CounselorAI

College-access writing and financial-aid analysis tools for counselors, students, and families.

CommunityOnlineAPI key requiredGlobalFreeRead-only

What it can do

    What data it sees

    Do you need an account

    An API key from the service settings is required

    College-access writing and financial-aid analysis tools for counselors, students, and families.

    How to connect

    How to connect CounselorAI to Claude

    The server address to paste into Claude settings:

    https://api.counselorai.app/mcp

    1. Open Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app).
    2. Go to Settings → Connectors.
    3. Click Add custom connector.
    4. Paste the server address copied below into Remote MCP server URL and click Add.
    5. In a chat, click + → Connectors and switch the new connector on.

    Custom connectors are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans (Free is limited to one). On Team and Enterprise an organization Owner adds the connector first under Organization settings → Connectors.

    Authorization

    After you click Add, a sign-in window for the service opens. Sign in with your own account and approve access. Claude never sees your password.

    How to connect CounselorAI to ChatGPT

    The server address to paste into ChatGPT settings:

    https://api.counselorai.app/mcp

    1. Open ChatGPT in a browser (chatgpt.com). A Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu plan is required.
    2. Turn on developer mode once: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode.
    3. Open Settings → Connectors and click Create.
    4. Fill in the form: Name (anything), Description (one line about what the service does), MCP server URL (copy it below).
    5. Under Authentication choose OAuth if the service requires sign-in, otherwise None. Click Create.
    6. In a new chat open + → Apps/Connectors and enable the connector.

    OpenAI has renamed this section before (Connectors → Apps/Plugins). If the label differs, search settings for "developer mode". On Business/Enterprise workspaces an admin must allow custom connectors first.

    Authorization

    On first use ChatGPT opens the service's sign-in window. Sign in and approve access.

    How to connect CounselorAI to Cursor

    The server address to paste into Cursor settings:

    https://api.counselorai.app/mcp

    Fastest: click Open in Cursor below and confirm the prompt.

    Manually:

    1. In Cursor open Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP and click Add new global MCP server.
    2. Paste the JSON copied below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (per project: .cursor/mcp.json in the repo root).
    3. Save the file. The server appears in the MCP list; authorize it there if asked.

    Authorization

    If the service needs sign-in, an authorize button appears next to the server in the MCP list.

    Server tool list (13)

    Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.

    appealDraft a financial aid appeal letter to a college financial aid office. Call this when a family needs to ask for a review of an award: income dropped, an expense appeared, another school offered more, or the FAFSA was wrong. Returns the letter, not advice on whether to appeal. Runs a 5-step drafting pipeline, so it is the most expensive tool here and the slowest, typically 30 to 60 seconds. Cost: about 353 credits (~$0.353) per call.
    recDraft a letter of recommendation from counselor notes. Call this to WRITE a letter. To critique one that already exists, call letterlens instead, which is much cheaper. Runs the same 5-step pipeline as appeal. Cost: about 369 credits (~$0.369) per call.
    letterlensAnalyze a finished recommendation letter and return specific fixes: what is vague, what is asserted without evidence, what reads as generated. Read-only and far cheaper than drafting. Use it to critique a draft, not to rewrite one, and use revision to apply the fixes. Cost: about 93 credits (~$0.093) per call.
    awardlensBreak down one to three financial aid award letters: what is grant, what is loan, what is work-study that has to be earned, what the supported net price is, and what renewal conditions are buried in the language. Identifies missing facts and questions for the aid office. With more than one letter it compares them side by side. Read-only. Cost: about 173 credits (~$0.173) per call.
    fafsaProduce a FAFSA action checklist for one student, keyed to their grade, dependency status and income band. Answers the process question a family actually has: what do we do, in what order, by when. Does not compute an award. Cost: about 87 credits (~$0.087) per call.
    aidExplain what a family is likely to see across a list of schools and why, in plain language. An explanation for a counselor to walk a family through, never an official determination, and the output says so. Cost: about 73 credits (~$0.073) per call.
    scholarshipSurface scholarships worth this student's time and the angle their application should take for each. Runs a live web search, so it is slower and costs more than the other analysis tools, and the output carries a verification warning because scholarship programs change year to year. Treat the result as a research starting point. Cost: about 165 credits (~$0.165) per call.
    profileTurn raw counselor notes into a structured student profile. Run this first when working one student across several tools: it is cheap, and its output is good input for the relationship, traits and story fields on rec, or keyDetails on appeal. Cost: about 87 credits (~$0.087) per call.
    revisionApply one instruction to an existing letter and return the revised text. Pair it with letterlens: review to find the problems, revise to fix them. Changes only what the instruction asks for. Cost: about 97 credits (~$0.097) per call.
    translateTranslate counselor-facing output into a family's language, holding the financial aid terms in English on purpose. FAFSA, Pell, SAI, COA and the loan names stay untranslated so a family can match what the school actually sends them against what they were told. Read-only. Cost: about 173 credits (~$0.173) per call.
    humanizeRewrite reader-facing prose so it sounds direct, specific, and personal without changing facts or inventing a voice. Use it for outreach, emails, letters, posts, and narrative copy. It preserves quoted text and checks the result against the source. It does not evade or promise to beat AI detectors. Do not use it for code, SQL, JSON, legal text, or technical specifications. Cost: about 413 credits (~$0.413) per call.
    account_balanceFree. Returns the credits left on this API key. Call it before a long run of billed calls.
    quote_callFree. Validates the input for a tool and returns the exact credit hold a real call would take at your price, plus whether your balance covers it. Use it to budget before a billed call or to lint an input for free.