Editorial Standards

1. How we source prices

Live prices on ShopSmartAI come from two places:

• Direct retailer APIs for Best Buy, Newegg, Amazon, B&H Photo, and Canada Computers.
• Daily snapshots via Serper (Google Shopping proxy) for the rest. Snapshots run every 24 hours and cache the lowest legitimate price per part per country.

Prices and stock can change between when our snapshot runs and when you click. We always link to the retailer's page so you can confirm before you buy. If you spot a stale price, please tell us and we'll re-snapshot within an hour.

2. How we use AI (and where we don't)

ShopSmartAI uses large language models in several places:

• AI Build Advisor picks parts from a curated catalog and explains the choice. The compatibility checks themselves are pure deterministic rules, not AI.
• Bottleneck and FPS predictions are AI-generated and cached for 30 days. They are estimates, not benchmarks. We never present them as measured results.
• Per-part product descriptions on /parts/* pages are AI-generated and refreshed monthly.

AI is never used for top-of-funnel editorial like blog posts or buying guides without a human reviewer re-writing, fact-checking, and editing the result. Anything that looks like a personal recommendation came from a person.

3. How we choose what makes a "Best" list

Our /best pages exist to help shoppers narrow a category quickly. The picks are based on:

• Real benchmark and review consensus from third-party publications.
• Price-to-performance ratio at the current live price.
• Real-world compatibility with mainstream platforms.
• Long-term value and warranty/support reputation.

We do not accept paid placements in "Best" lists. Manufacturers cannot buy a slot, and affiliate commission rate has zero weight in ranking.

4. Affiliate relationships

ShopSmartAI participates in:

• Amazon Associates (US tag shopsmartai-20, CA tag shopsmartai0a-20)
• Skimlinks (auto-affiliate for non-Amazon retailers)
• FlexOffers (Best Buy and others)
• Direct Best Buy Affiliate Program

When you click a buy button and complete a purchase, we may earn a small commission paid by the retailer. The price you pay never changes.

Our editorial team is structurally separated from affiliate revenue: writers and reviewers do not see commission rates when they make picks.

5. Updates and corrections

• Live prices: every 24 hours.
• Per-part AI descriptions: every 30 days.
• Best lists and buying guides: reviewed quarterly or after a major release.
• Long-form blog posts: dated; we update in place when prices or recommendations change and add an "Updated" line at the top.

If you spot a factual error, email us at support@shopsmartai.org with the URL and the correction. We aim to publish a fix within one business day and will note the correction at the bottom of the page.

6. What we will not do

• Take payment from manufacturers to rank a product higher.
• Hide a known flaw of a product because it would hurt commission.
• Use deceptive countdown timers, fake stock counts, or scarcity dark patterns.
• Sell, rent, or share your personal data with advertisers.
• Recommend a product we wouldn't buy ourselves at the listed price.