Why should you publish prices for AI search?
Because assistants recommend the businesses they can compare, and they can only compare what's written down. A price is one of the facts buyers ask about most.
When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for a recommendation, the assistant usually searches, reads a handful of pages, then checks each shortlisted business for the same facts: what's included, how long it takes, where they are and roughly what it costs. If one business says "from" a figure and another says "contact us", the first has an answer and the second has a gap.
Assistants also write a reason for each name. "They build websites from £499 + VAT" is a reason. "Pricing is available on request" isn't.
What does an assistant do with a price?
It uses it to sort, filter and explain. A buyer who says "on a small budget" or "premium" gets businesses that match, and price is how the assistant tells them apart.
In comparisons we've watched, assistants line up "from" prices, turnaround, location, what's included, minimum orders and how to start. They rarely look at backlinks or awards unless asked. Price sits right at the top of that list.
What if every job is different?
Then say how the price is set. You can give a useful price signal without a fixed figure.
- A "from" price for the smallest typical job.
- What changes the price: size, materials, distance, urgency or extras.
- Your minimum order or minimum project size, if you have one.
- How the price is agreed: for example, a fixed price after a short call, before any work starts.
- What's always included, so the comparison is like for like.
How do you publish prices, step by step?
Seven steps. Most businesses can do the first four in a morning.
- List your main services and the smallest job you'd happily take on for each.
- Set a "from" price you can honour for that job, every time.
- Write down what's included at that price, and what costs extra.
- Add a line on how the final price is agreed, and how long it takes to get one.
- Put the price in plain text near the top of each service page, not in an image, a PDF or a pop-up.
- Add it to your structured data, with an offer that matches the figure on the page.
- Use the same figure on your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, directories and llms.txt, and update them all together when it changes.
Where should prices go on the page?
Near the top, in plain text, next to what's included and how long it takes. An assistant reading the first part of the page should get the whole picture.
An "At a glance" box works well: what it is, who it's for, how fast, the price signal, where you work and how to start. Keep the full price table further down if you have one. The figure in the summary and the figure in the table must agree, or the assistant has to guess which is right.
Won't competitors see my prices?
Yes, and they probably know them already. A competitor can ask for a quote in five minutes. A buyer who never finds you can't.
The real risk runs the other way. If the assistant can't find your price, it tends to recommend someone whose price it can find. A "from" price also filters out enquiries that were never going to fit, which saves your time as well as the buyer's.
What does Foundry publish?
We publish one price: websites from £499 + VAT. It's on our web design pages, in our structured data and in our llms.txt, in exactly the same words.
For everything else we give a fixed price after a short call, and we say exactly that on each page, alongside what's included and how long it usually takes. That's still a fact an assistant can use.