AI search content costs whatever the research, writing, review and publishing behind it cost, so two quotes for the same request can sit far apart and both be honest. The biggest drivers are how many services and markets the work covers, how deep the research goes, how often new pieces publish, and how much approval each piece needs. At Hudson South, monthly plans start at $1,500 a month and 30 to 60 day content projects start at $9,500, with larger scopes priced in a proposal.
Owners usually meet this question with several proposals priced different ways. Comparing them takes translation, because the same figure can buy researched, published pages from one provider and a folder of unreviewed drafts from another.
This page is general buying information for owners and marketing leads in any industry, not financial or legal advice about any contract. It describes what moves a price rather than quoting typical ranges, since scopes differ too much for a range to say much about your own quote.
What drives the cost
Most of the price of content work is people's time: researching, interviewing your team, writing, checking facts and publishing. Anything that adds to that time adds to the price.
| Cost driver | Why it moves the price | Have this ready |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of services | Each service brings its own buyer questions and pages | The services you most want to grow |
| Markets and locations | Each city or segment needs its own research and local detail, not the same page renamed | The areas you serve, in priority order |
| Research depth | Interviewing staff and studying competitors takes longer than writing from a keyword list | The people who answer customer questions today |
| Publishing volume | More pieces a month means more writing, review and publishing time | How many drafts your team can review each month |
| Who writes | Writers who learn the business first spend more time per piece | Any brand or voice guidance you have |
| Review in regulated fields | Law, health care and financial services need sign-off from a licensed professional or compliance staff | Who approves, and how quickly |
The row about who writes deserves the most attention. A low quote often assumes the writer works from public information, which keeps the price down by leaving out the slow part. Someone has to ask your team how you price a job and what you tell a worried customer, because no writer should be left to make up what your business already knows. A quote that skips that conversation has moved the cost to you, not removed it.
Four pricing models and their trade-offs
Content providers tend to price in one of four ways, and each one places risk on a different side of the table.
| Model | How it works | Works well when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project fee | One fixed price for a defined body of work | The gap is known and finite | Vague scope, and who plans what comes after handoff |
| Monthly retainer | A recurring fee for ongoing research, writing and publishing | Questions keep arriving and nobody in house can own content | Minimum terms, and whether monthly output is defined |
| Hourly | You pay for the time spent | Small, unpredictable tasks such as edits | No ceiling, and quotes that are hard to compare |
| Per piece | A set price for each article or page | You already know the topics and can plan and review | Research, fact checks and publishing billed as extras or left out |
None of these models is cheap by nature. A per-piece rate can look low until you add the planning, review and publishing it leaves with your staff. A price per post is not a price per answer, so convert every quote into the same terms: how many buyer questions get researched, written, checked and published, and what you still do yourself. The wider choice between the first two models has its own page on choosing a content project or a monthly retainer.
What to ask any provider about a price
A quote is only comparable once you know what sits inside it. These questions work with any provider.
- Research. Who decides what gets written, and from what: interviews with my team, a review of competitors, or a keyword list?
- Facts. Who checks each claim, and against which sources?
- Publishing. Do you publish to my site, or deliver drafts for my team to post?
- Extras. Are revisions, setup fees, reporting, social posts or email included, or billed separately?
- Terms and ownership. Is there a minimum term, and what do I keep if we stop?
One more question belongs inside your own walls. Before you sign, ask your team, "Who here will read each draft for accuracy, and how many can they get through in a month?" The answer caps how much volume is worth buying, however much a provider is willing to produce. How the amount itself should be sized is covered in how much content a business needs for AI answers.
Red flags in a content quote
Some quotes signal trouble at any price. Google's own guide to hiring an SEO says no one can promise a #1 ranking on Google, and tells owners to find someone else if a provider promises that its changes will put them in first place. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says placement is not assured either. No outside provider controls which business an assistant names.
- Promised rankings, citations or AI mentions, especially tied to a deadline.
- A method the provider will not describe. Google's page on AI features says appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode needs no extra requirements or special optimizations, so a secret technique deserves a hard question.
- Volume as the main selling point, with no research behind the topics.
- No fact checking, or no named approver in a regulated field.
- A long minimum term before you have seen a published page.
- A cold email announcing problems with your site. Google's hiring guide tells owners to be wary of firms that make contact out of the blue.
A fictional example: three quotes for one clinic
A fictional veterinary clinic in Colorado with two locations collects three quotes. Quote A is a per-article rate for monthly blog posts on pet care topics drawn from a keyword tool, with no interviews; the clinic posts the drafts itself. Quote B is an hourly rate for content support with no estimate of hours. Quote C is a monthly fee covering interviews with two veterinarians and the practice manager, research into what pet owners in both cities ask, and fact-checked pages published after the clinic's review.
On paper, Quote A is the lowest. Converted into the same terms, it leaves planning, review and publishing to busy staff, and its topics could appear on any clinic's site. Quote B has no ceiling. Quote C costs the most each month but is the only one that answers what this clinic's clients ask about these two locations, so the manager's next call is to ask its provider about the minimum term.
What Hudson South charges
Hudson South's AI search content service runs in four steps: Authority Asset gathers the expertise your business has that its website does not show, Hudson Twenty-One records how the business communicates across 21 dimensions, Market Intelligence researches what buyers in your market ask, and AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first pages and posts that you review and Hudson South publishes. Every factual claim is checked against a primary source before a piece reaches you, and in regulated fields the licensed professional or compliance staff approves what publishes.
Hudson South publishes starting prices and prices larger scopes in a proposal. Monthly plans start at $1,500 a month, run month to month and carry no setup fees. Content projects, which run all four steps end to end in 30 to 60 days for a fixed fee agreed before anything starts, start at $9,500. Hudson Deed websites, which the client owns outright, start at $5,000, and the Hudson Twenty-One profile on its own is $2,500. What moves a price above its starting point is the list of drivers above: more services, more markets, a busier calendar. Monthly plans include a visibility report on a defined question set run across AI platforms, with competitor comparison on larger plans. Market exclusivity comes with most monthly plans; your proposal confirms it and names the trade and the area. Projects do not include it. Every starting point is listed on the Hudson South pricing page.
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- Do You Need an SEO? Tips for Hiring an SEO. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-17.
- AI Features and Your Website. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-17.
- Searching the web with ChatGPT. OpenAI Help Center. Read 2026-10-17.