What can you get from an AI visibility audit for under $1,000?

For under $1,000 you can buy an automated AI visibility scan at $99 to $499, or a small human-run check that publishes its price, such as Avante Visibility's AI Visibility Check at $500 or my AI Visibility Snapshot from $600. That money answers one question well: whether your company shows up when buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews, and who shows up instead. I opened each provider's page on 1 November 2026 for the prices below, and I sell one of these checks, so weigh my description of my own offer with that in mind.

By Ronan Liedmeier, fractional head of growth. Last updated 1 November 2026.

An AI visibility audit runs the questions your buyers ask through AI answer engines, records whether your company is named or cited, and checks whether your pages are readable and quotable for those engines. The price depends mostly on how many prompts are run and whether a person reads the answers.

What do AI visibility audits under $1,000 cost and include?

The published options under $1,000 fall into two groups: free or automated scans that read your site or run prompts without a person reading the answers, and small human-run checks at $500 to $600, such as the two below. All prices below were on each provider's own page on 1 November 2026.

For comparison, the next step up starts at $1,500 to $2,000. Avante Visibility's AI Visibility Audit is $1,500 for 25 questions on four engines against three competitors, and my AI Search Audit is from $2,000 for 20 prompts, a full readiness audit, a fix list and a content plan.

GTM 80/20's comparison of published prices, dated 28 October 2026, puts automated scans at $99 to $499 and productised audits at $440 to $1,500. GTM 80/20 sells fractional SEO and GEO work and publishes no fixed audit price of its own.

What does an automated scan under $500 tell you?

An automated scan tells you whether you appear at all. By GTM Labs' description, dated September 2026, "a script runs 5 to 30 prompts through one to five engines and returns a PDF," and nobody reads the answers (GTM Labs).

It leaves out competitor scoring, the pages the engines cite and a fix list. Those three are what turn a visibility number into a decision, so a scan is a yes-or-no test.

A free check of your site does a different job. My free readiness check runs no prompts at all; it reads your homepage and up to eight content pages without JavaScript and scores them on 22 checks. In my check of 1,586 software company websites on 22 October 2026, 12.7% had a hard access problem, such as a homepage that did not load or page text missing without JavaScript (study). Those problems cost nothing to find and should be fixed before you pay anyone to run prompts.

What does a human-run check at $500 to $600 add?

A human-run check adds a person reading the answers and deciding what to fix first. The two I compare here differ mainly in how many engines they cover.

Avante Visibility's AI Visibility Check, at $500, covers ChatGPT only: 10 customer questions, each run three times, a one-page scorecard with the top five fixes and a 15-minute recorded walkthrough (Avante Visibility). It credits the full fee if you upgrade within 30 days.

My AI Visibility Snapshot, from $600, runs 10 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, scores your homepage and up to eight content pages, ranks the competing domains the engines cite, and ends with a one-page readout of three fixes and a 20-minute call (GMS).

The engine count matters for B2B. A check on ChatGPT alone tells you nothing about Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, and your buyers may use any of them.

What does under $1,000 not buy?

Under $1,000 does not buy enough prompts to measure share of answers, a content plan, or anyone making the fixes. GTM 80/20's comparison puts it at about 10 prompts for a snapshot and 50 or more to see real share of answers.

The checks under $1,000 also give you one reading on one day. AI answers can change from run to run; Avante runs each question three times, and I would not treat a single small check as a trend.

When should you step up to a $1,500 to $2,000 audit?

Step up when the small check shows competitors taking most of the answers in your category and you have someone who can ship changes in the next quarter. That is my recommendation: a full audit earns its fee when its fix list gets worked through.

Stay at the small check, or stop, in two cases. If you already show up in most of the answers, a monthly re-run is worth more than a bigger audit. If nobody can change the site this quarter, a full fix list will sit unread, and an agency retainer may fit better than an audit.

The price bands above that are in how much a GEO audit costs, and the checks a full audit should run are in what a GEO audit checks.

What I'd do

1. Run the free readiness check on your homepage and fix any access problem it finds.
2. Write ten questions your buyers ask before they talk to sales, in their words.
3. Run three of them yourself in a fresh thread on ChatGPT and Perplexity and note who gets named.
4. If you are named in most answers, stop here and repeat the three prompts monthly.
5. If competitors are named instead, buy one small check that covers at least the engines your buyers use, and ask how many prompts it runs and whether a person reads them.
6. Move to a $1,500 to $2,000 audit only when the small check shows a gap and someone on your team can ship the fixes.

I run the AI Visibility Snapshot for B2B software and professional services companies, from $600 in three working days. Send me your category and two competitors, and I'll run a few of your buyers' questions before we talk.

Re-check by 1 February 2027: every price and scope in the first table on the providers' own pages, GTM Labs' description of automated scans, and GTM 80/20's price bands.