FAQ
What is Token Thrift?
Mainly Ask, because we can't be the only ones out there solving this problem. It is anonymous Q&A for people rolling out AI at work, covering cost after the pilot, security review, governance and adoption, so you can learn what other teams actually do without exposing yourself or your company. Alongside it, a directory of AI tool deals and startup credit programs checked on vendor pages, and one email a week.
How anonymous is Ask?
You post under a random handle. No name, employer, job title or IP address is stored with what you post. Replying needs an email you confirm, and that email is never shown on the site or to other readers. Follow-up questions are passed on by email without either person seeing the other's address, and you can answer privately. Full details are on the privacy page.
What does redaction do, and what are its limits?
Before a reply is saved, a model removes names of people, companies, clients, internal projects and places, turns exact figures into rough ranges, and drops dates. A fixed leak check then reads the result again, and you approve the version that gets saved. What you first typed is never saved. The text is sent to Anthropic's API for this step. Redaction lowers the risk but can't promise nobody recognizes you: small numbers under 100 can stay, and your writing style is not changed. Don't paste anything your employer treats as confidential.
Who writes the Ask topics?
Topics marked Started by Token Thrift come from public sources to get the discussion going, and each opens with a summary that links its sources. Community Topics are asked by readers. Every reply comes from a reader under an anonymous handle. Trending Topic is earned, never picked: a topic trends once it has at least 3 published replies from at least 2 different handles in the last 14 days.
What do I get for replying?
Three things. A digest of everyone else's answers on that topic, at most one email a day with a one-click unsubscribe. A count of your replies readers marked helpful, shown next to your handle. And credit by handle in the monthly roundups when your answer is used. No names, employers or emails are shown in any of them.
Will I get emails after I reply?
Only a reply digest for that topic: at most one email a day, and only when other people's replies are published there. It contains published replies only, the same text anyone can read on the site. Each digest has a one-click unsubscribe for that topic, and deleting your handle stops all of them.
How are replies moderated?
A handle's first reply is reviewed before it is published. After that, replies from that handle go live right away, and any reply can be removed later. New questions, replies, follow-ups and sign-ins have daily limits to keep spam out.
How long is Ask data kept?
A reply that is never published is deleted after 30 days, and so are unpublished follow-up questions and questions that don't become topics. The hashed IP address used for spam limits changes every day and is deleted after 7 days. Your email is kept until you delete your handle, and published replies stay up as anonymous text after that.
Could my employer still work out it was me?
Possibly, and we would rather say so. Redaction removes names, employers and exact figures, and no name, employer or IP address is stored with your reply, but someone who knows your situation well might recognize the story or the writing. The self-reported industry and company size on your handle are optional. Post what you would be comfortable having traced back to you.
Can sponsors change what Ask says?
No. A sponsor can buy a card on a topic page, and it is labeled Sponsored. Sponsors have no way to edit, reorder or remove replies, or to change which tools a topic lists.
How are deals and credit programs checked, and how often?
Every morning an automated routine opens each vendor page and compares it with the listing: the offer, the amount, any end date and who qualifies. Changes go in as pull requests that must pass the site's tests before they go live. Some vendor pages block automated reads, so those are checked by hand. Each listing shows its last checked date, and the vendor page is always the final word.
Do affiliate links change which deals I see?
No. Some deal links are affiliate links, and if you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Deals are sorted by date added, savings or end date, and affiliate links play no part. The only listings placed first are paid placements, and they are labeled Sponsored. Startup credit programs have no affiliate links.
Why not ask on Blind, Reddit or a Slack community?
Use them too. Blind ties your account to a work email and shows your employer, LinkedIn shows your name, and most Slack communities show your profile. Ask is only about rolling out AI at work, posts go up under a random handle, and names, employers and exact figures are removed before anything is saved. The best answers go into one weekly email. Ask is new and small, so it gets more useful as people who have run a rollout add what happened.
How does Token Thrift make money?
Affiliate commissions on some deal links, labeled sponsor placements, and the optional $19 Startup Credits Kit. Ask, the deals directory, the credits pages and credits.json are free.
Why another startup credits list?
Most lists we found were stale or didn't say who qualifies. Ours focuses on two things: whether a program takes founders with no outside funding, and a dated check against the vendor's own page. The data is public at /credits.json under CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely, crediting "Token Thrift, https://tokenthrift.io/credits". The license covers the credits data only.
What is it built with?
Next.js on Vercel, Postgres on Neon, Resend for email, and Anthropic's API for Ask redaction.
What is in the $19 Startup Credits Kit?
A PDF that maps the startup credit programs we track, who qualifies and how to apply, plus agent prompts for Cursor, Claude Code and Codex. It is a one-time payment. The underlying data is free at /credits.json, so you can skip the kit and use the data yourself.
Something is wrong. How do I report it?
Email hello@tokenthrift.io with the listing and the vendor link. Corrections go in with the next update.
Who runs Token Thrift?
Seth Gagnon. You can reach us at hello@tokenthrift.io.
More detail: how we check, privacy and about.