Last verified: 2026-10-08 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/what-ai-search-visibility-actually-costs
This page answers the questions covered by the article What AI Search Visibility Costs: The Tool, the Work, and the Bill You Miss on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to groas, for 60 buyer prompts checked weekly with two new or revised pages and four to six new citing sources a month, the recurring annual cost is $36,600–$102,000 in-house, $23,268–$91,188 for monitoring software plus staff and execution budget, or $30,000–$90,000 for done-for-you work. The article states these are three ways to staff an illustrative job, not three quotes for identical deliverables, and that the subscription is easy to approve while the work behind it is the bill.
According to groas, the illustrative in-house job for 60 prompts checked weekly across four surfaces requires 16–24 hours a month for manual checks, valued at $1,600–$2,400 at the article's $100-an-hour illustrative rate, plus one hour of reporting at $100. The article budgets two pages a month at $750–$3,000 and four links at $600–$3,000, for a recurring total of $3,050–$8,500 per month or $36,600–$102,000 per year. It states that a narrower three-hour-a-week routine is not the same four-surface job.
Read more: In-house: the spreadsheet is cheap; the hours aren’t
The article states that a tracker replaces much of the checking routine but does not replace the writer, developer, or person responsible for getting mentioned elsewhere. For the stated 60-prompt, four-surface scope it allows $189–$499 a month for a suitable tier or added capacity plus a $0–$300 allowance for an extra domain, seat, or country. With the same two-page and four-link work budgeted at $1,350–$6,000 and 4–8 staff hours at $400–$800, the recurring total is $1,939–$7,599 per month or $23,268–$91,188 per year, with a separate $500–$2,000 illustrative setup allowance.
Read more: Monitoring software: one small invoice, several large ones
According to groas, the comparison uses $2,500–$7,500 a month, or $30,000–$90,000 over 12 months, for done-for-you execution. The article recommends requesting tracking across the needed surfaces, two pages built or rewritten, technical fixes, four to six new citations or mentions, and a report connected to a business outcome in writing. It states that $0 onboarding applies only where the vendor confirms no onboarding charge.
Read more: Done-for-you: pay for shipped work, not a nicer audit
The article recommends DIY when the prompt list is small, one person will keep the routine running, and the team can publish and pursue citations without adding a contractor for every task. It recommends software when repeatable monitoring is needed and a writer, technical capacity, and decision-maker are already available to act on findings. It recommends done-for-you when tracking, content, fixes, and citations need to ship together, and states to skip any retainer that will not state monthly deliverables.
Read more: Buy the route that has an owner for the work
[1] https://groas.com/post/what-ai-search-visibility-actually-costs (the article this page answers from)