways to pay for AEO?

You can pay for AEO in four ways: tools you run yourself, a one-off audit, a monthly practice-focused service, or a general GEO agency. They differ mainly in how much of the work you do and how many locations or engines they’re built to cover.

Some context on why patients matter here. BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey found 45% of US consumers used AI for local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6%. That’s real growth, but most people still also use Google and Maps, which is why so much AEO work looks like good local SEO.

Doing it yourself with tools ($0-200 a month)

DIY means you use a tracking tool to see what AI tools say about you, then fix your own listings, reviews and pages. The tools are cheap. The cost is your time, usually two to four hours a week for the first couple of months.

Prices as of November 2026:

• HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is free. It’s a one-time brand check across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Useful as a first look, though it’s built around brands rather than “best dentist near me” questions.
• Otterly.AI Lite is $29 a month for 15 tracked prompts. Standard is $189 a month for 100.
• Local Falcon starts at $24.99 a month (Starter). Its AI visibility scans cover ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI and use the same credits as its map scans.
• BrightLocal Track is from $31 a month billed annually, or $41 billed monthly, and includes its Local AI Visibility tracker.

Fifteen prompts is enough for one location if you choose them carefully: “best dentist in [town]”, “emergency dentist near [neighborhood]”, “Invisalign provider in [town]”, and so on.

Paying for a one-off audit ($150-1,500)

An audit tells you where you stand and what to fix first, then leaves the work to you. Prices for small businesses are lower than most people expect.

OutreachBloom’s 2026 pricing guide puts a small-business AEO audit at $250-500, and an “AI crawlability setup” at $500-1,500. First Page Sage’s 2026 GEO pricing study, based on quotes from 214 agencies, found audits ranging from $1,500 to $12,000, with a median of $4,300. That upper end is priced for companies, not single practices. Both sources are agencies that sell these services, so read the ranges as market quotes rather than neutral research.

A useful audit for a practice should show: which questions you were tested on, which AI tools named you and how often, which competitors they named instead, and which websites and directories the tools pulled from. If it’s a PDF of generic tips, it isn’t worth $500.

Monthly practice-focused services (about $500-2,500 a month)

These are firms that work mainly with health practices and either sell AI search work on its own or bundle it with local SEO and websites. This is where most independent practices end up if they don’t want to do the work themselves.

Verified examples, as of November 2026:

• ChiroCandy (chiropractors) lists SEO and AI search optimization at $795 a month on its own. Packages are $1,145 a month (ads) and $2,290 a month (ads, SEO and AI search, custom website), with a typical one-time setup of $1,000. The custom website comes with a 12-month agreement.
• KKV Labs (local businesses, including dentists, chiropractors and med spas) charges $999 a month with a 3-month minimum, then month to month. It offers a refund if you aren’t recommended by AI within 90 days on its terms.
• DDSRank (dentists) has three programs. Local Foundation at $1,495 a month doesn’t include AI visibility work. Patient Growth at $2,495 a month adds AI-focused content updates and tracks 25 patient questions across 4 AI platforms. Onboarding is $995-1,500, waived on a 6-month agreement, with a 3-month minimum otherwise.
• Pain-Free Dental Marketing Essentials is $1,300 a month, six months to start and then month to month, no setup fee. It’s a website, Google Business Profile and reviews package, with content work that “supports search and AI appearances”.
• Practice Promotions (physical therapy) starts at $1,495 a month on a 24-month term or $1,795 on a 12-month term, including Google and AI search optimization alongside a website.

Note that most of these bundle AI search into a bigger marketing package. That’s not a bad thing. The levers that move AI recommendations are mostly local SEO levers anyway.

General GEO and SEO agencies ($1,800-12,000+ a month)

Generalist agencies price for companies with a marketing team and a bigger budget. First Page Sage’s study puts its “starter” tier, aimed at local and small businesses, at $1,800-4,200 a month (median $2,950) with a typical 3-month minimum. Its growth tier for mid-market companies runs $4,500-11,000 a month (median $7,400) on 6-month terms.

For comparison, WebFX’s published SEO plans start at $2,900 a month with a 6-month commitment, and its AI search optimization service is listed from $3,000. These firms can do good work, but a one-location practice is rarely their target client, and much of what you’d pay for (content programs, multi-market reporting) doesn’t apply to you.

AEO pricing table for small practices, as of November 2026

This table puts every verified price in one place. “Contract” is what the vendor’s own page states; where it says nothing, we’ve written “not stated”.

