AIO and LLMO Costs: Typical Pricing and How to Read a Quote

There is no official standard price for AIO or LLMO work. Costs vary widely depending on whether a quote covers measuring AI answers, fixing pages or monthly reporting. Before comparing totals, make sure the scope of work is the same.

Your manager asks, “How much budget do we need for AI?” You line up the quotes and find ¥30,000 a month next to ¥250,000 a month. Instead of asking which is expensive, check what each one actually does.

AIO and LLMO refer to efforts to be found in answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and similar services. The differences between the terms are explained in LLMO, GEO, AEO and AIO: Understanding AI Optimization Terms.

AIO and LLMO Costs Depend on the Scope of Work

The same “AIO service” can differ by an order of magnitude depending on whether you only use a tool or people also analyze and fix pages. The table below shows services whose public prices we could confirm on September 23, 2026 (Japanese market, excluding tax).

Type	Example	Published price (excl. tax)
Measurement tool	DolphinX AIO	¥30,000–¥100,000/month (6-month contract, no setup fee)[4]
Measurement tool	LLMO Cheki	¥29,800–¥98,000/month (6-month contract; Pro plan has ¥50,000 setup fee)[6]
Monthly service	AIMA	¥50,000/month (no setup fee or minimum term)[3]
One-off human support	DolphinX AIO paid support	Tool fee plus question design and setup ¥200,000; initial design from ¥500,000[5]
Ongoing human support	Same	Advisory ¥100,000/month plus tool fee; hands-on support from ¥250,000/month including tool fee (6-month minimum)[5]
Content production	Same	Column article ¥100,000; comparison article ¥200,000 each[5]

This is not an average market price, only examples we could confirm on public pages. Contract length, tax and included work differ, so the monthly figure alone does not tell you whether something is expensive.

For example, even with a monthly price for a 6-month contract, the full contract amount may be billed at the start.[4] When briefing your manager, give the total for the contract period and when payment is due, not just the monthly price.

What Goes into AIO Costs

A quote is easier to read when split into the six tasks below. Seeing which tasks carry a price tells you what you will receive.

Task	What it involves	What you receive
Question design	Choosing questions customers are likely to ask AI	A question list
Measuring AI answers	Asking AI and recording whether you appear	Records of answers and cited sources
Page review	Checking published pages and settings	A list of candidates to fix
Page and article edits	Adding explanations or writing articles	Revised drafts or published pages
Technical setup	Making pages readable for search services	A list of settings
Reporting	Summarizing changes and next steps	A monthly report

If a quote only says “full AIO package,” ask which of these tasks it includes. In particular, whether they only propose edits or actually rewrite and publish makes a large difference to the price.

Separate Tool Fees from Labor Costs

Tool fees usually rise with the number of questions asked and the number of AI services checked. DolphinX AIO, for instance, sets the number of daily measured questions by plan.[4] LLMO Cheki says consumption per keyword depends on how many AI services are measured.[6]

Labor for analysis and writing, on the other hand, depends on time or number of articles. If a quote bundles everything into one monthly figure, ask for tool fees and labor to be shown separately. That also helps you decide later whether to bring some work in-house.

Quote Items That Need Justification

For items that only add llms.txt, AI-specific markup or a visibility guarantee, ask about the purpose and how the effect will be checked before deciding. Google says no new special files or special structured data are required to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and it does not guarantee appearance.[1]

Quote item	Question to ask back
Setting up llms.txt	Which AI services read it, and how will you check the effect?
Special markup for AI	Which official documentation is this based on?
Guaranteed AI visibility	Which AI, and how many appearances out of how many checks, counts as meeting the guarantee?
N articles per month	Which question does each article answer?

Structured data describes a page’s content to search services and must match what visitors see.[2] Maintaining it alongside your content has value, but it does not promise AI citations.

This does not mean these tasks are worthless. If you get a clear answer about the purpose and how it will be checked, you can judge whether the cost is worthwhile.

How to Compare Quotes on the Same Terms

When comparing providers, send each the same request. If the terms differ, you cannot tell whether a price gap reflects different work or just a different scope.

Please quote on the following terms.

Site: [your site URL]
AI services: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews
Questions: 10 (each checked 4 times a month)
Page edits: up to 2 pages a month; state whether drafting is included
Reports: monthly, with records of answers and cited sources
Please list contract length, setup fee and total separately

Record the replies in a table like this. The amounts are fictional examples.

Item	Provider A (example)	Provider B (example)
Setup fee	¥0	¥200,000
Monthly fee	¥50,000	¥30,000
Contract	6 months	6 months
6-month total	¥300,000	¥380,000
Page edits	Proposals only	Drafting 2 pages a month included
Reports	Citation rate only	Includes answer and source records

In this example, Provider B has the lower monthly fee but the higher total. Because drafting is included, it may still suit a company without time to write in-house. Compare totals and the work side by side.

What It Costs to Do It In-House

Doing the work yourself is not free. Manual checks cost staff time, and tools cost usage fees.

A manual example (illustrative assumptions): checking 10 questions in 3 AI services once a week is about 120 checks a month. At 2 minutes per check, that is roughly 4 hours a month. Time for editing pages is separate.

With a tool, usage usually grows with “questions × AI services × runs.” In AgentSignal’s AI optimization, each AI answer that uses web search consumes 2 credits. The example above would be 120 runs, or 240 credits a month. See AgentSignal Pricing and How to Choose a Plan for prices and credit allowances.

The URL review that checks a published page does not use AI, so it uses no credits. Start with the free AIO check to see where you stand, then split the work between outsourcing and in-house to narrow the scope of your quote request.