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Last reviewed: July 2026 · prices in USD · New York cost-of-business index: +18% (applied per tier)
'Do I have a case' gets asked to AI engines millions of times a month now, and composed answers name firms. Being cited there is the new ranking — won with content that answers what people ask before hiring: what a case like theirs settles for, how fees work, what the filing deadline is in their state. Publish that with real attorney review, get cited for exactly the case types you want, at a fraction of what those clicks cost in PPC.
| Tier | Typical range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| DIY tooling + monitoring | $300–$2,050/mo | Citation tracking and schema tools, self-managed |
| SMB retainer | $1,150–$2,900/mo | Schema, direct-answer content, citation tracking done for you |
| Mid-market | $2,300–$9,300/mo | Broader query sets, more engines, content velocity |
| Enterprise | $11,800–$29,500/mo | Brand-wide AI-answer presence programs |
| One-time AEO audit | $275–$3,350 one-time | Where you stand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews |
Law firms are the heaviest marketing spenders in local services — consumer firms commonly run 5-15% of revenue, and PI firms far more during growth pushes. The managing partner signs off, and everything gets compared to cost-per-signed-case, which in injury work can run into the thousands and still make money. That's the frame to use: not what the retainer costs, but what a signed case costs through this channel versus paying $150 a click for the same person.
Low on price, brutal on proof. Firms will pay top-of-market rates without blinking for anything that demonstrably signs cases, and cancel anything that can't show which cases it produced. Injury and criminal inquiries run year-round with summer accident spikes; family law surges in January after the holidays; tax and estate work follows filing deadlines.
This page is #aeo-cost-new-york at these coordinates — see it on the live #map →
What do law firms in New York pay for AEO?
Most land between $1,150 and $2,900 a month for managed work. New York runs about 15% over the national baseline on done-for-you services (self-serve tools are the same price everywhere), so a local quote that looks high against a national article can still be fair.
Can AI legally handle intake for a law firm without practicing law?
Yes, when it's scoped like a good non-attorney intake coordinator: gathering facts, screening against your criteria, scheduling — not giving legal advice. The agent should be explicit that it isn't a lawyer and hand anything advisory to a human. Bar rules vary by state on solicitation and confidentiality, so have your ethics counsel review the scripts once, the same way you'd review a human intake script.
We already spend heavily on PPC — why add this?
Because the clicks you're buying are shrinking. AI Overviews and chat assistants now answer many legal questions before a click happens. Firms named in those answers get the case without paying $150-$300 for the visit. Most firms don't cut PPC on day one; they build the answer-engine presence alongside it, then rebalance when the numbers show where signed cases come from.
What should a firm expect to pay, and what's the catch?
Managed programs mostly land between $1,150 and $2,900 a month depending on practice area and market — injury in a major metro is the deep end. The downside is patience and attribution. Legal is the most competitive category there is, so demand a report that ties spend to consultations and signed cases, and expect a quarter before the trend is readable.
← National answer engine optimization (aeo) guide for law firms · All-industry AEO pricing in New York
Methodology: ranges are synthesized from published 2026 market pricing across vendors, agencies, and platforms, reviewed and refreshed monthly (last refresh: July 2026). Metro figures apply a cost-of-doing-business index (built from 2026 local cost-of-living and labor data) that we scale per price tier: self-serve tools are priced nationally and barely move between cities, while managed and enterprise work — which is delivered by local labor — carries the full local premium. That is why the same city shifts a done-for-you retainer far more than a DIY subscription. Prices are in USD and describe typical market rates, not quotes; a real quote for your business takes minutes through a verified provider on the hashtag.org network.