Option	Typical price (Nov 2026)	What you get	Who it suits	Contract terms
HubSpot AI Search Grader	Free	One-time brand check in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini	Anyone wanting a first look	None
Local Falcon Starter	From $24.99/month	Map rank grids plus AI scans on credits	DIY owners who like map data	Monthly subscription
Otterly.AI Lite	$29/month	15 tracked prompts across AI tools	DIY, one location	Monthly subscription
BrightLocal Track	$31/month annual, $41 monthly	Local rank tracking plus Local AI Visibility tracker	DIY owners or office managers	Monthly or annual
Small-business AEO audit (OutreachBloom range)	$250-500 one-off	Diagnosis and priority list	Practices that will do the work	One-off
Agency audit (First Page Sage range)	$1,500-12,000 one-off, median $4,300	Deeper audit, usually for larger companies	Groups and multi-location	One-off, 2-6 weeks
ChiroCandy SEO / AI search	$795/month; packages $1,145-2,290; ~$1,000 setup	SEO and AI search work for chiropractors	Chiropractors wanting a niche firm	12-month agreement if a custom website is included
KKV Labs	$999/month	AI visibility work for local businesses	Practices wanting AI-only work	3-month minimum, then monthly
Pain-Free Dental Marketing Essentials	$1,300/month, no setup fee	Website, GBP management, reviews, content	Dentists wanting one firm for basics	6 months, then monthly
DDSRank Patient Growth	$2,495/month; onboarding waived on 6 months	Local SEO, AI content updates, 25 questions tracked on 4 AI platforms	Dentists in competitive markets	3-month minimum
Practice Promotions Platinum	$1,495/month (24 mo) or $1,795/month (12 mo)	Website, SEO and AI search for PT clinics	PT clinics wanting a website too	12 or 24 months
Generalist GEO agency, starter tier (First Page Sage study)	$1,800-4,200/month, median $2,950	Ongoing GEO program	Small companies with marketing staff	Typically 3 months
WebFX SEO (general SEO plans)	From $2,900/month	Full SEO program	Larger or multi-location businesses	6 months
Cleareo (this is us)	Free check; $149 audit; $499 or $899/month	AI visibility tracking and fixes for independent practices	Budget-conscious single-location practices	Month to month

What drives the price up or down?

Five things account for most of the difference between a $500 quote and a $5,000 one: number of locations, how many AI tools and questions are tracked, whether content is being written, whether someone is handling reviews, and whether local SEO is bundled in.

Number of locations

Every location has its own Google Business Profile, its own competitors and its own set of local answers. Most providers price per location, either explicitly or through the number of tracked prompts. A second location usually costs less than the first, since a lot of the site and strategy work is shared.

How many AI tools and questions are tracked

Tracking 15 questions in one AI tool is cheap. Tracking 25 questions in four tools, from several spots in your town, repeated a few times, costs more because each answer is a paid query. It’s also more useful. In Cleareo’s tests (November 2026), 90% of the pages cited by AI tools were used by only one engine, so checking ChatGPT alone tells you little about Google’s AI or Perplexity.

Repeats matter too. BrightLocal’s study of 200,000 AI answers found re-asking the same question brought back the same business only about half the time. One run is a coin toss, so good tracking repeats each question.

Content production

Writing or rewriting service pages and practitioner pages is the biggest variable cost. A provider writing four pages a month will charge more than one that only edits your listings. For most single-location practices, a one-time push to get 8-15 solid service and provider pages in place does more than an endless blog schedule.

Review operations

Some packages include a review request system and someone who drafts replies. That’s worth paying for if your practice is slow to ask for reviews, because review count is one of the strongest signals AI tools appear to use. Make sure replies never confirm that a reviewer is a patient. That’s a HIPAA problem, not a style choice.

Local SEO bundled in

Many dental and chiro packages are local SEO packages with AI tracking added. That explains a lot of the $1,300-2,500 quotes. If you already pay for decent local SEO, you probably don’t need a second provider. Ask your current one to add AI tracking and report on it.

How does AEO pricing relate to local SEO pricing?

AEO usually costs the same or less than local SEO, because it sits on top of the same foundations. If a provider quotes AEO at well above their local SEO price for the same practice, ask what extra work justifies it.

For reference, US dental SEO guides put a single location at roughly $500-2,500 a month. Titan Web Agency’s 2026 guide splits it into basic local optimization at $500-1,200 a month and comprehensive campaigns at $1,200-2,500. Winston Digital Marketing puts specialist agencies higher, at $2,000-5,000 a month. Both are agencies, so their tiers flatter the kind of work they sell.

Outside the US, prices are similar once you convert. A UK agency, Dominate Dental, lists an entry-level national average of £1,800-3,000 a month for dental SEO. In Australia, Odin Digital puts single-practice clinics at A$1,800-3,500 a month for specialist work.

Red flags when buying AEO

Most firms selling AEO are honest, but the field is new and some pitches lean on things nobody can deliver. These five are worth walking away from, or at least questioning hard.

