Ranking Rules

Effective and last updated: September 3, 2026 · All times UTC

OpenNext AI has two separate surfaces. Organic discovery is for approved products and is not ordered by payment. Sponsored placement is paid advertising and is labeled wherever it appears. A Sponsored payment never changes the organic “New AI products” ordering.

1. Weekly Sponsored board

Each Sponsored board starts Monday at 00:00 UTC and ends the following Monday at 00:00 UTC. When it closes, ranks and amounts are archived and frozen, except where a correction is required for fraud, payment reversal, legal compliance, or material technical error. The next week starts with zero effective Sponsored amount.

2. How rank is calculated

1. Only a successful, verified payment webhook can add money to a product's weekly total.
2. The server calculates the amount due; browser-submitted amounts and estimated ranks are never trusted.
3. Products rank by effective confirmed cents for the current week, highest first.
4. Equal totals are ordered by the time each product first reached that amount.
5. Refunds and chargebacks reduce effective amount through a new immutable ledger entry.

3. Minimum Boost amounts

Users choose whole USD dollars for a target total. Internally, OpenNext AI stores and settles amounts in cents for accurate payment records. Anyone may purchase an initial Sponsored position for an approved, active product, then purchase an increase for the same week. The amount charged is the difference between the requested target and its current effective total. Paying for a Boost does not grant ownership or editing access to the product.

4. Payment confirmation

Creating a checkout does not change rank. Pending, failed, cancelled, or expired payments do not change rank. A payment changes rank only after signed provider verification and exactly-once transactional processing. Concurrent confirmations are serialized for the affected product and week.

5. Refunds and chargebacks

Boost placement starts after payment confirmation, so payments are generally final and non-refundable once delivery begins. We do not refund being outbid, rank changes, low traffic, or commercial results. Exceptions include duplicate or incorrect charges, unauthorized or fraudulent payments, material non-delivery, mandatory consumer rights, and provider-approved cases. Full or partial refunds reduce the effective weekly amount; an opened chargeback removes the disputed amount while reviewed. See the Refund Policy.

6. Click counts

Visits pass through a tracked redirect. Short-window deduplication, privacy-preserving hashes, and basic bot detection filter traffic. Counts are estimates and do not affect rank.

7. Eligibility and review

Products must be real, accessible AI products or services with accurate information. Free submissions enter the review queue before publication. A new paid Sponsored submission may publish automatically after trusted payment confirmation and remains subject to post-publication moderation, suspension, or removal. An Owner email may be omitted, but only a verified owner can edit or manage the listing. See the Terms of Service.

8. No outcome guarantee

9. Corrections and appeals

Contact support@opennextai.com with the product domain, order or week, and evidence if a record appears materially incorrect. Corrections preserve original payment and audit history.

10. Rule changes

We may update these Rules for service, provider, legal, or abuse-prevention changes. The effective date changes when material rules change; completed payments and closed weeks retain their recorded rules except where correction is required.