- Answer engine optimization (AEO) agencies help your brand earn citations and mentions inside AI answers.
- AirOps ranks first for pairing a platform with experts across owned, external, and paid AI channels.
- NoGood, Graphite, and First Page Sage name a wide set of AI engines on their service pages.
- Omniscient Digital and Minuttia focus on B2B software brands.
- Judge every agency on the cited URLs it targets and the controlled tests it runs.
What are the best answer engine optimization agencies in 2026? We compared 11 on the pages they target and the proof they publish.
The best AEO agencies win placements on the exact pages AI engines cite, and they prove it moves pipeline. AirOps ranks first as a partner (yes, we wrote this list), followed by Foundation Marketing, Minuttia, Brainlabs, and seven others. If you're evaluating software instead of a services partner, AirOps is also the best AEO platform for enterprise companies.
Your buyers already research inside AI chatbots. G2's 2026 AI Search Insight Report found 51% of software buyers start with AI chatbots more often than Google. G2 surveyed 1,076 B2B decision makers in March 2026, so the data covers software purchases.
Buyers tell Ali McCarty, VP and GM of Managed Services at AirOps, that they have to justify AI search spend to finance. So that's the bar: we compare 11 agencies against it, then give you a reusable scorecard for picking one.
Top AEO agencies compared at a glance
This table compares the top AEO agencies by focus, named engines, and published price. AEO agency cost is rarely public, so several cells read "not published." Some agencies call the work generative engine optimization (GEO).
| Agency | Best for | Engines named on its site | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| AirOps | Strategy and execution across AI search channels | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Mode | Not listed on pages checked |
| Foundation Marketing | Reddit and citation-oriented content | Not checked | Not published |
| Minuttia | B2B SaaS with flexible terms | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity | Not published |
| Brainlabs | Share-of-voice and mention tracking | Not checked | Not published |
| Omniscient Digital | B2B software brands focused on pipeline | None named | Full-service from $120,000/year |
| Nectiv | AI citation building at $20M+ ARR B2B companies | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode | Not published |
| Seer Interactive | Keeping cited pages current | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity | Not published |
| NoGood | Broad engine coverage, startups to Fortune 100 | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot | Average retainer above $20,000/month (agency-wide) |
| Graphite | Prompt research and Reddit strategy | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews | Not published |
| SaaStorm | Seed to Series D SaaS | Not checked | Custom packages, no fixed tiers |
| Growth Plays | AI sentiment and recommendation analysis | Not checked | Not published |
The best AEO agencies in 2026
The best answer engine optimization agencies in 2026 start with AirOps, Foundation Marketing, Minuttia, and Brainlabs. Each of the best AEO agencies below gets a profile covering focus, strengths, watch-outs, and pricing. For the same work framed as GEO, see our ranking of generative engine optimization agencies.
1. AirOps (best for strategy and execution across AI search channels)
AirOps tracks your brand citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Mode. Its LLM citation tracking guide explains the method.
- Strength: One partner covers your site, third-party sources, and AI ads with shared data.
- Watch-out: Pipeline attribution is still in pilot.
- Pricing: Not listed on the AirOps pages checked for this review.
2. Foundation Marketing (best for Reddit and citation-oriented content)
Foundation calls itself an AI visibility agency. It builds distribution around each asset, including Reddit threads, LinkedIn, X, YouTube and citation-oriented content. Its published research includes an analysis of 380,000 AI answers for B2B buyers.
- Strength: Reddit is a core channel in its playbook.
- Watch-out: Its claim of over 220M organic visits and AI citations has no baseline or timeframe (self-reported).
- Pricing: Not published.
Sources: foundationinc.co
3. Minuttia (best for B2B SaaS with flexible terms)
Minuttia works only with B2B SaaS companies on AI search. It runs its own AI search tracking tool across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. It also publishes a State of AEO Report built on 24,067 prompts.
- Strength: No minimum commitment lowers your risk on a first engagement.
- Watch-out: Minuttia does not offer paid media or influencer marketing.
- Pricing: Not published.
