Free tool / SEO Cost Calculator
Build an SEO budget from the work itself: specialist hours times the hourly rate, pages written each month, tools and any outreach. The calculator totals it by month and year, and shows where the total sits against SE Ranking's survey of 260 agencies. The example numbers are examples, not quotes.
Free, with no sign-up and no email.
Reviewed by M. NoumanCo-founder, RankNexus · Updated 18 October 2026
About $1,600 a month, in the $1,000 to $2,000 band, where 20% of agencies in SE Ranking's survey sit (survey figures in US dollars).
Estimates from the numbers you enter, not a forecast. Nothing you type is sent to us.
The guide
Most monthly SEO retainers cost less than $2,000. SE Ranking's survey of 260 agencies, published in December 2024, found:
| Monthly retainer | Share of agencies |
|---|---|
| Under $500 | 30% |
| $500 to $1,000 | 34% |
| $1,000 to $2,000 | 20% |
| $2,000 to $5,000 | 13% |
| Over $5,000 | 2% |
Prices run higher in the US and Canada, where Ahrefs found 79.1% of providers charge at least $1,001 a month. And 94% of SE Ranking's agencies serve small and local businesses, so larger sites and competitive markets usually sit in the higher bands.
| Line item | What it pays for | What makes it bigger |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist time | Technical fixes, research, strategy and reporting | A larger or more broken site, more markets |
| Content | New pages, and rewrites of the pages that bring in leads | More services, locations or products to cover |
| Tools | Rank tracking, crawling and keyword research software | More keywords, pages and users |
| Digital PR and outreach | Earning mentions and links on other sites | Competitors with more of them |
If a developer bills separately for site changes, add their hours to the specialist hours above.
These are the calculator's example numbers for an invented business, not a quote:
| Line | Sum | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist time | 10 hours × $100 | $1,000 |
| Content | 2 pages × $250 | $500 |
| Tools | Subscriptions | $100 |
| Outreach | None this month | $0 |
| Total | Per month, and over 12 months | $1,600, or $19,200 a year |
At $1,600 a month, this budget sits in the $1,000 to $2,000 band, where 20% of the agencies in SE Ranking's survey price their retainers. Use the SEO ROI Calculator to see whether it could pay for itself.
| Model | Share who use it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | 78.2% | Ongoing work: fixes, new pages, tracking and reporting |
| Per project | 48.9% | One-off jobs such as an audit or a site migration |
| Hourly | 34.8% | Advice and small, defined tasks |
Many providers use more than one model, so the shares add up to more than 100%. Of those who bill hourly, 90% charge $150 an hour or less.
Our pricing lists what each RankNexus plan includes, and our guide to how much SEO costs covers local SEO, AI search and red flags in more depth.
The short answers
Enough to pay for the work your goals need: technical fixes, pages that answer what buyers search and, in competitive markets, earning mentions on other sites. In SE Ranking's survey of 260 agencies, 64% charge under $1,000 a month, 20% charge $1,000 to $2,000 and 15% charge more than $2,000.
Mostly as a monthly retainer: 78.2% of the providers in Ahrefs' survey of 439 charge that way, 48.9% price some work per project and 34.8% charge by the hour. Of those who bill hourly, 90% charge $150 an hour or less.
A bigger or more broken site, a more competitive market, more locations or countries, more pages each month and specialist work such as AI search tracking. Our guide to how much SEO costs covers each one.
Sources: SE Ranking: SEO pricing survey (260 agencies); Ahrefs: SEO pricing survey (439 providers).
Questions
No. It turns the numbers you enter into a budget. Agencies price differently, so ask each one to state its hours, pages and tools in writing and enter them here to compare like with like.
Use the rate you have been quoted. For reference, 90% of the SEO providers in Ahrefs' survey who bill hourly charge $150 an hour or less.
As many as your plan genuinely needs and your team can approve. Two strong pages that answer real buyer questions usually do more than ten thin ones.
Usually not. AI answers rest on the same foundations as SEO; budget a little extra for tracking buyer questions in AI assistants and earning mentions on the sites they cite.
Essentials SEO and AI search starts at $1,500 a month, including both audits in month one, technical fixes, two page upgrades and two new answer pages a month and AI answer tracking. Our pricing page lists every plan.
No. The calculator runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to us.
A useful next conversation
The tools show what is on your site. Our free audit looks at how ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity describe you, and what we would fix first. A specialist sends a recorded walkthrough within 2 business days.
