Affiliate standards and editorial independence
AI Tools Police is reader-supported, and we think you should know exactly what that means before you trust a verdict. This page sets out every way we earn money, the things money cannot buy here at any price, and what happens if a conflict of interest ever appears. If we break one of these commitments, we want to hear about it.
How we make money
We are reader-supported. Most links from a review to a tool's own site are affiliate links, which means the vendor pays us a commission if you buy after clicking one. The price you pay is the same either way. That commission is what funds the research behind the reviews.
Reviews themselves are free. Anyone can submit a tool at no cost, and payment is never a condition of being covered or of being covered well.
Two paid options are published on our submit page. They are the only two, and here is exactly what each one is.
| Paid option | Price | What it buys | What it does not buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expedited review | $49, one-time | A place at the front of the review queue. The published review stays up permanently. | A score, a ranking position, or a favorable verdict. |
| Sponsored placement | $99 per month | A slot labeled as sponsored, for one month, wherever it appears. | A place in our editorial rankings, or any change to a score. |
Nothing else is for sale. We do not take payment to remove, soften, or revise a published review.
What money cannot buy
These lines hold for affiliate commissions and for both paid options, without exception.
- — Rankings are never sold. No payment moves a tool up a list.
- — Placement is never weighted by payout. A higher commission rate does not earn a higher position.
- — Scores are never influenced by commission. A score comes from the evidence set out in the review.
- — An expedited review buys speed, not a result. Expedited reviews can and do score low when the evidence says so.
- — Sponsored slots are always labeled. They are marked as sponsored everywhere they appear and kept separate from our editorial rankings.
- — Vendors get no preview, no edits, and no approval rights. They read the review when you do.
Coverage independence
Whether a tool runs an affiliate program plays no part in whether we cover it. Good tools with no program at all still get reviewed, and they still get recommended when they are the right answer for a reader.
A dead affiliate link never changes a published verdict. When a program closes or a link stops working, we repair or remove the link. The words and the score stay as they were.
Commission rates play no part in our "best for" picks either. Those picks answer a narrow question: which tool fits this reader, at this budget, for this job. When the answer is the cheaper tool, the cheaper tool is what we name.
Disclosure practice
Our disclosure is site-wide. It sits in the footer of every page and reads: "AI Tools Police is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site we may earn an affiliate commission, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we've researched in depth, and our rankings are never sold."
The same disclosure appears near the affiliate links themselves, so you see it at the moment it matters rather than only in the small print at the bottom of the page. Affiliate links are also marked as paid links in the page's code.
Sponsored placements carry a sponsored label everywhere they appear, in line with FTC guidance. If a placement is paid and you cannot tell that it is paid, we have failed at this, and we would rather you tell us than assume.
Ethics and conflicts
Vendors sometimes provide free trial access or free credits. When that happens, we say so in the review. Free access buys nothing beyond access, and it changes nothing about what we publish.
Conflicts of interest are the harder case: an investment in a company we cover, employment with one, or a personal relationship with the people who run it. As of today we have none of these. AI Tools Police is founded and edited by Mucahit Kaya, so the rule applies to him first.
If a conflict does arise, two things happen. We disclose it on the affected page, in plain language, where you will actually see it. And the person holding the conflict steps back from the verdict on that page.
Hold us to it
Standards are only worth something if someone checks them. If a review reads to you like it was bought, or a disclosure is missing where one belongs, say so. Write to us and point us at the page.
The same address takes corrections. Anyone can request one. Vendors can report a factual error in their own review exactly like any other reader; what they cannot do is preview it, edit it, or approve it. When we confirm an error, we fix it and we date the fix.