Verified 2026-08-02Sources →
PlanIntel

How we source prices

Every number on PlanIntel is a dated, first-party observation. This page describes the whole pipeline — where prices come from, how they're checked, what happens when they change, and how you can correct us.

1
Official sources only
Each service has its own collector that reads the provider's official pricing page for each market — never third-party aggregators, cached copies or estimates. A service we can't source reliably gets dropped: 40 accurate services beat 45 shaky ones.
2
Every reading becomes evidence
Each observation is stored with its source URL, retrieval timestamp and a snapshot of the page it came from. Any historical price on this site can be traced to the exact capture that proves it.
3
Validation before publication
New readings pass sanity checks on currency, structure and plausible range. A suspicious jump — say €13.99 to €139.90 — is never auto-published; it goes to human review first.
4
Change detection, honestly dated
When a verified price differs from the previous one, a change event is recorded: old price, new price, percentage, effective date. That event feeds the price-changes feed, history charts and alert emails — all from one record.
5
Failure is visible, never silent
If a check fails, the last verified price stays up with its honest older date — we never show a stale price as fresh, and never blank a page. Nothing on this site says "real-time."
6
History is append-only
Historical prices come only from recorded observations or verified archival sources. We never reconstruct, interpolate or invent history to fill a chart — a new service honestly shows "historical data accumulating."

Freshness: how often each price is verified

Verification frequency follows how often a service actually changes prices — not a one-size schedule. If a price goes past its SLA unverified, the page says so with an amber notice instead of pretending.

High volatility · ≤ 72 hours
Netflix, ChatGPT Plus, Spotify, YouTube Premium
Medium · ≤ 7 days
Microsoft 365, Adobe CC, Canva, Audible
Low · ≤ 30 days
Nintendo Switch Online, annual-billed software
Price verification overdue — last verified 14 May 2026 ← what an overdue price looks like, sitewide

Currency and tax

Cross-country comparisons are converted at European Central Bank reference rates, refreshed daily and dated wherever they appear. Local nominal prices and converted equivalents are stored separately, so a currency swing is never reported as a price change.

Prices include local taxes where charged at the point of sale — EU prices include VAT; US prices exclude state sales tax (it varies by state). Each market page notes its tax treatment.

"Lowest listed price by market" is exactly that — a list-price comparison. Availability, billing eligibility and service terms vary by market, and providers tie your price to your billing country.

Corrections policy

Every price page carries "Found an incorrect price? Report it." A report opens a review: we re-verify against the official source, correct the observation if you're right, and keep the original value, the correction reason, the reviewer and the timestamp in an audit log. Historical observations are never silently deleted or rewritten.

Report an incorrect price