ai · dev-tools · saas

OpenTools: requirements, how to submit, and what you actually get

Visit

A 780,000-visitor AI ecosystem catalogue whose only listing route is a $199-a-year subscription, and it does not say so until the Stripe page.

opentools.ai
OpenTools homepage
Eligibility

Who OpenTools accepts

You need
$199 for a year, since there is no free route
A Google account or an email and password login
A tool name and a URL starting with https://
You'll be rejected if
Anyone not paying: the only button on the launch page goes to a Stripe subscription
Anything without an AI or MCP angle, given the catalogue
AI toolsMCP serversDeveloper toolsAI modelsSaaS products
What you actually get
A listing on a site claiming 782,890 unique visitors a month, Domain Authority 70 and 1,700 linking root domains, plus four days on the homepage and launch posts to a 23,000-follower X account and a 5,000-follower LinkedIn. Their own case study reports 74 signups and 18 extension installs from one launch. The catalogue covers AI tools, models, MCP servers and experts, so an MCP server or an AI product lands somewhere specific rather than in a general pile.

How to submit to OpenTools

  1. Find the right URL
    /submit 404s. The header's Submit a Tool control points at /friends/launch-tool, which is the only entry point.
  2. Sign in
    Sign in with Google, or email and password. The launch page bounces a signed-out visitor to /signin with a callback back to it.
  3. Fill two fields
    Tool Name and Tool URL, with a checkbox for a free social boost to their X and LinkedIn accounts. That is the entire form.
  4. Continue to Subscription
    The button is labelled Continue to Subscription and goes straight to Stripe, where the price appears for the first time: $199 a year, billed annually.

OpenTools requirements

$199 a year
A Google account or an email and password login
Tool name and a URL starting with https://
The free social boost checkbox, which posts your launch to their X and LinkedInoptional

Gotchas

The price appears for the first time on the Stripe page. The launch page lists what you get, the visitor stats and the newsletter numbers, and the button says Continue to Subscription without ever naming $199 a year.
It is a subscription rather than a one-time listing fee, billed annually, so the listing is rented at $199 a year rather than bought once.
The submit path most people would guess, /submit, is a 404. The working entry point is /friends/launch-tool, which is only reachable from the header control.

Let your agent submit to OpenTools

Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the OpenTools playbook and gets the brief for this exact form, with the values already taken from your submission pack instead of placeholders you fill in by hand.

What it does for this platform
Checks your product against the 5 OpenTools rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 4 fields this form asks for, 1 of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Tells you what paying buys here, so you pick it on purpose: the listing is a subscription: $199 a year, billed annually, described on the Stripe page as OpenTools.ai Premium Listing. Nothing in the flow names a figure before that page, and there is no monthly option and no free tier. Newsletter sponsorship and a Talk to Sales route are sold separately.
Types it into OpenTools in your own browser, and stops for you when the form wants a sign-in.
Records what it sent, so the dashboard can answer "did I ever submit to OpenTools?".
Connect your agentHow this worksTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.

OpenTools FAQ

How long does OpenTools approval take?
OpenTools's typical time from submission to going live is 3-5 days.
How much does it cost to submit to OpenTools?
Submitting to OpenTools is paid (The listing is a subscription: $199 a year, billed annually, described on the Stripe page as OpenTools.ai Premium Listing. Nothing in the flow names a figure before that page, and there is no monthly option and no free tier. Newsletter sponsorship and a Talk to Sales route are sold separately.).
Does OpenTools give a dofollow backlink?
Yes, a listing on OpenTools carries a dofollow link. The site has a domain rating of 69.
Does OpenTools require a backlink to your site?
No, OpenTools does not require a link back from your site.
What gets you rejected from OpenTools?
Anyone not paying: the only button on the launch page goes to a Stripe subscription; Anything without an AI or MCP angle, given the catalogue.