5. Omniscient Digital (best for B2B software brands focused on pipeline)
Omniscient Digital helps B2B software brands turn SEO, GEO, and content into growth channels. Its clients include Jasper and Smartling. Omniscient reports on its site that Teambridge generated $400,000 of qualified pipeline through SEO.
- Strength: A clear B2B software focus with pipeline language up front.
- Watch-out: The page names no specific AI engines, and its headline result is SEO.
- Pricing: Full-service engagements start at $120,000 a year.
6. Nectiv (best for AI citation building at $20M+ ARR B2B companies)
Nectiv is an SEO and AEO agency, led by Chris Long, for B2B and technology brands with $20M+ ARR. It tracks citations and mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Mode. It also builds links and AI citations and runs Reddit monitoring and engagement.
- Strength: Its CHEQ case study reports 5,600% AI citation growth to commercial content (self-reported).
- Watch-out: The $20M+ ARR focus excludes early-stage companies.
- Pricing: Not published. Scope flexes month to month.
Sources: nectivdigital.com
7. Seer Interactive (best for keeping cited pages current)
Seer tracks citations across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Its 2026 recency study found LLMs favor pages that are maintained over newly published ones. Prompt tracking runs on Scrunch.
- Strength: Published research with a defined page set and date range (March to June 2026).
- Watch-out: It relies on a third-party tracking tool.
- Pricing: Not published.
Sources: www.seerinteractive.com/generative-engine-optimization
8. NoGood (best for broad engine coverage)
NoGood's AEO page lists large language model (LLM) audits, citation analysis, and digital PR. It names seven AI surfaces, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. NoGood works with startups, scaleups, and Fortune 100 brands.
- Strength: The widest named engine list in this roundup.
- Watch-out: AEO is one service inside a growth agency, and tracking runs on Goodie AI, a third-party tool.
- Pricing: NoGood's homepage puts its average retainer above $20,000 a month, across all services.
9. Graphite (best for prompt research and Reddit strategy)
Graphite offers prompt research, citation-ready content, and offsite AEO with Reddit strategy. It names five engines, including Google AI Overviews. Graphite reports on its site that Webflow 2x'd sign-ups from LLMs.
- Strength: Fixed prompt sets, typically 200+ queries a quarter, give you a stable baseline.
- Watch-out: Its page states no industry focus.
- Pricing: Not published.
10. SaaStorm (best for Seed to Series D SaaS)
SaaStorm turns SEO, AEO and content into pipeline for B2B SaaS teams from Seed to Series D. Each engagement starts with a 10-day discovery that includes an LLM citation snapshot. It reports €20M in pipeline and €2.2M in closed-won ARR for clients (self-reported).
- Strength: Its client Stravito credits it with growing AI referrals from ChatGPT and Gemini.
- Watch-out: Content production runs on AirOps-powered workflows.
- Pricing: Custom packages with no fixed tiers.
Sources: saastorm.io · saastorm.io/pricing
11. Growth Plays (best for AI sentiment and recommendation analysis)
Growth Plays runs Gen AI search tracking and its own sentiment tooling. The tooling checks whether LLMs recommend a brand, describe it accurately or tell users to avoid it. Clients include Vercel, LangChain and LaunchDarkly.
- Strength: It checks how a brand is described, beyond whether it's mentioned.
- Watch-out: No metric-level results are published.
- Pricing: Not published.
Sources: growthplays.com
Best AEO agencies to help your brand show up in ChatGPT and Gemini
AirOps, Minuttia, Seer Interactive, NoGood, and Graphite all name both ChatGPT and Gemini. Nectiv names ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Mode, and SaaStorm reports client referrals from ChatGPT and Gemini.
Named engines are a starting point, because AI answers shift between runs. SparkToro's January 2026 study had 600 volunteers run 12 prompts 2,961 times. It found under a 1 in 100 chance of seeing the same brand list twice.
SparkToro still considers visibility percentage across many prompts and runs a reasonable metric. Sam Page, Head of AEO/SEO Services at AirOps, adds a caveat: even "a million prompts" won't give you "the full picture." Good AEO agencies report citation and mention trends across repeated runs, not one-off snapshots.
