Frequently Asked Questions

Short answers to the questions teams ask before they sign up. For deeper walk-throughs, the Guide and Blog cover individual topics in depth.

Browse by topic

Synthetic Research Basics

What synthetic research is, how it works, where it fits, and where it doesn't replace real humans.

Silicon Sampling

The academic backbone of AI persona research. What silicon sampling is, where the method came from, and how accurate it is.

Panels and Methodology

Customer, client, user, and expert panels. How they're built, how big they should be, how to ask them questions.

Research Methods

AI focus groups, surveys, interviews, segmentation, concept testing, brand tracking, journey mapping.

AI Customer Simulation

How to simulate customers with AI in 2026: methods, platforms, accuracy, limits, what to test.

Comparisons

Minds vs ChatGPT, vs traditional research, vs SparkToro, vs HubSpot, vs other AI persona tools.

Use Cases and Industries

Marketing teams, agencies, product teams, small business owners, B2B sales, finance, healthcare, retail.

Pricing, Accuracy, and GDPR

What it costs, what accuracy means, how data privacy works, and how to get started.

Top 7 questions

If you only read one section, this is it. The seven questions we get on every sales call.

What is Minds?

Minds is a simulation platform that builds scientifically validated digital brains of real-world personas (customers, experts, target segments) and runs them as panels. You ask a question once, the panel answers in parallel, and you get aggregated, structured insight in minutes instead of the 3 to 4 weeks traditional research takes.

How accurate is Minds?

Minds reports 80 to 95 percent accuracy against historical human data benchmarks, depending on the persona and use case. Each Mind is built by running roughly 100x deeper public-web research than a standalone LLM query, then running that evidence through real psychological models (personality, values, motivations, buying behavior). Most other AI persona platforms do not publish public accuracy benchmarks against real human responses.

How is Minds different from ChatGPT?

ChatGPT gives you a single plausible guess from a generic model. A Mind is grounded in deep public-web research about the specific persona and structured through psychological models. Panels also aggregate responses across 8, 15, or 100 Minds at once, so you see a distribution of opinions and not just one.

A simpler way to put it: ChatGPT gives you "a smart-sounding answer." Minds gives you "what your actual target segment would say."

How fast can I get an answer?

A new Mind is ready in about 30 seconds. A panel of 15 to 100 Minds returns aggregated answers in a few minutes. Same-day insight for decisions that traditionally take 3 to 4 weeks of fielding, recruiting, and analysis.

How much does Minds cost?

Free to try, no credit card. Paid plans:

• Lite (5 EUR per month): individuals, light usage
• Premium (30 EUR per month): individuals, full feature access
• Teams (20 EUR per month per seat): collaborative panels
• Enterprise (from 15,000 EUR per year): unlimited panels, custom personas, SSO, EU data residency, DPA

Live pricing at getminds.ai/#pricing.

Is Minds GDPR compliant?

Yes. Minds is built in Berlin and SF, GDPR-native, with EU data residency available on Enterprise. We sign DPAs, publish a TOM document, and list our subprocessors at /legal/subprocessors.

Does Minds replace real customer research?

No. Minds replaces a specific subset of research: the rapid, exploratory, "we need a directional answer this week" work. Use it for screening, pre-testing, hypothesis generation, and speed. For high-stakes regulatory decisions, longitudinal tracking of real customer cohorts, or anything where real-world purchase behavior is the metric, you still need real humans. Most teams use Minds to triage which questions deserve a real-human study and which don't.

Still have a question?

Email [email protected] or book a 15-minute call. For technical reference, see API docs and MCP server.