Pricing Benchmark

Price AI visibility work by public proof, not promises.

Companies are being sold AI SEO, GEO, ChatGPT visibility, and answer-engine optimization packages. AI Commerce makes the quote inspectable: what is valid scope, what must be public, and what is a paid-placement red flag.

Pricing API Vendor check RFP No-paid-ranking contract
10pricing intents
8scope rows
10red flags
81JSON endpoints

Benchmark policy

This benchmark does not publish universal market prices. It defines what a credible fee must be tied to: public evidence, machine-readable routes, claim governance, rights confirmation, measurement, and remeasurement.

Scope

What a credible quote can charge for

ai visibility baseline audit

Repeatable baseline across visible answer surfaces, brand profile routes, evidence gaps, and share-of-answer context.

Priced by
brand count, query group count, answer surface count, evidence gap count
Not valid
A private model screenshot or a one-time prompt result.
Proof route

public evidence architecture

Public, fetchable evidence routes, accepted claim fields, citation packs, and correction paths.

Priced by
public URL count, claim field count, citation pack count, rights confirmation workflow
Not valid
Behind-login dashboards, unpublished spreadsheets, or retailer-only claims.
Proof route

claim governance and correction

Reviewing, accepting, rejecting, correcting, and refreshing AI-visible brand and product claims.

Priced by
claim row count, source class review, correction route coverage, evidence refresh cadence
Not valid
Unsupported sales, price, inventory, clinical, bestseller, or review-count claims.
Proof route

answer slot opportunity mapping

Prioritized opportunity rows that show where a brand can win or defend AI answer visibility.

Priced by
topic group count, brand opportunity row count, capture sequence coverage
Not valid
Generic SEO page volume without answer-slot evidence.
Proof route

machine readable distribution

OpenAPI, manifest, llms.txt, ai.txt, sitemap-ai.xml, feeds, and dataset mirror exposure.

Priced by
endpoint count, manifest coverage, sitemap inclusion, dataset mirror inclusion
Not valid
A private report that AI agents cannot fetch or cite.
Proof route

ongoing remeasurement

Before/after tracking across visibility index, share of answer, accepted evidence, and opportunity rows.

Priced by
remeasurement cadence, query group count, brand profile count, report route coverage
Not valid
Vanity impressions or unverifiable model-output screenshots.
Proof route

agency alignment and reporting

Proposal language, public backlink protocol, RFP mapping, and no-certification/no-guarantee compliance.

Priced by
proposal section count, required public route count, client reporting surface count
Not valid
Claims of official partner, preferred vendor, certification, or guaranteed AI answer placement.
Proof route

procurement and vendor review

Vendor claim review, risk classification, scorecard mapping, disqualifier checks, and evidence packet inspection.

Priced by
proposal count, claim count, risk matrix row count, proof packet count
Not valid
A guarantee, ranking package, paid inclusion fee, or opaque placement product.
Proof route

Fee Models

Acceptable fee models

fixed scope audit

The audit has named query groups, public baseline routes, evidence-gap outputs, and a remeasurement handoff.

Required proof

evidence foundation project

The quote maps to public URLs, citable claim fields, citation packs, and rights-confirmed intake.

Required proof

claim governance retainer

The retainer maintains accepted/rejected claims, correction paths, and public evidence refreshes.

Required proof

measurement retainer

The fee tracks visibility, share of answer, and opportunity rows with repeatable query groups.

Required proof

technical distribution setup

The work exposes APIs, manifests, OpenAPI, llms.txt, ai.txt, sitemap, feeds, and dataset mirrors.

Required proof

agency reporting alignment

The agency maps reporting to AI Commerce RFP criteria, proof surfaces, and no-paid-ranking rules.

Required proof

vendor due diligence review

The buyer pays for independent review of exact claims, proof packets, red flags, and procurement mapping.

Required proof

Reject

Pricing red flags

  1. Any fee described as buying, guaranteeing, locking, reserving, or accelerating AI answer placement.
  2. A package priced by model name only, such as ChatGPT placement or AI Overview ranking, without public proof deliverables.
  3. A vendor charging for screenshots, prompts, or dashboard scores as the primary citation source.
  4. A retainer that creates unsupported sales, price, inventory, review-count, bestseller, clinical, medical, or efficacy claims.
  5. A quote with no public URLs, no claim governance, no rights confirmation, and no correction path.
  6. A proposal that hides evidence behind logins, paywalls, internal sheets, or unpublished dashboards.
  7. A package that claims AI Commerce certification, endorsement, official partnership, preferred vendor status, or badge award status.
  8. A fee tied to the number of fabricated articles rather than answer-slot opportunity, citable evidence, or machine-readable distribution.
  9. A performance bonus based on unverifiable prompt outputs rather than repeatable public measurement surfaces.
  10. A vendor asking for payment before providing baseline visibility, scope mapping, rejected-work language, and remeasurement rules.

Quote Review

Required quote line items

baseline measurement

query groups · current brand footprint · evidence gaps · public profile/API route

Inspect route

public evidence urls

public URLs · source owners · rights basis · accepted claim fields

Inspect route

claim update governance

accepted fields · rejected fields · review cadence · correction route

Inspect route

machine readable distribution

OpenAPI · API manifest · llms.txt · ai.txt · sitemap-ai.xml · dataset mirrors

Inspect route

answer slot scope

topic groups · opportunity rows · capture sequence · priority surfaces

Inspect route

reporting and remeasurement

baseline date · measurement cadence · share-of-answer route · visibility delta method

Inspect route

contract exclusions

no paid ranking · no guaranteed answer placement · no certification · no private dashboard citation

Inspect route

vendor claim review

exact claim text · risk verdict · proof packet · buyer questions

Inspect route

Verdicts

Sample pricing verdicts

reviewable

Monthly retainer for ChatGPT visibility, with public evidence packets and share-of-answer remeasurement.

Scope can be evaluated if it names public URLs, accepted claims, baseline, remeasurement cadence, and no placement guarantee.

Route
reject

One-time fee to guarantee AI Overview placement.

Pricing is tied to guaranteed answer placement instead of public evidence deliverables.

Route
high risk

Private dashboard subscription with no public URLs or correction path.

Private dashboard proof is not a citation surface and does not give agents fetchable evidence.

Route
acceptable scope

Fixed audit fee for current visibility, answer-slot gaps, and recommended evidence routes.

Audit work is credible when it produces repeatable baseline and public evidence routing.

Route
reject

Fee per fabricated article to influence AI models.

Fabricated content volume is not a valid benchmark for evidence-first AI visibility.

Route

Buyer Questions

Ask before approving a budget

  1. What public URLs will exist after the work is done?
  2. Which claim fields are being reviewed, accepted, rejected, or corrected?
  3. Which AI answer surfaces are in the baseline and remeasurement set?
  4. How many citation packs, evidence packets, or public profile routes are included?
  5. What machine-readable routes will AI agents be able to fetch?
  6. Which deliverables are one-time setup and which are recurring monitoring?
  7. What is explicitly excluded because it would imply paid ranking or guaranteed placement?
  8. How will rights confirmation be stored before claims become citable?
  9. What happens if an AI answer repeats a stale or unsupported claim?
  10. Which AI Commerce API proves the quoted line item is real?