How we pick, score and check deals
Discount Deal Me is part software, part editorial. Here is exactly where the deals come from, how the Deal Score is calculated, what our AI does and does not do, and how we make money.
Where the deals come from
Deals come from merchants' affiliate programs on the Commission Junction (CJ) network, through Discount Deal Me's own publisher account. Each offer arrives with the merchant's wording, a start and end date, any promo code, and a tracking link. We only list programs we have joined, and we only publish codes that the merchant issued to affiliates. We do not scrape coupon sites, and we do not accept user-submitted codes.
We then choose which offers to show. We skip offers that look stale (for example last year's holiday codes left running), offers aimed only at other countries, health products that need a doctor's input, software keys sold by third-party resellers, and anything we would not be comfortable buying ourselves.
What "checked" means
The time next to "Terms checked" is the last time we pulled the offer from the network and confirmed it was still active for our account. It means the merchant was still publishing that offer, with those terms and that end date, at that moment. It does not mean we checked the price of every item, and merchants can change or end an offer early. Your browser hides a deal automatically once its end time passes.
The Deal Score (0–100)
Every deal gets the same four-part score. The inputs are things that matter to you as a shopper. Our commission, the network's earnings-per-click figures and how much a merchant pays us are never inputs.
| Component | How it is scored | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Savings size | Percentage discounts: points rise in a straight line up to 60% off. Dollar discounts: up to $300 off, worth less than the same percentage because we don't know the item price. Free shipping, perks and fixed low prices get a small flat amount. Any "up to" figure counts at 75% because it is the best case. | 45 |
| Certainty | Starts at 25 and loses points for each condition in the table below. | 25 |
| Ease | No code needed: 15. Code needed: 11. Requires an email sign-up: 6. | 15 |
| Deadline clarity | A clear end date within 45 days: 15. Within a year: 8. Ongoing or open-ended: 4. | 15 |
| Condition | Points |
|---|---|
| select items only | −6 |
| first order / new customers only | −6 |
| requires an email sign-up | −6 |
| minimum spend | −4 |
| membership purchase | −4 |
| local / regional only | −4 |
| refurbished items | −3 |
| restrictions apply | −3 |
| voucher sold through a marketplace | −3 |
Bands: 80 and up is Excellent, 65–79 Strong, 50–64 Fair, under 50 Modest. A modest score is not a bad deal; it usually means the saving is small or comes with strings attached.
Worked example
Our current top-scoring deal is Groupon: One World Observatory NYC: up to 50% off. Open "Network terms and score breakdown" on any deal card to see the same table for that deal.
| Savings size | 50% off, "up to" (best case, x0.75) | 28.1/45 |
|---|---|---|
| Certainty | local / regional only, voucher sold through a marketplace | 18/25 |
| Ease | no code needed | 15/15 |
| Deadline clarity | clear end date within 45 days | 15/15 |
| Deal Score | Strong | 76/100 |
What the AI does
Each deal has a one- or two-sentence summary marked AI summary. It is written by an AI model from the merchant's network terms, to turn dense promotional wording into something you can scan. Before a summary is published, an automated check confirms that every number in it (percentages, dollar amounts, dates) appears in the merchant's terms; if it does not, our release checks fail and the update is not published. The original terms are always one click away on the card.
The search box on the deal finder is smart in a simpler way: it runs in your browser and recognises categories, "ending soon", "no code", "free shipping", percentages and a few places. It is not a chatbot and it does not send what you type anywhere.
AI does not choose which deals to list, does not set the score and does not write our guides' advice on its own; people decide what goes on the site and review changes before they are published.
How we make money
When you buy through a "Get deal" button, the affiliate network may pay Discount Deal Me a commission. You pay the same price. We also show ads served by Google AdSense. Merchants do not pay to be listed, cannot buy a higher score and do not review what we write. Our guides contain no affiliate links.
If a deal is wrong
Merchants sometimes end offers early or change terms. If a deal does not work as described, contact us with the deal name and what happened. We check it against the network and remove or correct it.