We read 107 AEO agencies' websites. 66 rank themselves first.

AEO, or answer engine optimization, is the work of getting a company named in AI answers. The AEO Agency Index is a read of 107 agencies selling that work to B2B companies, taken from each agency's own website on 3 November 2026. It records prices, promises and self-published rankings, which we then compared with how seven AI surfaces named the same agencies in October. 1 2

Agencies almost always rank themselves first on their own lists, yet 27 that do were named in none of the shortlist answers we tracked. The 14 that promise an outcome were named 7 times between them, out of 812 shortlist mentions. The median entry price among agencies quoting US dollars is $3,000 a month, and seven of the ten agencies AI names most publish no price we could find.

We started from every company named in 4,219 unbranded AI answers tracked for Salienz from 2 to 8 October 2026. They came from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Gemini. We kept those named at least three times whose domain also appeared among the answers' citations, because some addresses in the tracking records were look-alikes. After reading each homepage, we picked 108 agencies that sell done-for-you AI visibility work to B2B or SaaS buyers on an English-language site. 2

For each one we read up to 16 pages (home, pricing, services, case studies, about) and up to three of its own best-agency pages. Every price and self-ranking was read at least twice on 3 November. Two sites refused our crawler: one opened in a browser and is counted, and AEO Engine refused that too, which leaves 107. The answers date from October and the sites were read in November, so the comparisons below show association only, and a list published since October could not have affected those answers. 1

66 of the 68 agencies with a ranked list of AEO, GEO or AI search agencies on their own site put themselves first on at least one page. One of the 66 says its order is alphabetical. Four more publish a guide with no order that includes them. We found no such page for the other 35. Onely, itself a GEO agency, read seven of these lists in October and found all seven ranked their publisher first. At 68 lists the pattern holds. 1 6

Many say so openly. One list explains that its publisher placed itself first because that is where it thinks it belongs, and another gives its conflict of interest a section of its own. The scoring gets odder. One agency gives itself 10 out of 10 and its runner-up 7, and another lists itself above a rival it scored higher, 91 out of 100 against 93. Of the two that did not come first, one places itself last in an alphabetical list and marks itself as the publisher.

On our data, not by itself. Of the 66 agencies that list themselves first, 27 were named in none of the 185 answers to our four shortlist questions, such as the best AEO agency for B2B SaaS. Their median was one mention, against none for the 35 with no list we could find. Three of the ten most-named agencies had no such list, and those three took 142 of the top ten's 495 mentions. 1 2

The lists do seem to earn citations. Agencies listing themselves first had their own site cited in a median of 32 answers, against 20 for those without a list. Outside studies point both ways. Lily Ray tracked 100 B2B software queries from April to June 2026. When Google AI Overviews cited a company's own list, it left that company out of the recommendation 69 percent of the time. Maeva Cifuentes found vendors named in 45.4 percent of answers citing their own list and 16.3 percent without it, across five B2B SaaS clients, and she calls that association too. An Ahrefs experiment with 34 self-promotional pages concluded that they help most when AI has a gap in what it knows. In that test, 43 percent of answers citing one set of its pages never mentioned the event they promoted. These pages are common: Minuttia's study of 18,084 software questions found vendors wrote 43 percent of the lists AI cited. 3 4 7 8

Among the 60 agencies quoting US dollars, the median lowest monthly price is $3,000, and the range runs from $797 to $10,000. Twenty-one start under $3,000, 22 between $3,000 and $4,999, and 17 at $5,000 or more. Five more publish in euros, pounds or Singapore dollars. We found no price for 42, including seven of the ten agencies AI names most on shortlists. Publishing a price made no visible difference to mentions. 1 2

FigureFig. 01

These are entry prices, and they do not buy the same thing. Some cover a single service or a pilot, and some bill link or PR budget on top. Salienz's own retainer sits above the median. Compare what is included before you compare the number, and see why the published retainer is not always the price. Each figure is the lowest recurring monthly price we could read on the agency's own site on 3 November 2026. Prices in this market change often, so check before you rely on one.

Agencies split on this. Fourteen promise a refund or free work if a result is missed, such as being cited on ChatGPT within 90 days or gaining a set share of AI visibility. Twenty-eight say on their own sites that nobody can guarantee this, often in strong words. One agency says both, warning against guarantees of position and offering its own on prompts scoped after an audit. 1

Between them, the 14 were named 7 times in 812 shortlist mentions, and 12 were named in none. We would not read much into that, because an agency with fewer clients has more reason to offer a guarantee in the first place. If you are offered one, check what it measures, over what period, and what you get back, since free extra work is worth less than a refund. Salienz gives a written forecast and no guarantee. 2 5

Mostly, with no obvious payoff. 79 of 106 agencies publish an llms.txt file, about 75 percent, against 10.13 percent of the nearly 300,000 domains SE Ranking checked. Those without one had the higher median here: three shortlist mentions against none. SE Ranking also found no link between the file and AI citations, and Google says you do not need new AI text files to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Four block at least one AI crawler in robots.txt, the opposite of what the service would suggest. One week of data cannot say what causes what, and we did not adjust for an agency's size or age, but the checklist on its own does not explain who gets named. 1 2 9 10

• Treat any best-agency list on an agency's own site as an advert until you have checked who wrote it. Most of them put their author first.
• Ask for the same facts from each shortlisted agency: price, minimum term, what is billed on top, and how results are measured.
• Read a guarantee for its metric, its period and its remedy, then ask what happened to clients who missed it.
• Ask where an agency is named in AI answers today, on questions you choose, not on ones it picks. A free AI visibility audit can show the same thing for your own company.
• Read our comparison of ten AI visibility agencies and what an AEO budget should be before a call.