NewsGuard
NewsGuard provides human-vetted credibility ratings and Nutrition Label reports for 35,000+ news sources across nine countries. It serves AI companies, digital platforms, advertisers, governments, and consumers with reliability data, brand safety tools, and AI misinformation detection products.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What NewsGuard does
NewsGuard is a media credibility rating and disinformation intelligence company founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, with a wholly-owned German subsidiary (NewsGuard Technologies GmbH). Its core product is a journalist-driven rating system that applies nine apolitical criteria to produce 0-100 reliability scores and detailed "Nutrition Label" reports for each of 35,000+ news sources, covering approximately 95% of online news engagement across nine countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Italy). Every rating is reviewed by at least two senior editors and the co-CEOs, and the company explicitly does not use AI to generate its ratings, positioning the methodology as transparent and editorially accountable.
The product portfolio spans core ratings (News Reliability Ratings, False Claim Fingerprints, HealthGuard, Podcast and TV/CTV Ratings), AI-specific offerings (NewsGuard AI consumer chatbot built on Anthropic Claude, FAILSafe for AI protecting LLMs from foreign influence, and the Pangram Labs-powered AI Content Farm Detection Tool integrated with The Trade Desk), and advertising and compliance products (NewsGuard for Advertising, Brand Misinformation Monitoring, EMFA Validation for EU regulatory compliance, Risk Briefings, and the Media Intelligence Dashboard). Distribution combines a self-serve consumer channel (Chrome, Edge, iOS, Android at $4.95/month or regional equivalent) with enterprise licensing to AI companies, digital platforms, advertisers, government/defense, and researchers.
Revenue is generated primarily through licensing of ratings to platforms and search engines, supplemented by direct-to-consumer subscriptions and B2B enterprise licensing across advertising, AI safety, and regulatory compliance verticals. The company is privately held by its founders (co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz) and early investors, with only $6M in disclosed funding from a 2018 seed round led by Publicis Groupe. Operating context includes an active First Amendment lawsuit against the FTC filed in February 2026 over merger conditions and Civil Investigative Demands, and a state-level legislative challenge in West Virginia targeting advertising firms that use bias-rating services.
NewsGuard firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- NewsGuard
- Legal name
- NewsGuard Technologies, Inc.
- Website
- https://newsguardtech.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- NewsGuard provides human-vetted credibility ratings and Nutrition Label reports for 35,000+ news sources across nine countries. It serves AI companies, digital platforms, advertisers, governments, and consumers with reliability data, brand safety tools, and AI misinformation detection products.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
NewsGuard industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Media Credibility Intelligence
- NAICS
- Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418), Newspaper Publishers (513110)
- SIC
- Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data) (MPAJADAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Brand Safety, Monitoring & Social Listening (MPAAAOAA), News & Current Affairs Aggregators (MPACAKAA), News & Media Comment/UGC Moderation (Comments, uploads, livestreams) (BPAAALAJ)
Keywords
Where NewsGuard is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
NewsGuard business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Consumer Subscriptions (Browser Extension and Mobile Apps): Direct-to-consumer subscription model for individual users accessing NewsGuard via browser extension (Chrome, Edge) and mobile apps (iOS, Android). Users pay monthly subscription fees after a two-week free trial.
- Platform and Search Engine Licensing: Licensing agreements with digital platforms and search engines that integrate NewsGuard's ratings and data into their products. NewsGuard explicitly states this as their primary funding source: 'Our financing comes from platforms and search engines that license and integrate our ratings.'
- Enterprise and Advertising Industry Licensing: B2B licensing to advertisers, brands, advertising agencies, and enterprise customers for brand safety, ad placement optimization, and misinformation risk monitoring. Includes specialized products like Brand Misinformation Monitoring Service and NewsGuard for Advertising.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Standard consumer subscription with two-week free trial |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels4 records
NewsGuard product offering
Product offeringCore offering
NewsGuard provides human-vetted news reliability ratings and misinformation intelligence for AI companies, digital platforms, advertisers, governments, researchers, and consumers. A global team of trained journalists applies nine apolitical criteria to rate 35,000+ news sources on a 0-100 scale with detailed Nutrition Label reports. The company licenses this data to platforms and search engines, offers AI-specific safety products, sells brand safety tools to advertisers, and provides consumer subscriptions via a browser extension and AI chatbot.