Promises of a fixed ranking or “#1 in ChatGPT”

AI answers vary from run to run, and from one part of town to the next, so a guaranteed position isn’t something anyone controls. A refund guarantee tied to a clear, repeatable test is a different thing and can be fair. Ask exactly how “recommended” is measured, how many times each question is asked, and from where.

Long contracts with no exit

Six months is the outer edge of reasonable for AEO on its own. Twelve or 24-month terms make sense only when a website build is part of the deal and you own the site at the end. If the contract has an auto-renewal clause, put the date in your calendar.

“We’ll manage your Google profile” (and own it)

Your practice should be the primary owner of its Google Business Profile, Yelp listing, Healthgrades profile and website domain. An agency should be added as a manager, never the owner. If you leave, you need to keep every profile, review and page. Ask this in writing before you sign.

Anything involving fake, bought or filtered reviews

The FTC’s Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in force since October 2024, bans fake and AI-written reviews, buying reviews and suppressing negative ones. Google’s policy also bans offering incentives for reviews and “review gating”, where only happy patients are asked to post. A provider offering any of these is putting your listing and your license at risk.

Selling llms.txt or schema as “the fix”

An llms.txt file costs almost nothing to add, but a Search Engine Journal analysis of 300,000 domains found no clear effect on AI citations. Ahrefs’ controlled study of 1,885 pages found no significant citation lift from schema markup either. Both are fine as housekeeping. Neither justifies a $500-1,500 “setup” fee on its own.

What should a one-location practice budget for the first 90 days?

For one location, a sensible first-90-days AEO budget is somewhere between about $100 and $6,000, depending on how much of the work you hand off. The three scenarios below are examples to help you plan, not quotes, and use the November 2026 prices above.

Example 1: Do it yourself

You run a free check, subscribe to one tracker, and spend a few hours a week fixing your Google Business Profile, asking for reviews and tidying your service pages.

Item	Cost over 90 days
HubSpot AI Search Grader	$0
Otterly.AI Lite ($29 x 3) or BrightLocal Track monthly ($41 x 3)	$87-123
Staff time, about 3 hours a week	Your time
Total cash	about $90-125

This suits a practice with an organized office manager and a reasonably current website. The risk is that tracking without a clear priority list turns into watching numbers move without changing anything.

Example 2: Audit first, then DIY

You pay for an audit to get a priority list and a baseline, then do the fixes yourself with a tracker running.

Item	Cost over 90 days
Small-business audit ($149-500)	$149-500
Tracker for 3 months	$87-123
Optional: one-off help fixing listings or pages	$0-500
Total cash	about $240-1,125

This is the option we’d suggest for most independent practices. You find out what’s actually wrong before spending on monthly work, and you have a baseline to measure against later.

Example 3: Done for you

You hire a practice-focused service and let them do the tracking, listings, review prompts and page updates.

Item	Cost over 90 days
Monthly plan ($499-1,500 x 3)	$1,500-4,500
Setup or onboarding fee, if any	$0-1,500
Total cash	about $1,500-6,000

This suits a busy practice with no one in-house to do the work. Before signing, ask for the baseline they’ll measure against, the exact questions they’ll track, and who owns every profile and page at the end.

What Cleareo charges

This is us, in the same format as everyone else above. As of November 2026:

• Free AI check: we ask 5 patient questions for your town in ChatGPT, Google’s AI, Claude and Perplexity, twice each, and email you the results within 2 business days.
• AI visibility audit: $149 (introductory, later $297). It covers 20 questions across 4 AI tools, 3 runs each from 3 spots in your area, your share of recommendations against your top 5 competitors, every site the tools read, a listings and website check, a 90-day plan and a recorded walkthrough. The fee is credited against your first month if you continue.
• Plans: Essentials $499 a month, Growth $899 a month, $199 a month per extra location. Month to month, no contract. You keep every profile, page and login.

We’re a good fit for budget-conscious, single-location independent practices. We’re not the right choice for multi-location groups or practices that want full-service paid ads. We’re also new, with no published case studies yet, so judge us on the free check. Full details are on our pricing page.

If your website is the weak spot, we also rebuild practice websites for a one-time fee, separate from the AI work.

Where to start this week

1. Run a free check before you spend anything. Use HubSpot’s grader, or ask us for a free AI check built around patient questions for your town.
2. Open your Google Business Profile and confirm your practice is the primary owner. Fix your primary category and hours while you’re there.
3. Write down five questions a new patient would ask, and ask each one twice in ChatGPT and Google’s AI. Note who gets named.
4. Read how to get your practice recommended by ChatGPT and what decides which practices AI recommends before you take a sales call, so you know what you’re paying for.
5. If you want a tool, compare options in our guide to AI visibility tools for local practices, then pick one and give it 90 days.