How Much Does AEO & GEO Cost in Ireland? A Straight Answer From an Irish Agency

Quick Answer

Irish businesses that are serious about AI search visibility should budget at least €500 per month for AEO or GEO. Most agencies do not publish fixed prices because the right budget depends on your industry, your competitors and your current visibility on platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Gemini. ePresence builds a custom proposal for every client, does not lock anyone into a contract, and typically sees measurable results within four to six months.

What Are AEO and GEO?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is the process of making your content easy for AI tools to find, understand and use as a direct answer to a question.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is the wider practice of improving how often and how well your brand is mentioned or cited by generative AI platforms such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

Together, AEO and GEO sit under what we call Engine Optimisation, our umbrella term for AI Search Optimisation. If you want a fuller breakdown of how the two disciplines differ, we cover it in our AEO vs GEO guide.

Google’s AI Overviews alone now reach an estimated 2 billion people every month across more than 200 countries. If your customers are already asking AI tools to recommend a business like yours, this is no longer optional.

Why We Don’t Publish Fixed AEO & GEO Packages

Our core SEO services can often fit a smaller, local business into a set package. AI search optimisation is different. It varies a lot from one client to the next, based on:

• How competitive your industry already is on AI platforms
• Your current AI visibility. Are you already being cited sometimes, or starting from zero?
• The technical condition of your website, including site speed, schema and structure
• How many competitors are already investing in GEO and AEO
• What you are trying to achieve. Building national brand authority is a different job to becoming the answer for a handful of local searches

This is why every GEO and AEO project at ePresence starts with research and a tailored strategy, not a price list. A Princeton University study on Generative Engine Optimisation backs this up. It found that the tactics which improve AI citations vary a lot by content type and industry, which is exactly why one fixed package cannot serve every business well.

How Much Should You Budget for AEO or GEO?

Any Irish business that is serious about AI search visibility should expect to invest at least €500 per month.

Below that figure, there is not enough time in a month to do the research, content, technical and off-site work that actually moves the needle. Some providers advertise cheap AI SEO “add-ons”. At that price, you are usually getting a few automated schema tweaks bolted onto an existing SEO retainer, not a genuine strategy.

The stakes are also higher than they were a year ago. Depending on the study and the industry, AI Overviews now appear on somewhere between 15% and 50% of Google searches, and organic click-through rates often drop by a third or more once an AI Overview shows up. Our own data-led look at AI’s toll on organic traffic shows a similar pattern amongst Irish businesses. Ranking well in the traditional list of blue links is no longer enough on its own. That is why we treat GEO and AEO as their own discipline, not a bolt-on to traditional SEO.

It is also worth comparing this to the wider market. A 2026 review of AEO and GEO pricing found full-service agencies charging anywhere from around $3,000 a month for a smaller retainer up to $25,000 or more a month for an enterprise programme. Set against that, €500 a month is a realistic and fair entry point for a small or medium Irish business, not a bargain price and not an enterprise price either.

You Get What You Pay For

This is not a scare tactic. It is simply how the work functions. GEO and AEO involve a real list of technical, content and off-site tasks: schema markup, E-E-A-T improvements to your team bios and authorship, restructuring content so AI platforms can lift it cleanly, competitor citation analysis, link building and monthly reporting against clear goals. Each task takes real hours from real specialists. A budget that is too thin does not buy a lighter version of every task. It usually means only one or two get done properly, and those are often the ones that would have made the biggest difference.

What Do You Get at Different Budget Levels?

We build every proposal from scratch, so nothing below is a fixed package. It is a guide only, and your actual plan will flex based on your industry, your competitors and your current visibility. If you are trying to plan a budget, though, this gives you a realistic sense of what more investment typically buys.

Whatever your budget, the plan is built around your business first. The table above is a guide to scale, not a menu to pick from.

How Long Does AEO and GEO Take to Work?

Based on our own experience, a realistic estimate for AI search results is four to six months. This is not caution for its own sake. Nobody, including the AI platforms themselves, can guarantee exactly how or when a generative engine will choose to cite a particular source. This work relies on steady, compounding effort, not a single fix.

This also means GEO and AEO do not work as a stop-start activity. Turning a campaign on for two months, pausing it, then starting again later undoes a lot of the progress you built. AI platforms are constantly re-checking your authority and trustworthiness, so staying consistent matters as much as the strategy itself.

Case Study: We Grew Our Own AI Overview Impressions by 49% in One Month

We do not just advise clients on GEO and AEO. We apply it to our own website first. In a recent case study, one of several we have published on our case studies page, we grew our impressions from Google AI Overview and AI Mode by 49% in a single month. Google organic clicks dropped by only 5% over the same period.