Product overview
NewsGuard is a media credibility rating and disinformation intelligence company that provides data, analysis, and journalism to help enterprises and consumers identify reliable information online. Its portfolio consists of a core set of news reliability products anchored by the News Reliability Ratings system (rating 35,000+ news sources on nine apolitical journalistic criteria, covering 95% of online news engagement in key markets) and the False Claim Fingerprints catalog of tracked false narratives. The company offers two AI-specific products: NewsGuard AI, a consumer subscription chatbot built on Anthropic Claude that generates answers drawing exclusively on NewsGuard's curated reliable-source database, and FAILSafe for AI, which protects AI systems from foreign influence operations targeting LLMs. A partnership with Pangram Labs adds AI content farm detection. The advertising suite includes NewsGuard for Advertising (enabling brand-safe ad placement on credible news), Brand Misinformation Monitoring Service, and EMFA Validation for EU regulatory compliance. Add-on offerings include Risk Briefings (weekly misinformation threat intelligence), Media Intelligence Dashboard, HealthGuard (health misinformation vertical), Podcast Reliability Ratings, and TV/CTV Reliability Ratings. The company operates from New York and Berlin, founded in 2018.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- NewsGuard AI: Consumer subscription chatbot that provides reliable answers to news-related questions, drawing on NewsGuard's journalism and source-reliability data.
- HealthGuard
- FAILSafe for AI
Products and services
- News Reliability Ratings Journalist-analyst ratings of news outlet credibility on a 0-100 scale based on nine apolitical journalistic criteria (factual accuracy, responsible sourcing, corrections practices, transparency of ownership, etc.). Each source receives a score, a category label (e.g., Very Trustworthy, Do Not Trust), and a transparent Nutrition Label report. Covers 35,000+ news sources representing 95% of online news engagement in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Licensed to platforms, search engines, advertisers, and researchers.
- False Claim Fingerprints
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 2,000 websites improved their transparency or credibility practices through collaboration with NewsGuard during the rating process.
Companies that use NewsGuard
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
NewsGuard technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
NewsGuard partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and strategic.
- TeadsmajorTeads expanded its partnership with NewsGuard on April 8, 2026, to enhance inventory quality and brand safety across its global advertising marketplace. The partnership involves applying NewsGuard's human-vetted reliability ratings to evaluate news and information sites across multiple European and North American markets, improving publisher transparency and ad placement safety.
- Pangram LabsmajorNewsGuard partnered with Pangram Labs to launch an AI content farm detection tool that scans entire domains for machine-generated news content. The system features automated domain-level scoring combined with human analyst review, was tested for over six months, and has already identified thousands of suspect domains. The partnership includes advertiser licensing options and integration with The Trade Desk for pre-bid ad blocking, aiming to reduce exposure to misleading content and help brands avoid advertising on misinformation-supporting websites.
- The Trade DeskcoreThrough the Pangram Labs partnership, NewsGuard's AI content farm detection system is integrated with The Trade Desk for pre-bid ad blocking functionality, allowing programmatic advertisers to automatically avoid placing ads on AI-generated misinformation websites before bids are placed.
- Anthropic (Claude)coreAnthropic's Claude serves as the underlying large language model provider for NewsGuard AI. NewsGuard transmits prompts on an anonymized basis—sending only the contents of the prompt necessary to produce responses, without sharing user identifiers, account information, IP addresses, or payment information with the provider. NewsGuard explicitly states it does not use prompts or responses to train Claude or any third-party models.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreAWS provides hosting infrastructure for NewsGuard AI and company services, with data stored primarily in the United States on secure servers operated on NewsGuard's behalf by AWS.
- StripecoreStripe processes subscription payments for NewsGuard's consumer products (browser extension and NewsGuard AI). Stripe collects and processes payment details directly; NewsGuard does not store full payment card numbers. Stripe's use of personal information is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy.
- FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)strategicFree speech advocacy group FIRE is representing NewsGuard in its First Amendment lawsuit against the FTC, seeking judicial declaration that the FTC's merger condition and information demand are unconstitutional.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
NewsGuard competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Ad Fontes Media: Independent media bias and reliability ratings company that rates news sources on a 0-100 scale using human analysis. Closely comparable to NewsGuard's core methodology and consumer/professional offerings.
- AllSides: Media bias rating organization that rates outlets for left/right lean using multi-method analysis. Comparable to NewsGuard in its consumer-facing news credibility assessment and editorial transparency mission.
- Media Bias/Fact Check: Long-running website that rates news sources on bias and factual reporting. Direct peer in the news credibility rating category, though with a less rigorous methodology than NewsGuard's.
- Ground News: News aggregation and bias comparison platform that helps readers see how outlets across the political spectrum cover the same story. Comparable to NewsGuard's consumer-facing news intelligence mission.
Broad incumbents
- DoubleVerify: Publicly traded ad verification and brand safety platform that pre-bids on programmatic ad inventory. Comparable to NewsGuard's NewsGuard for Advertising and Trade Desk pre-bid integration in the brand safety market.
- Integral Ad Science (IAS): Publicly traded ad measurement and verification company focused on brand safety and viewability. Comparable to NewsGuard in the ad verification/brand safety space but with a broader portfolio beyond news credibility.
- Meltwater: Publicly traded media intelligence and social listening platform. Comparable to NewsGuard's enterprise media monitoring and analytics offering, particularly the Media Intelligence Dashboard and Brand Misinformation Monitoring.
- Cision: Public relations and media intelligence platform owned by Platinum Equity. Comparable to NewsGuard as a broad media monitoring and communications intelligence provider for enterprise customers.
Emerging players
- Snopes: Pioneer fact-checking organization focused on individual claim verification rather than source-level ratings. Comparable to NewsGuard's False Claim Fingerprints product but with a different unit of analysis.
- Logically: AI-augmented disinformation intelligence company offering threat detection, fact-checking, and brand safety products. Comparable to NewsGuard across enterprise misinformation monitoring and AI content detection.
Market position
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
NewsGuard social profiles
Digital presenceNewsGuard financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
NewsGuard leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
NewsGuard subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
NewsGuard funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors5 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
NewsGuard M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about NewsGuard
What does NewsGuard do?
NewsGuard provides human-vetted news reliability ratings and misinformation intelligence for AI companies, digital platforms, advertisers, governments, researchers, and consumers. A global team of trained journalists applies nine apolitical criteria to rate 35,000+ news sources on a 0-100 scale with detailed Nutrition Label reports. The company licenses this data to platforms and search engines, offers AI-specific safety products, sells brand safety tools to advertisers, and provides consumer subscriptions via a browser extension and AI chatbot.
Is NewsGuard a public or private company?
NewsGuard is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was NewsGuard founded?
NewsGuard was founded in 2018. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is NewsGuard based?
NewsGuard is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does NewsGuard make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Consumer Subscriptions (Browser Extension and Mobile Apps) is the primary driver. The others are platform and Search Engine Licensing and enterprise and Advertising Industry Licensing.
Who are NewsGuard's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Ad Fontes Media, AllSides, Media Bias/Fact Check and Ground News. Broad incumbents are DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS), Meltwater and Cision. Emerging players are Snopes and Logically.
Does NewsGuard have an API?
Yes. NewsGuard offers API access as part of its licensed data services. The Terms of Service reference RSS feeds and APIs as features available to users. The API is not publicly documented on the main site; access appears to be available through licensing arrangements for commercial, research, and non-commercial uses. Contact for licensing: commercial licensing email listed.
What industry is NewsGuard in?
NewsGuard's product category is Media Credibility Intelligence. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJADAK, Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data), with a secondary code of MPAAAOAA, Brand Safety, Monitoring & Social Listening. Its NAICS code is 541910 and its SIC code is 7310.