Frequently asked, plainly answered.

Operator is a doctor for your local business and the team that runs the treatment. A continuously-refreshed intelligence layer on 35M+ US business records, plus Operator: a team of AI agents that prospects customers, runs marketing, answers phones, schedules jobs, drafts review replies, chases collections, watches competitors, and handles every back-office task, scaling as you grow, while you focus on the craft.

Solo operators and small local businesses: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, dental, med spa, restaurants, salons, contractors, auto repair. Anyone running a local service business where you are the CEO, the head of sales, and often still the technician.

A 0-100 composite score computed continuously from six components: Reviews (25%), Market Rank (20%), Financial Health (20%), Response Rate (15%), Jobs Flow (10%), Operator Activity (10%). Full methodology →

A 0-100 score measuring how findable a business is to AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Full methodology →

Yes. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook are all supported. When Operator books a call or schedules a follow-up, it lands directly on your connected calendar.

Calendar (Google, Apple, Outlook), messaging (iMessage, SMS via Twilio), Google Business Profile, Stripe, QuickBooks, Slack, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Zapier. Full list →

Free: the free scan agent, your Health score, market rank, saved markets, leaderboards, one user. Operator: $$49/month + $1 per verified win, deploys a full AI team that scales with you: reviews, calls, quotes, routing, prospecting, market intel, unlimited users. Annual is $$41/month, saving 17%. Failed attempts cost nothing. Pricing page →

Subscriptions are non-refundable, but failed attempts cost nothing and you can cancel in one tap anytime to stop future billing. You can also export your data in one click at any time.

One tap from the account settings screen. No phone calls, no retention team, no dark patterns. Your access continues through the end of the current paid period. Your data remains exportable for 90 days after cancellation.

Your price is locked for the lifetime of your subscription. New customers may pay more over time. Existing customers keep the rate they signed up at, forever.

Primary source: Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0 license), 50M+ POIs. Enriched continuously with web crawls via Firecrawl, Google Places metadata, and structured extraction via Claude Haiku. Claimed businesses can edit their own data directly, which takes precedence.

Health scores, market ranks, and AI Visibility scores refresh continuously. Enrichment re-runs weekly. Base-layer business data syncs monthly from Overture. Owner-verified edits apply within 24 hours.

Almost certainly yes. Operator covers 35,000,000 US local businesses across 31,247 cities. If you have a Google Business Profile, you are in the directory. Search yours at operator.fyi/markets.

No. Rank is determined by the scoring model only. No paid placement, no promoted positions, no sponsored leaderboard slots. Operator subscribers rank by exactly the same formula as every other business in the directory. Our principles →

Yes. Email appeals@operator.fyi with the correction and supporting documentation. We publish a quarterly transparency report listing every correction made. Typical resolution time is under 5 business days.

Operator writes a 6am daily brief under 100 words, pattern-matching across reviews, calls, jobs, weather, competitor moves, and market shifts. The first thing you read each morning. 18 hours saved per week on average, 92% action rate on brief recommendations. Additional briefs land by lunch and at close.

Yes, if you are on Operator. Operator drafts a personalized response to every Google review within minutes of posting, referencing the specific service, date, and reviewer name when available. You can set it to auto-publish or require approval.

Yes, if you are on Operator. Operator answers after-hours calls, weekend calls, and calls that go to voicemail during busy periods. It qualifies the lead, books the appointment on your calendar, and texts the caller a confirmation.

During Operator onboarding, each agent is primed with your business's tone via a 4-question voice setup and a 3-month sample of your existing review responses and customer messages. You can tune voice at any time. All agent outputs run through a quality gate before going live.

Yes. Every function has a strictness setting: Auto (acts immediately), Review (queues for your approval), or Off. You can set different strictness levels per function. Most customers start in Review for two weeks, then switch review replies to Auto.

Yes. REST API at operator.fyi/api/v1 with OpenAPI spec at operator.fyi/api/v1/openapi.json. Authentication via X-Operator-Key header. 100 requests per day free. Higher cadence is included with Operator. Developer docs →

Yes. Live since April 2, 2026 at operator.fyi/api/mcp. Exposes 9 tools: find_businesses, get_price_estimate, check_availability, book_job, search_local_businesses, get_business_details, book_appointment, list_cities, list_service_categories.

Add OperatorBot to your robots.txt as a disallow. We respect robots.txt strictly. Note that this will likely lower your AI Visibility score because Operator's enrichment feeds downstream AI citations.

Yes. Operator never sells customer data. Data you connect (calendar, email, call logs) is used only to run your agents. You can export everything and delete your account in one click. Infrastructure runs on Supabase with encryption at rest and in transit.

Operator is a solo-founder company based in Honolulu, HI. Principles: no VC ever, zero paid customer acquisition, no hiring until $20K+ MRR. Built on a Mac Mini in Kaimuki. About page →

Operator does not run paid ads. Growth comes from programmatic SEO pages, MCP directory submissions, owner-led claim flows, word of mouth, and AEO citations. A deliberate constraint that forces product quality over paid reach.

Not yet. The directory is US-only at launch. International coverage is on the roadmap but not committed. Canada is the likely first expansion market.

Not yet. Operator's stated principle is no hiring until sustained $20K+ MRR. Check back or follow the about page for updates.