To show up in ChatGPT and Gemini consistently, you need reporting split by engine. Our AI search metrics guide explains which numbers to request.
Which answer engine optimization agencies should a B2B company consider?
A B2B company should consider AirOps, Minuttia, Omniscient Digital, Nectiv, and SaaStorm, depending on segment. Match answer engine optimization agencies to your stage and buyer.
- B2B SaaS: Minuttia, Omniscient Digital, and SaaStorm all speak directly to software brands.
- Enterprise: AirOps, Seer Interactive, Brainlabs, and NoGood serve large brands, and NoGood works with Fortune 100 companies.
- $20M+ ARR B2B: Nectiv focuses on B2B and technology brands at that size.
- Early stage: AirOps' services lead advises building your own site and brand equity first.
For a B2B company with long sales cycles, proof matters more than reach. Weight pipeline tests above engine counts, and compare technical depth in our AI SEO agency ranking.
Why AEO agencies matter for AI search in 2026
Buyers use AI across the purchase, and the sources AI trusts change often.
- Forrester's January 2026 blog says 94% of buyers use AI in their buying process.
Google is changing too. "Over 45% of searches on Google today are now shown in AI Overviews," said Ali McCarty, VP and GM of Managed Services at AirOps, in the AirOps services webinar.
- Only 30% of brands stay visible from one answer to the next, per AirOps' State of AI Search (December 2025). Its sample is unpublished.
- In AirOps' stale content study of 4,000+ ChatGPT-cited pages (August 2025), more than 70% were updated within 12 months.
Freshness tracks with citations, though the study shows association, not cause. AirOps' AEO services head suggests refreshing content every three to six months, depending on your niche.
Position inside cited lists matters too. Engines cite ranked listicles, and rank order shapes what gets pulled.
AirOps' services lead wants your brand "listed 1, 2, or 3, which is what most LLMs will actually pull from."
The best AEO agencies can explain how they earn top-three placement on lists engines already cite. That answer separates citation strategy from a placement count.
What is an AEO agency?
An AEO agency helps your brand earn citations and mentions in AI answers from engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. A citation links to your page as a source, while a mention names your brand. Share of voice is your share of mentions against competitors across tracked prompts.
Some firms call themselves a GEO agency instead. The work overlaps, so judge services over labels. Our answer engine optimization basics cover the discipline itself.
- Cited-source research: Find the URLs AI engines cite for your priority prompts.
- Citation outreach: Earn placements on those cited pages.
- Content refresh: Update the owned pages engines already cite.
- Review management: AirOps' AEO services head calls third-party user reviews "S tier" fodder for LLMs.
- Citation tracking: Report citations, mentions, and share of voice by engine.
How we evaluated the best AEO agencies
We checked every claim on each agency's own site in October 2026. No shared outcome data exists to rank one agency above another, so the order after AirOps reflects our editorial judgment.
Disclosure: AirOps publishes this guide and ranks itself first. AirOps has partner relationships with Minuttia, Brainlabs, and Foundation Marketing, and Brainlabs is also an AirOps customer. SaaStorm uses AirOps in its content workflows. All agency results are self-reported and linked to their source.
- Engines named: We recorded which AI engines each service page names.
- Service fit: We noted cited-source research, outreach, audits, and content work.
- Proof: We labeled results as vendor-reported and checked whether the page defines the metric.
- Pricing transparency: We recorded published starting prices only.
- Buyer fit: We captured the industries and company sizes each agency names.
The order of agencies 2 through 11 reflects our editorial view of AEO depth and B2B fit.
How to choose an AEO agency
Start by asking each agency which URLs AI engines cite for the prompts you want to win. A strong answer names specific third-party pages and domains by engine. That focus keeps your budget on sources that already shape answers.
Ali McCarty calls this approach "more of a scalpel than a sledgehammer." The method is hard to run well, but every target is a source engines already trust. Ali McCarty and Sam Page walk through citation-led targeting in the recording.
