I build tools for the people who help students

A drafting assistant for the letters that matter, so you can spend more time with students.

Draft appeal and rec letters from your own notes. Decode aid award letters with AwardLens. Review letters you've already written with LetterLens. Every output is a starting draft for you to review and revise.

Try it free, no card needed → See all tools

2 free uses on every tool · Cancel anytime

counselorai.app

Appeal Letter

Rec Letter

LetterLens

AwardLens

Aid Calculator

AwardLens

Student: Marcus Williams · UC Santa Barbara

Reason: Changed financial circumstances

Gap: $10,200/year · Father laid off Jan 2025

Generating appeal letter...

Mr. Jovan Smith, Founder

First-gen student before he became a counselor · About →

What CounselorAI does

Every tool in the counselor's lane

These are the documents and decisions that take hours and need to be personalized every time. CounselorAI handles them in 60 seconds, so you spend your time on the advising, not the page.

Financial Aid Appeal Letter

4 appeal types, changed circumstances, competing offer, special circumstances, and error correction. Drafted in language financial aid offices recognize, structured for your review and revision before sending.

60 seconds · Best of 3 drafts

Recommendation Letter

Drafts from a writing sample so the voice tracks yours. Accepts student resume for context. Embeds your digital signature. Downloads as PDF or Word, for you to review, revise, and sign.

Draft-ready · Counselor edits expected

LetterLens

Paste any rec letter and get an honest 9-point rubric review, opening hook, evidence specificity, AI language check, economy check, and a letter score. Tells you exactly what to fix before submission.

2 free reviews

FAFSA Checklist

Not a generic guide — a personalized action plan for this student. Documents to gather, filing strategy, priority deadlines, special circumstance flags, PJ appeal watch, and scholarship leads. Built around the student's actual situation.

Personalized per student

Financial Aid Calculator

Full COA breakdown across up to 3 schools. Separates grants from loans. Loan repayment tied to expected salary and field. PJ appeal flags baked in. AI counselor summary included. No card needed to try.

Instant math · AI summary

Pro features — everything above is free to try

AwardLens Pro

Upload up to 3 award letters. Decodes each one — free money from debt, renewal conditions, PJ appeal opportunities — and compares them side by side. Enriched with current College Scorecard data: acceptance rate, graduation rate, average net price, and median earnings.

Pro feature · Scorecard data included

Scholarship Matcher Pro

Input a student profile and get a tiered scholarship match report, Tier 1 national programs they're eligible for, Tier 2 strong fits, and Tier 3 local opportunities. Searches live scholarship data at generation time. Includes a deadline calendar and essay strategy built around this student's story.

Pro feature · Powered by Student Profile

Student Profile Builder Pro

Build a complete advising profile once, reference it all year. First-gen, low-income, DACA, foster youth, and other background tags built in. Pre-fills every other tool automatically — appeal letters, rec letters, FAFSA checklist, scholarship matcher, and more.

Pro feature · Pre-fills all tools

Why I built this

I was the student before I became the counselor.

"I was a first-gen student. My mom wanted the best for me and did not have the playbook. When the aid letter arrived, no one at my kitchen table knew what to accept. I took out loans I probably did not need. I became a counselor so the next student would not have to do that alone. Now I build tools for the people who help students."

Mr. Jovan Smith · Founder · First-gen student turned counselor · 10+ years in admissions, financial aid, and college access · Read more about Mr. Smith →

First-gen

Was the student before becoming the counselor

10+

Years in admissions, financial aid, and college access

3k+

Students reached through college access and pipeline programs

500+

One-on-one advising sessions with students and families

How it works

From blank page to ready-to-send

Three steps. No setup. No API key. No technical knowledge required.

Fill a short form

Enter the student's key details, situation, traits, scores, or aid figures depending on the tool. Takes 2–3 minutes. Every field has a clear placeholder to guide you.

Get your draft in 60 seconds

CounselorAI generates a personalized, professional draft, in the language the right people actually respond to. It streams in live so you see it as it's written.

Edit, download, and send

Edit inline, request specific revisions, download as PDF or Word, or open directly in your email client. Every output is a starting point, your judgment makes it final.

Early feedback

What counselors are saying

"The letters sound legitimate. I was skeptical but this actually reads like something I would write, not like a robot tried to write a rec letter."

Aaron C.

Honors Counselor · UC Riverside

"The financial aid calculator alone is worth it. Families always struggle to understand the real cost, this breaks it down in a way they can actually read."

Beta tester

Independent College Counselor

"Appeal season is brutal. Having a tool that already knows what financial aid offices respond to, built by someone who worked in one, is exactly what I needed."

Beta tester

High School Counselor

Privacy & trust

Built for counselors who have to be careful with student data

You handle sensitive information about real students. We designed CounselorAI around that responsibility, not as an afterthought.

Browser-only storage

Student profiles and caseload data are stored in your browser only, never on our servers. We have no access to your students' information. Clear your browser, it's gone.

No AI training on your data

CounselorAI uses Anthropic's Claude API. Per Anthropic's commercial terms, your inputs and outputs are never used to train AI models, not by Anthropic, not by us. Verify at anthropic.com →

Prompts secured server-side

All AI prompts and logic run inside our secure Netlify functions, never visible in your browser's source code. Your API keys and our domain expertise stay on the server.

Counselors are responsible for FERPA compliance. CounselorAI is a tool, not a FERPA-covered institution. You own your students' data and your professional obligations. We provide the infrastructure to handle it carefully. Read our full student data policy →

Simple pricing

Start free. Upgrade when you're ready.

No credit card required for free access. Founding member rate locked forever for early subscribers.

Monthly

Annual Save $149

Free

$0/mo

2 free appeal letters
2 free rec letters
2 free LetterLens reviews
2 free FAFSA checklists
2 free Financial Aid Calculator runs
2 free AwardLens analyses
2 free scholarship matches
2 free Student Profile builds
Every tool, no card needed

Try free →

Early-user special

Pro

$29/mo

Rate locked forever for founding members

Unlimited all 8 tools
AwardLens with College Scorecard data
Scholarship Matcher, tiered matches with essay strategy
Student Profile Builder, pre-fills every tool
Revision requests on every letter
Resume & writing sample upload
Digital signature embedding
PDF & Word download

Get unlimited access →

Team & Institutional

From $99/mo

For counseling departments, TRiO programs, and college access organizations

Small team (2–5 counselors), $99/month
Department (6–15 counselors), $199/month
Program or district (16+), Contact us
Everything in Pro for every seat
Shared student caseload across staff
Admin account + team management
Priority support
Data processing documentation for compliance

Grantable under many federal college access program budgets

Annual plan billed as $199/year. Cancel anytime. Founding member monthly rate also locked forever.