How Forage is funded
Forage is a small, honest travel agent for bears. Here's exactly what it costs to run and how those costs get covered — no hidden extraction, no selling you or your trips.
What it costs to keep the lights on
| Server (the box it runs on) | ~$20 / month |
| Database | free tier today |
| Domain + email | ~$1 / month |
| AI planning (per message you send) | a few cents each |
Order-of-magnitude, not a billing statement — but real.
How those costs get covered
Free while it's finding its feet. Planning with Forage costs nothing right now.
Affiliate travel links — disclosed, and they never cost you more. Forage gives you a spread of booking links — flights (Aviasales) and lodging across Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, misterb&b and Hotellook — so you can pick the site you trust. Some carry an affiliate tag; if you book through one, that platform pays Forage a small commission out of its own margin — your price is identical either way. We say so here and in chat, and any untagged or direct link (Google Flights, a venue's own site) simply carries none.
Ways to support Forage
Forage is free; donations just widen your agent's tank (the AI-spend it can use before pausing). Every dollar you send is logged against your account. Nothing here is required.
For now, I can reset your balance for helping me test the site once you hit $10 in spend. Always looking for tips on how it could be better. If you really want to chip in, you can e-transfer adamafrey@gmail.com
The deal on your data
- Events, venues and creators come from the open Bearings commons — read-only. Forage never changes or resells that data.
- Itineraries you share are identity-stripped: sloth name only, never member details.
- Your profile is yours — clear your chat history or wipe everything on the You page anytime.
- We don't sell your data or your trips. Full stop.