Questions and answers
Short answers to what people ask most. Longer treatments are in the guides; words are defined in the glossary.
- What is AHledger?
- Market intelligence for the World of Warcraft: Forever auction house: one price page per item per market with the latest minimum buyout, median, units listed, and 7, 30, and 90 day history, plus a catalog of every item, crafting margins, a watchlist with email alerts, a free in-game addon, and a public API. It launches with the game on November 4, 2026 and is in beta now.
- Is it free?
- Yes. The site, the addon, AHledger sync, accounts, the watchlist, email alerts, and the free API tier cost nothing, during the beta and after launch. Trader and Desk are paid plans that add alerts by Discord and push, a deal scanner, a portfolio, exports, and market structure tools; the about page lists what each includes. The first 1,000 confirmed waitlist signups lock Trader at $3.99 a month for life.
- Where does the data come from?
- Three sources and nothing else: the Blizzard Game Data API, the game client's own data tables read from an installed client, and auction house scans that players run with the AHledger addon and upload through AHledger sync. No third-party price data, no scraping of other sites, no purchased datasets. Every price carries a provenance label and a timestamp, and a market with no scans yet says so instead of showing a number from elsewhere.
- Is the addon safe? What leaves the game?
- The addon reads what the auction house shows you through the official in-game API, never automates play, and never buys, sells, or posts on its own. A scan holds item ids, quantities, buyout and bid prices, and the time, for one market. It carries no character names, seller names, account details, chat, or gameplay data. Addons cannot use the network, so nothing leaves the game without the sync app, and contribution can be turned off in the addon. The Lua ships readable in the download.
- Why is there a sync app? Can I use the addon alone?
- World of Warcraft addons cannot use the network, so an addon by itself cannot share what it sees or fetch what others have seen. AHledger sync is a small Windows app that uploads each new scan under your upload key and writes the latest price tables back into the addon folder. The addon works without it, priced from your own scans and from price tables you paste in with
/ahl import; your scans just stay on your machine. - Is sync Windows only?
- For now. The addon works on any platform. A macOS build of sync follows once the Forever auction house opens. Until then, macOS players can paste price tables from any market page with
/ahl import. - How fresh are the prices?
- As fresh as the last scan of that market. Every price shows when it was observed, and a stale badge appears when the last scan is older than the freshness window for its source. Several scans inside an hour are merged, so the more players scan a market, the fresher its pages. The addon can scan on its own every 15 minutes while the auction house is open, and sync writes price tables back into the game every 30 minutes.
- Why does an item say "no scans yet"?
- Nobody has uploaded a scan of that market since the auction house opened, or the auction house has not opened yet. Before the first scan the page shows reference values instead: vendor prices and reagent cost. The fix is a scan; the setup checklist takes about ten minutes.
- What is a market?
- One auction house economy: game, ruleset, faction, and region. Forever has no realms, so a market is the whole population of one ruleset and faction. In the US region there are six: Normal, PvP, and RP, each for Alliance and Horde. Markets are named the way players name them, PvP Horde, Normal Alliance, never as servers.
- Do I need an account?
- Not to read anything. An account, which is an email address and a sign-in link with no password, gives you upload keys for AHledger sync, a watchlist that follows you across browsers, and email alerts.
- How do alerts work?
- On the site, an alert is one rule on one item and one market: minimum buyout or median at or below or above a price, median a percent under its 30 day median, or fewer than a number listed. Alerts are checked every 15 minutes against the latest scan and sent by email to the address you signed in with. Each alert waits 24 hours after firing and fires again only on a newer scan. The addon has its own alerts that print in chat. The alerts guide covers thresholds.
- Is there an API?
- Yes, a public JSON API with a free tier that asks for attribution: prices per item per market, price tables, and the catalog. The developers page documents it.
- How do I report a wrong price, a bug, or an idea?
- Through the contact form, which is the only contact channel. For addon problems include the
/ahl statusline and, if you can, the market, the item, and the time you saw it. - Is AHledger affiliated with Blizzard?
- No. AHledger is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. AHledger uses no Blizzard art, typefaces, or trademarks beyond naming the game; item icons are served from Blizzard's own media CDN or read from the client.