# The Guinndex

## What it does
The Guinndex (guinndex.ai) is Ireland's pint price index. It shows what a pint of Guinness costs at 6,500+ pubs across all 32 counties (Republic and Northern Ireland). It is free to use. Press materials call it the most comprehensive pint price index compiled for the island of Ireland.

Features: national average, county-by-county rankings, interactive Ireland map, price history, Google ratings and review counts for every pub, individual pub pages (price, rating, opening hours, nearby comparison), county pages, and a public changelog of community price submissions.

## How prices are collected
- AI phone calls to pubs using an ElevenLabs voice agent (3,000+ calls). Prices are extracted from call transcripts using Anthropic's Claude AI. An old Irish SIM was used.
- Google Places API (ratings, review counts, opening hours, addresses). Pubs were discovered via Google Places (6,500+ pubs indexed).
- Crowdsourced web submissions, and price confirmations from pub owners and staff. No account is needed, just a name and what you paid.
- Prices are also updated via the Claudein WhatsApp service and periodic re-surveys.
- Initial data collection was in March 2026 (over Paddy's weekend 2026). Results were cross-referenced with 24 years of CSO government statistics.
- 2,052 pubs answered, and over 1,000 gave a price.
- The first agent persona was a friendly Northern Irish woman called Rachel, inspired by Rachel Duffy from The Traitors. Rachel introduced herself as calling for a price comparison list; the current agent opens every call by saying it is an AI. She struggles with IVR phone menus and Irish banter. Early scripts confirmed the price back; the final version asks, says thanks very much and hangs up.

## Key results
Homepage FAQ (survey figures): national average approximately €5.80; Dublin around €6.75; rural counties often below €5.50; cheapest pints typically in rural counties such as Leitrim, Longford and Roscommon, as low as €4.50.

Press kit figures (March 2026):
- All-Ireland average €5.95; most common price €5.50 (62% of prices in the €5.50 to €6.00 band).
- Republic of Ireland average €6.01 (March 2026).
- Most expensive county: Dublin, €6.84 average on the press kit (press release text says €6.75). Dublin premium +€0.83 versus national average.
- Cheapest county: Laois, €5.46 average on the press kit (press release text says €5.38). Press release says the gap between Dublin and the cheapest county is €1.37.
- Cheapest pint: €3.00 at Glynn's Bar, Dunmore, Galway.
- Most expensive pint: €10 at The Auld Dubliner, Dublin.
- 12 pubs serve a pint for a fiver or less, including one in Dublin.
- 46 pubs have a perfect 5.0 Google rating, none in Dublin (for example Augher in Tyrone, Kilmakilloge in Kerry, Rathdowney in Laois).
- The CSO tracked pint prices from 2001 to 2011, then stopped. Over the 14 year gap the price of a stout rose from €3.93 to €5.95 (+48%).
- Ireland has 5,974 licensed pubs (Revenue.ie, March 2026); the Guinndex tracks prices at over 1,900 of them across all 26 Republic counties. Licence data is under CC-BY.
- Light-hearted stats: 2 pubs are also undertakers; 0 pubs are named after a cat.
- County-level data API: guinndex.ai/api/data/county-summary.

Sample ranked pages (as shown on the site):
- Most reviewed: The Temple Bar Pub, Dublin (4.6 stars, 40,725 reviews, €11.00); Guinness Storehouse, Dublin (4.4, 24,371, €6.90); The Brazen Head, Dublin (4.5, 20,361, €8.80).
- Antrim: cheapest pint The Central Bar, Carrickfergus, £2.97; Kon-Tiki Boat Bar, Portrush, top rated (5 stars, 32 reviews, £6.10); most reviewed Kelly's Cellars, Belfast (4.7, 5,813 reviews, £5.08).
- Many listed rankings include pubs outside Ireland and show TBC where no price is held.

## Anecdotes from the calls
- Malzard's Pub, Kilkenny: bartender said "They're normally 6.20, but if you can't afford one, we'll buy you one. We'll look after you."
- Doogies, Northern Ireland: "Twenty-five pound. But if you're coming in for a wee drink, I'll give it to you for a fiver."
- Pat Hayes, owner of The Arch Bar, Thurles, Tipperary: "It was a good laugh. I had no idea it wasn't a real person... knowing the price of a pint is important. People want to know what they're paying before they walk in the door."

## Press coverage
- The Journal, 24 March 2026: Where can I buy a pint for a fiver? An AI chatbot called thousands of Irish pubs to find out.
- Cybernews, 23 March 2026: AI agent calls 3,000 Irish pubs to find the price of a pint.
- The Rundown AI, 23 March 2026: featured the Guinndex.
- Bearly AI, 23 March 2026: featured the Guinndex.
- Seb Johnson / Scaling Europe, 23 March 2026: featured the Guinndex.
- Tech.eu, 20 March 2026: Meet Rachel, the AI agent that phoned 3,000 pubs to price a pint.
- Press release issued 16 March 2026, Dublin. Anthropic research on AI labour market impacts is cited: bartenders, cooks and dishwashers are among the 30% of occupations with zero exposure; computer programmers are most exposed at 74.5%.
- Cortland quote: "AI isn't coming for the person behind the bar... AI can't (yet) pour a pint, it can't read a room, it can't tell when someone's had enough." He also said: "The whole point is for this to be a living index, not a one-off snapshot."

## People
- Matt Cortland: creator. American AI engineer based in London who lived in Ireland for years. Former pub and bar owner; previously owned a global pub and entertainment company operating across Ireland, the UK and US. Former US-Ireland Alliance Scholar (formerly the George Mitchell Scholarship). Master's degree in Creative Digital Media from TU Dublin. Available for interview. Site: https://mattcortland.com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcortland/.

## Company
Operated by Prime Directive AI Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 16551401. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ. Hosting by Vercel, data by Supabase, email by Resend; call providers ElevenLabs, Twilio and Anthropic.

## Contributing and corrections
Use the Contribute button on the site to submit a price, flag a correction or share photos. Pub owners can request amendments the same way. Press graphics are downloadable as 2160x2160 PNGs; please credit guinndex.ai. Instagram: @guinndex.ai (https://www.instagram.com/guinndex.ai).

## Contact
- Press: press@guinndex.ai
- Privacy: privacy@guinndex.ai
- Partnerships: partnerships@guinndex.ai
- Website: https://guinndex.ai

## Sources
- https://guinndex.ai
- https://guinndex.ai/llms.txt
- https://guinndex.ai/press
- https://guinndex.ai/privacy
- https://guinndex.ai/terms
- https://guinndex.ai/counties
- https://guinndex.ai/best-pubs
- https://guinndex.ai/cheapest-pints
- https://guinndex.ai/most-reviewed
- https://guinndex.ai/hidden-gems
- https://guinndex.ai/pubs-with-food
- https://guinndex.ai/changelog
- https://guinndex.ai/antrim
- https://guinndex.ai/best-pubs/antrim
- https://guinndex.ai/cheapest-pints/antrim
- https://guinndex.ai/most-reviewed/antrim