- What GEO costs depends on your market, the number of topics and questions (prompts) and your starting position in Google.
- At SEOX, the GEO package starts at CHF 1,800 per month and the SEO package at CHF 1,500. The GEO/LLMO audit costs a one-time CHF 1,600 (fixed price). All amounts in Swiss francs, excluding VAT, as listed on SEOX pricing.
- GEO builds on SEO. Part of the budget therefore goes into the same foundations, plus measurement in AI systems and mentions outside your website.
- SEOX's monthly packages have no minimum term and can be canceled monthly.
This guide explains what you pay for with GEO (generative engine optimization, also called LLMO), how the costs differ from classic SEO and how to justify a budget to your management or CFO. The counterpart for classic search is the guide to SEO costs in Switzerland.
What does GEO cost in Switzerland?
There is no universal figure, because the effort depends on three things. First, the market: how many competitors are mentioned in AI answers today, and how strongly are they represented? Second, the scope: for how many services, regions and questions do you want to be visible? Third, your starting position: does your website already have a solid SEO foundation, or are basics such as clean technical setup and clear content missing?
As an example, here are the starting prices at SEOX as of November 9, 2026, in CHF excluding VAT:
| Service | Price | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| GEO package | from CHF 1,800 / month, 12 months: from CHF 1,710 / month (5% discount) | Everything from SEO, AI answer optimization, mentions outside the website, GEO monitoring |
| SEO package | from CHF 1,500 / month | Technical audit, keyword research and strategy, on-page and off-page, monthly reporting |
| GEO/LLMO audit | CHF 1,600 one-time (fixed price) | Visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews |
| aimaco.ai AI monitoring | from CHF 89 / month | Ongoing measurement of mentions in AI answers |
The full overview with all budget levels is on the SEOX pricing page.
What you pay for with GEO: the cost components
| Component | What it covers | One-time or ongoing |
|---|---|---|
| Audit | Baseline measurement: for which questions are you mentioned in AI answers today, who is mentioned instead of you, which sources are cited? | One-time, then repeated periodically |
| Prompt mapping | Defining the questions your customers ask AI assistants and assigning a page to each question | One-time, with upkeep |
| Content and technical work | Structuring and expanding pages so they answer these questions clearly, including structured data | Ongoing |
| Mentions outside the website | Presence in media, directories, portals and industry sources that AI systems draw on | Ongoing |
| Monitoring | Running a fixed prompt set regularly and several times per AI system and evaluating the share of mentions | Ongoing |
How prompt mapping works is described on the prompt mapping page. How a clean measurement setup works is explained in the guide measuring AI visibility.
GEO vs. SEO: a cost comparison
What costs should you expect for LLMO, and how does that differ from classic SEO? In short: at SEOX, GEO costs from CHF 300 per month more than SEO, because measurement in AI systems and mentions outside the website are added to the SEO work. The foundations are the same. Google states that there are no additional requirements for AI Overviews and AI Mode and that the same SEO fundamentals apply (Google Search Central). For ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, their own sources come on top.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rankings and clicks in Google Search | Mentions and citations in AI answers |
| Work steps | Technical, keywords, content, links | Everything from SEO plus prompt mapping, mentions outside the website, monitoring per AI system |
| Measurement | Search Console, Analytics, rankings | Share of answers with a mention across many runs per AI system |
| Cost at SEOX | from CHF 1,500 / month | from CHF 1,800 / month |
If you want to reallocate your search budget between SEO and GEO, it helps not to think in two separate pots. A large part of the work pays off in both channels. The real question is whether the additional GEO components make sense for your business right now.
One-time or ongoing? Audit vs. retainer
An audit answers the question "Where do we stand?". It measures your starting position, shows the gaps compared with competitors and delivers a list of measures, which your own team can implement. An ongoing retainer takes over the implementation itself, measures again regularly and adjusts the measures. For many companies, the GEO/LLMO audit is the sensible first step, because afterwards it is clear how large the ongoing effort really is.
Is GEO worth it for an SME or a niche business?
To be honest: not always right away. Three questions help you assess it.
- Do your customers research before they buy? For services that need explaining, for example in fiduciary services, engineering or software, they usually do. For spontaneous local purchases, less so.
- Are competitors already mentioned in AI answers to questions about your offer? Then part of the provider selection is happening without you.
- Do you have an SEO foundation? Without a clean technical setup and clear content, GEO achieves little. In that case, SEO is the right investment first.
For small niche providers, this is often good news: in narrow niches there are fewer sources, and a well-described specialist is more likely to be mentioned than in broad markets. Whether that applies to you is shown by measurement, not by guesswork. More on strategy for smaller companies is in the guide to GEO strategy for SMEs.
How to justify a GEO budget to your management
Management wants to know what it gets for the money and how it can measure success. Made-up market figures don't help here; your own measurements do. Build the case in four steps:
- Baseline: for which of your customers' questions are you mentioned today in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and which competitors are mentioned instead?
- Goal: which questions matter for your business, and in what share of answers do you want to be mentioned?
- Metrics: share of mentions per AI system, visits from AI assistants in Analytics, inquiries from visitors coming from these sources.
- Review date: when will you measure and decide whether the budget continues?
Packages that can be canceled monthly lower the risk for management, because it can decide anew at every review date. The general calculation with cost per lead and ROI is described in the guide SEO business case.
Contract terms: duration and cancellation
Are there GEO engagements without long commitments? At SEOX, yes: all monthly packages have no minimum term and can be canceled monthly. If you choose 12 months, you get a 5% discount on the monthly price. Audits are fixed prices with no ongoing obligation. The terms are listed on the SEOX pricing page. Whatever provider you choose, put in writing which services the monthly price includes and who owns content and accounts.
How long does it take to see results?
There is no reliable figure that fits every case. For Google Search, Google writes that some changes take effect within a few hours while others take several months, and recommends waiting a few weeks before you assess the impact (SEO Starter Guide). With AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, the answer to the same question can also differ from one query to the next. That is why it pays to measure progress over many runs and take stock only after a few months.
How to recognize a trustworthy provider
Trustworthy GEO providers explain their measurement method, show documented examples with a time frame and don't promise positions in ChatGPT. They also tell you when GEO isn't worth it for your business yet. The full criteria and questions for a first meeting are in the guide how to choose an SEO agency. As a GEO agency in Switzerland, SEOX combines SEO and GEO in one package.
Updated: November 9, 2026 · Author: Baris Gündogdu, founder of SEOX GmbH
Sources: SEOX pricing, seox.ch/en/pricing (as of November 9, 2026); Google Search Central, AI features and your website, developers.google.com; Google Search Central, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, developers.google.com. Retrieved on November 9, 2026.