Where do the facts come from?
Only from the issuer's own pages: the exam page, the certification page, its official FAQ or an official announcement. Third-party sites and AI answers are never used as sources. Where an issuer doesn't publish something, such as a price behind a partner sign-in, the page says it isn't stated.
What does "verified" mean?
Each fact is stored with the issuer's exact words and the page they came from. When the page is fetched, the words must appear on it, and any number in the fact must appear in the quote. If they don't, the fact isn't shown. The date next to a fact is the last day its words matched the issuer's page.
How often are certifications checked?
Every week. A change, such as a new price, a retirement or a new exam code, is held for review with the issuer's new wording before it replaces the old fact, and then appears on the changes page.
What do you never show?
Star ratings, pass rates an issuer doesn't publish, salary or job claims, converted prices and estimates. A member price is never shown as the price. The one exception is the guide Why learn AI skills?, which reports pay figures from named studies and official statistics, each with its source, date and scope, and never as a promise of what a course will earn you.
How are guides researched and written?
By the AI Course Check editorial team. Every figure in a guide comes from an official or named source, US federal statistics first, and the list at the foot of the guide gives each page used with the date it was checked.
Research and drafting are automated and follow editorial rules set by the editor, Jake Boland: nothing invented or estimated, and every figure re-checked on its source page before publication. Each draft is also scored by a separate review that played no part in writing it, and the page has to pass the site's automated style and search checks.
How are certifications classified?
By type (exam, course certificate, assessment or microcredential), with proctoring shown only where the issuer states it, by level, using only the issuer's own tier word, and by who can take it: everyone (the issuer says so), no requirement listed, partners only, another credential needed, a course needed first, or not verified.
How are certifications ordered?
Every table says its order in its caption. By default: current certifications first, then those that list no entry requirement before those that need a partner firm, a course or another credential first, then entry level before advanced. Remaining ties go to the record verified most recently, then to a fixed code worked out from its ID, never to the issuer's or the certification's name. Academy pages keep the order the issuer recommends where it states one. Course tables follow the same rule as our course lists: courses mainly about the page's subject first, then open now, then beginner level, then lower cost. No issuer can pay to move up.
How do you make money?
It doesn't, yet: there are no paid listings and no affiliate links. Issuers and course providers can't pay to be listed or ranked, and if that ever changes, paid links will be labeled.
How do I report a mistake?
Email the contact address on the about page. The issuer's page is checked again and the record is corrected.
How does your crawler behave?
It sends the user agent ai-courses.ie-bot/1.0 (+https://ai-courses.ie/methodology/#bot), follows robots.txt and any crawl-delay, waits at least two seconds between requests to a site, and never signs in or gets around bot protection. It is the crawler of AI Course Check's sister sites too.
Can I reuse the data?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0. The AI certifications dataset has every record's stated facts as one JSON file, with what each field means. credentials.json also carries each fact's quote, source page and verified date.