That result came from work across four areas. These are the same four areas we build into every client strategy, and understanding how AI search engines retrieve information is what ties them together:

1. Technical SEO. Caching, compression, image optimisation, structured data and schema markup (Organisation, LocalBusiness, Person, FAQ, Service and How-To schema), an LLMS.txt file, and a clean, fast site structure.
2. E-E-A-T improvements. Clearer author bios, linked LinkedIn profiles, articles properly credited to the specialist who wrote them, and original research published as proof rather than claims.
3. Content architecture. A network of linked pages built to answer the follow-up questions AI platforms generate, with content written in short, self-contained chunks so each paragraph makes sense on its own if an AI platform lifts it out of context. We offer this as a standalone service too, called Semantic Content Architecture.
4. Off-site citations and backlinks. Original content that naturally earns mentions and links from other websites, giving AI platforms independent proof of trustworthiness. This overlaps with what we call Brand Citation & Digital PR for AI.

This kind of work matters more than ever, because ranking on page one of Google no longer guarantees an AI citation. One recent large-scale citation study found that only around 17% of AI Overview citations now come from pages ranking in Google’s organic top 10, down sharply from roughly three-quarters of citations in mid-2024. AI platforms are increasingly pulling from a wider pool of sources than the traditional results page. That is exactly why the E-E-A-T and content architecture work above matters as much as classic SEO rankings.

The main point for prospective clients is this: growing your AI Overview and AI Mode visibility does not have to cost you existing organic traffic. Done properly, the two can grow together. This is the same process we apply to client campaigns, regardless of the budget they choose.

Who Do We Already Do This For?

GEO and AEO are not only for tech companies or large online retailers. We currently apply AI search optimisation across a broad range of clients, including credit unions and financial services, solicitors, ferry and travel operators, leisure centres, hospitality and bar groups, retail and footwear businesses, industrial automation companies, cleaning and trade services, charities, and business parks.

If your customers are already using ChatGPT, Gemini or AI Overviews to ask “who is the best [your service] near me” or “what is the best [your product] for X”, this applies to your business too, regardless of your sector.

How Does This Compare to Other AEO & GEO Providers in Ireland?

The Irish market for AI search optimisation is still young, but a few patterns are already showing up among agencies that offer GEO and AEO services:

• Fixed packages with entry-level pricing. Some Irish and UK-facing providers sell tiered, fixed-price SEO or GEO packages, with starting prices that can be higher than many small businesses expect for a “starter” tier.
• Two-tier engagements. Many AEO-focused agencies working in Ireland structure their offering around two tiers only: a scaled entry package for small businesses, and a much larger full-scale programme for multinational brands based here.
• Standard retainer contracts. Across the wider industry, it is common for GEO and AEO retainers to include a minimum term, often three, six or twelve months, which locks a client in regardless of how the results are going.

ePresence differs in two specific ways. We do not sell fixed packages, and we do not tie clients into contracts.

Why No Fixed Packages Matter

A fixed package assumes every business in a given tier needs the same mix of work. In practice, a solicitor’s firm competing for a handful of high-value local searches needs a very different strategy to a national online retailer trying to be cited across dozens of product categories. Building your proposal from research, rather than from a template, means your budget goes towards the work that will actually move your specific AI visibility, not towards filling out a pre-set package.

Why No Contracts Matters

Because GEO and AEO are ongoing activities, most agencies protect their own cash flow by locking clients into a minimum term. We take the opposite approach. If we are not delivering measurable value, you are free to walk away without being tied into months of remaining commitment. This changes the incentive on our side. We have to keep proving our value every month through clear, jargon-free reporting, rather than relying on a contract to keep a client in place. For a business trying AI SEO for the first time, that flexibility lowers the risk of committing budget to a new area.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does AEO or GEO cost per month in Ireland? Most Irish businesses that are serious about AI search visibility should budget from €500 per month upwards, depending on their industry, competition and goals. There is no single fixed price, because every proposal is built around the individual business.

How long does it take to see results from AEO or GEO? Based on our own experience, a realistic estimate is four to six months of consistent work. AI platforms are constantly re-evaluating a site’s authority, so results build up over time rather than appearing overnight.

Does ePresence lock clients into a contract? No. We do not use fixed-term contracts for our GEO and AEO services. Clients can leave at any time if they are not seeing value, which means we have to keep proving results every month.

Can GEO and AEO work alongside traditional SEO? Yes. Our own case study showed AI Overview and AI Mode impressions growing by 49% in one month, while normal Google organic clicks only dropped by 5% over the same period. The two can grow side by side when they are managed properly together.

The Bottom Line

GEO and AEO pricing cannot be reduced to one number that fits every business. Any agency that claims otherwise is likely selling you a package built for someone else’s business, not yours. What we can tell you with confidence is this: budget at least €500 a month if you are serious about it, expect to commit for a minimum of four to six months before judging the results, and choose a partner who has to prove their value every month rather than one who locks you in and hopes you do not notice.

For more on how AI search is changing and how to prepare your business, browse our AI SEO blog, including guides on optimising for Google AI Overviews and preparing your business for voice search and AI assistants.

If you would like a proposal built around your business, industry and budget, get in touch with our AI SEO team for a no-obligation evaluation and quote.