Frequently asked questions

What is CouncillorOS?

CouncillorOS is a set of AI tools for UK local government councillors. There are three: an AI summariser that turns committee papers and council documents into a briefing written for you; a weekly ward intelligence digest that watches the local press for your name, your council, and your towns and villages; and a parish report generator that produces a monthly report for your parishes from your pasted council-activity notes. It is a paid subscription with two tiers, Starter and Pro.

Is there software for UK local councillors?

Yes — CouncillorOS is subscription software built specifically for UK local government councillors. It gives you three AI tools in one place: it summarises committee papers and council reports into a plain-English briefing, sends you a weekly digest of local news about your ward, and turns your council activity into a monthly report you can send to your parishes. It was built by a serving councillor. See what it does and pricing.

How can councillors summarise committee papers faster?

Upload the committee pack or council report as a PDF or Word document and CouncillorOS returns a structured briefing — the key points, recommendations, and questions worth asking — usually in a couple of minutes. It handles large committee packs (hundreds of pages) in one go, and gives a per-agenda-item briefing for full packs so nothing is missed. It reads the whole document so you can walk into the meeting prepared without reading every page.

How do councillors keep up with local news about their ward?

CouncillorOS sends a weekly ward intelligence digest — it searches the local and national press for coverage of you by name, your council, and each of your towns and villages, filters out the noise, and delivers a short summary by email every Monday and in your dashboard. You set your patch once during sign-up and can update it any time. It means you hear about a planning row or a local story before a resident emails you about it.

How can a councillor produce a report for their parishes quickly?

Paste your council-activity notes or emails into CouncillorOS and it writes a single monthly report — organised by topic — that you can download as a Word document and send to every parish you represent. It produces one general report for all your parishes rather than making you write a separate one for each. You review and edit the draft before you send it, so it stays in your voice.

How does CouncillorOS handle council and resident data?

CouncillorOS is built for the data-handling expectations of UK local government: it processes your documents to produce a briefing and does not retain the uploaded source files afterwards, and you remain the data controller for anything you paste in. Personal data is handled under UK GDPR, hosting is in the EU, and the third-party providers that process content are listed openly on the service providers page. See the privacy notice for the full detail.

Why should I use CouncillorOS instead of ChatGPT or Claude?

A general chatbot is a blank page: you have to explain who you are, what your council does and what you need — every time — and the result depends on how well you asked.

CouncillorOS already knows your council, ward, towns and party from setup, so a committee briefing or parish report comes out right first time, in a format built for the job. There's nothing to learn and no prompting skill needed.

It also works while you're not there. Ward intelligence watches for news about your patch and delivers it to you on schedule — a chatbot only answers when you remember to ask.

Why is there no free trial?

Free trials mostly work by hoping you'll forget to cancel — we'd rather not win customers that way. Instead we keep the price low and earn your second month by being useful in your first. There's no contract and no lock-in: cancel any time from Settings in a couple of clicks, and you won't be billed again.

What is an AI action?

An AI action is one piece of AI work — summarising a document, or a round of drafting or changing a parish report. Starter includes 40 a month and Pro includes 80, and your allowance refreshes on your billing date.

Most documents use one action. Very long ones use more — roughly one action per 50 pages — because there's more for the AI to read. Your ward intelligence digest never uses an action, and neither does adding your own notes to a report: only the AI writing for you counts.

You can check what you've used at any time under Settings → Usage.