Quick answer: Verified Tools spent three days (Aug 28–30, 2026) submitting itself to every directory and launch site that AI engines actually cite when someone asks "where should I list my AI tool?" The result: of the 15 cited hosts we opened and worked through by hand, 9 had a genuinely free submission path, 5 wanted $9.99–$247, and one had a submission form that 404'd. Auth walls — CAPTCHA, OTP, forced sign-in — added friction to several of the free ones. Below is the full dataset.
Why we ran this
Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini "what are the best AI tool directories to submit to?" and you get confident lists. We wanted to know what actually happens when you follow that advice. We run Verified Tools (an AI tool directory ourselves), so we're both the lab and the rat: we scanned five AI engines for the sources they cite on these questions, then tried to get listed on each one.
Finding 1: Nine free doors, five paywalls, one broken form
We opened every host in the citation list that looked like somewhere a product could actually be submitted, and worked through 15 of them by hand. Nine had a genuinely free path. Five wanted money, from $9.99 a month up to $247. One — ideaproof.io — links to a submission page that 404s.
We're not quoting a percentage here. Those 15 are the hosts we chose to pursue, not a random sample of the citation list, so any rate calculated from them would describe our choices rather than the market.
Want this scan run on your own product? We turned the method into a free tool: the AI Visibility Checker runs 5 discovery prompts for your category across ChatGPT and Perplexity and emails you where you get mentioned, where you get cited, and your share of voice against competitors. That free check samples two engines once; if you want it tracked continuously, the paid tier runs all four (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) against 15 to 200 prompts you choose, with weekly reports and competitor tracking, from $39/mo.
| Cited host | Citations in our scan | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| aisotools.com | 2 | ✅ Free, no badge required, dofollow, reviewed in under an hour — best terms in the entire set |
| saascity.io | 7 | ⚠️ Free badge path exists, but their submit API returned HTTP 500 twice |
| stork.ai | 3 | ✅ Free via badge, Google sign-in required — went live the moment we submitted, the fastest in the set |
| aicentralresources.com | 4 | ⏸ Free permanent listing, 2–3 day turnaround, email verification required |
| freeaio.com | 2 | ✅ Free, manual review by the site owner |
| ideaproof.io | 4 | ❌ /submit is a 404 |
| tooldirectory.ai | 2 | ❌ "LISTING FEE · REQUIRED" — $9.99/month |
| aixploria.com | 4 | ❌ From $79 |
| nextool.ai | 2 | ❌ From $45 |
| aiso.blog | 3 | ❌ From $99 (a submission-service listicle, not a directory) |
| futurepedia.io | 3 | ❌ From $247 |
| thesaasdir.com | 8 | ✅ Free tier, badge required for dofollow, 7-day review |
| launchboosts.com | 6 | ✅ Free "Badge Verified" path, dofollow — but the free queue runs ~46 weeks deep |
| smollaunch.com | 4 | ✅ Free "Verified" path, badge check passed, launch slot confirmed for Oct 12, 2026 |
| bestaidirectories.online | 4 | ✅ Free self-serve form, review within days |
The takeaway: free doors are real, but they aren't free of cost. Three of the four badge-tier sites we completed want their badge on your site in exchange for a dofollow link, and the paid ones start at $9.99 a month and climb fast. Budget for a badge slot in your footer and for the review queue, not for a credit card.
Finding 2: "Free" almost always means "badge for dofollow"
Across the free tiers we actually submitted to, one pricing structure kept repeating. Three of the four sites we completed use the exact same three-tier logic:
- Free queue → you get a nofollow link
- Free + embed their badge on your site → the link becomes dofollow
- Pay → dofollow without the badge
The badge is the product. It's a link exchange dressed as a listing: they get a dofollow link from every free-tier member's footer, you get one back from their directory. If you're doing this at any scale, prepare a dedicated badge slot in your footer up front and after that, each new badge is a one-line change. (We audited what those badges are actually worth in our DR growth post: of 15 badge-tier listings we checked, 8 were still dofollow, 2 had been silently switched to nofollow, and 1 had disappeared.) Worth saying where we stand, since we're an interested party: we run a link exchange too. You place a link to one member and receive one from a different member, credit-based and weighted by DR. Our crawler re-checks every placement, and if a link disappears the credits reverse. Free to join: Verified Tools Link Exchange.
Finding 3: "Submitted" and "listed" can be 46 weeks apart
The single most surprising number in our log. Two sites, same free path, same week:
- Smol Launch: submitted Aug 28 → launch slot confirmed for the week of Oct 12, 2026. About 7 weeks.
- LaunchBoosts: submitted Aug 28 → free queue position implies listing around the week of Jul 12, 2027. That's 46 weeks, behind ~697 queued submissions.
Same effort, 39 weeks of difference. If you're submitting because you want results this quarter, check the queue length before you fill in the form — a listing that goes live next summer might as well not exist for your current campaign.
What we'd actually do first (founder checklist)
Based on the log, in order of return on effort:
- aisotools.com — free, dofollow, no badge, ~1 hour review. Start here.
- Smol Launch / TheSaaSDir-type badge sites — free if you're willing to host a badge; batch them so you only deploy your badge footer once.
- GitHub directory lists (like
best-of-ai/ai-directories) — a PR costs minutes; merge rates are low but the link is real when it lands. - Skip long queues for near-term campaigns — anything with a 6-month-plus backlog can't affect this quarter.
- Re-verify your dofollow links quarterly — our badge audit found ~1 in 5 silently degraded.
What this dataset is and isn't
This is a snapshot from one site's submission campaign, logged Aug 28–30, 2026, against the hosts five AI engines happened to cite that week. Prices and policies change; several of our own submissions are still pending review, and we'll update this post as they resolve. What it isn't: a ranking of directory quality, or proof that any of this moves AI mentions — that's precisely the experiment we're running, and the follow-up post will report what happened after the listings went live. The companion post on newer directories covers which of these are worth watching in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many AI tool directories are actually free to submit to?
We opened 15 of the hosts AI engines cite for this question and worked through them by hand in August 2026. Nine had a genuinely free submission path, five charged between $9.99 and $247 a month, and one had a form that 404'd. We're not quoting a percentage: those 15 are the ones we chose to pursue, not a random sample. Auth walls (CAPTCHA, OTP, sign-ins) added friction to several of the free ones, but they stop automation rather than people. "Free with a dofollow badge exchange" is the most common real-world structure.
How long does it take to get listed on an AI directory?
In our log, anywhere from under an hour (aisotools.com) to a confirmed 46-week queue (LaunchBoosts' free tier, ~697 submissions deep, as of Aug 30, 2026). Always check the queue before submitting if timing matters.
Do directory badges give dofollow links?
Usually that's the deal — the badge is what converts a nofollow free listing into a dofollow one. But verify: when we audited 15 of our own badge-tier listings, 2 had been silently switched to nofollow and 1 listing had vanished.