Those cited sources often sit in the middle and long tail of the web, AirOps' services lead notes. A pitch built around landing Forbes deserves a follow-up question.
Proof is your second test, and it needs a control group. A recap of Graphite CEO Ethan Smith's session advises running tests with clear control groups. Ask every agency, including Graphite, for a test against an untouched control set.
Ownership is your last call. Sydney Sloan, CMO Advisor at G2, sees brands owning AEO in-house more than outsourcing it to SEO agencies. An outside partner still helps when you lack people for every channel.
Use this table to match a delivery model to your resources.
| Delivery model | What you get | Best fit | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform plus strategists (AirOps) | Strategy, execution, and tracking on shared data | You want one partner across channels | Needs your time for reviews |
| Agency only | Strategy and execution on the agency's tools | You need specialist hands fast | Reporting depends on third-party trackers |
| Platform only | Tracking and workflows your staff runs | You have in-house content capacity | Insight stalls without people to act |
| In-house | Full control and brand knowledge | You can hire across content and PR | Slow to staff every channel |
Which AI search optimization agencies specialize in citation and revenue attribution?
No agency here, AirOps included, shows independent proof of AI-driven pipeline on the pages we checked. AirOps says it is piloting pipeline attribution with select customers. Nectiv and NoGood list citation building or analysis, and SaaStorm reports client pipeline (self-reported).
Run this scorecard in every pitch. AirOps' services lead also urges investing at the brand level, rather than chasing a single Reddit thread.
| Question to ask | Strong answer | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Which URLs do AI engines cite for our prompts? | A named list of pages and domains by engine | Generic media tiers |
| How do you measure AI search presence? | Citation and mention rates across many runs | One screenshot of one answer |
| Do you separate citations, mentions, and share of voice? | Each metric defined and reported on its own | One blended "AI score" |
| How will you prove pipeline impact? | A control group with a baseline | Before-and-after charts only |
| Where will you focus effort? | Brand-level priorities tied to buyers | One thread or one listicle at a time |
What to do next
- Shortlist three of the best AEO agencies that name the engines your buyers use.
- Run the scorecard above in each pitch.
- Ask each finalist for a cited-URL list for five priority prompts.
- Pilot for 90 days against a baseline and a control set.
AirOps for choosing an AEO agency
This article tested each agency on two things: the cited URLs it targets and the proof it offers. Hold AirOps to the same tests in your pitch, and see how our AEO agency services work.
AirOps reports in its September 2026 update that it helped Chime "3x its citation rate." AirOps also reports that LegalZoom saved $600K+ across three departments and saw 5x conversion on LLM referral traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs about AEO agencies
How much does an AEO agency cost?
Omniscient Digital's full-service work starts at $120,000 a year, the only published price floor on the pages we checked. NoGood's agency-wide average retainer tops $20,000 a month, and SaaStorm builds custom packages. Any other AEO agency cost needs a direct quote.
How long until AEO results show?
The agency pages we checked publish no standard timeline you can compare. Set a 90-day pilot with a baseline so you can judge movement. Our roundup of real program results shows what progress looks like.
What should I ask an AEO agency before signing?
Ask which URLs AI engines cite for your priority prompts and how the agency reports citations and mentions by engine. Then ask how it will prove pipeline impact against a control group. The scorecard above lists strong answers and red flags.
Can my SEO agency add AEO?
Yes, when it can show cited-source research and reporting by engine. Ask for both before you expand its scope.
Can an agency guarantee AI citations?
No, because AI answers vary from one run to the next. iPullRank's GEO page notes that LLM answers are probabilistic and can differ every time. Any guarantee is a red flag.
Should I hire an AEO agency or use an AEO platform?
Bring in a partner when you lack people to execute, and pick a platform when your team can run the work. AirOps is a partner that pairs its platform with strategists who work as an extension of your team. Compare software options in our answer engine optimization tools roundup.
Which top AEO agencies work on Gemini?
AirOps, Minuttia, Seer Interactive, NoGood, and Graphite name Gemini on their sites. Ask each one for Gemini results reported apart from ChatGPT.