SEO Cost Calculator
Estimate what SEO should cost for your site, priced as a monthly retainer, by the hour and as a one-off project, with the hours shown so you can argue with the number. No email, no domain, nothing to submit.
Hourly rates are anchored on an Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers, which reported an average hourly rate of $111 and monthly averages of $1,349 for freelancers, $3,209 for agencies and $3,250 for consultancies. The regional adjustment is a rough scaling rather than a surveyed figure, because that survey reported regional project fees rather than a monthly multiplier. Those numbers carry an August 2024 update date, so treat all of this as the shape of the market rather than today's price list.
How this estimate is built
Most cost calculators ask a few questions and return a price with no working shown, which makes the number impossible to check or to argue with.
This one estimates the monthly hours each part of the job takes for a site your size in a market your competitiveness, then multiplies by an hourly rate for the kind of provider you are hiring and where they are based. The table above shows every line, so you can disagree with a specific row rather than with the total.
That matters when you get a real quote. “Your technical allocation looks light for a 500 page site” is a conversation. “That feels expensive” is not.
Where the rates come from
The anchors are an Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO service providers, which found an average hourly rate of $111 and monthly averages of $1,349 for freelancers, $3,209 for agencies and $3,250 for consultancies.
One caveat that almost nobody quoting those numbers mentions: that survey page carries an August 2024 update date. The figures are a couple of years old, so they describe the shape of the market rather than current prices.
The regional setting is the roughest part of the model. The survey reports regional project fee distributions, not a monthly multiplier, so the scaling here is an approximation rather than a measured figure. It is in the tool because location is the single largest factor in real quotes, and leaving it out would mislead more than including it.
The full breakdown of what the survey found, including why the average is misleading, is in our guide to how much SEO costs.
The same scope, priced three ways
The three figures above are not alternatives to choose between on price. They are the same work billed differently, and each suits a different situation.
- Monthly retainer. Used by 78.2% of providers and the default for ongoing work. It suits SEO because the work is continuous. It goes wrong when the scope is vague, which is why the line items above are worth putting in writing.
- Hourly. Best for a defined piece of advice, such as a second opinion or a pre-migration review. Poor for ongoing work, because it pays for time rather than outcomes.
- Per project. A fixed fee for a defined deliverable. The project figure above covers the one-off setup work only, meaning the technical and on-page foundation rather than the monthly content and links. It is the safest way to try a provider, as long as the deliverable is written down precisely.
Why the average is the wrong benchmark
The survey average is $2,917 a month, and the most common retainer band is $501 to $1,000. Those two facts sit uncomfortably together, and the gap is the whole story.
A small number of large contracts pull the mean upward while most of the market sits far below it. If your estimate above lands near the common band, you are in the ordinary part of the market, not the cheap end.
So compare your quote against the band, not the average. The benchmark line under the results does that for you.
What changes a real quote
- How bad the starting position is. A site with a migration gone wrong needs months of repair before any growth work begins.
- Who writes the content. Content is usually the largest single line, and a provider who only briefs it is cheaper than one who writes it.
- Whether links are included. Scope that says “link building” without saying how many, of what kind, is the vaguest line in most proposals.
- Reporting and meetings. Real time, rarely itemised.
- Contract length. Longer commitments usually lower the monthly rate and raise the cost of being wrong.
Before you sign anything, check the scope is specific enough to hold someone to, using our SEO contract template, and work out what the spend needs to return with the SEO ROI calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SEO cost per month?
An Ahrefs survey of 439 providers put the average at $2,917 a month, while the most common retainer band was $501 to $1,000. The average is pulled upward by a small number of large contracts, so the band is the more useful comparison for most businesses. Those figures carry an August 2024 update date, so treat them as the shape of the market rather than current prices.
Is a freelancer cheaper than an agency?
Usually, and by a wide margin. The same survey reported monthly averages of $1,349 for freelancers against $3,209 for agencies, which is roughly 138% more. The difference is not only skill, because an agency price also covers account management, cover when someone is unavailable, and capacity. A freelancer is cheaper and is a single point of failure.
Why does location change the price so much?
It is the largest single factor in the survey data and the one most pricing guides skip. Providers in India, Central and South America charge the least of any region surveyed, while US and Canada providers sit at the top. What you pay for at the higher end is usually local market knowledge, native-language content and timezone overlap, so two quotes with the same service name are often not the same product.
Should I pay hourly, monthly or per project?
Monthly retainer for ongoing work, which is what 78.2% of providers use, because SEO is continuous and results arrive slowly. Hourly suits a defined piece of advice such as a second opinion or a migration review. Per project is the safest way to try a provider before committing, provided the deliverable is described precisely in writing.
How accurate is this calculator?
It is a planning estimate, not a quote. The hours are reasonable allocations for a site of each size and competitiveness rather than measured averages, and the regional adjustment is an approximation because the underlying survey reports regional project fees rather than a monthly multiplier. Use it to sanity check a quote and to see which line items drive the price.
What should be in the scope of an SEO retainer?
At minimum, the deliverables each month and how they will be measured, in enough detail that you could tell whether they happened. "SEO services" as a line item can mean anything from real work to a monthly report nobody reads. The line items in the table above are a reasonable starting list to ask any provider to price individually.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored, and it does not ask for your domain or your email. Survey figures are from Ahrefs' study of 439 SEO service providers, which carries an August 2024 update date.