Sláinte to the AI bot on the hunt for Ireland’s cheapest pint of Guinness

28 Apr 2026, 10:08 · IrishCentral

A computer engineer has analyzed the best spots for a cheap pint of Guinness by using artificial intelligence (AI) to check prices in thousands of pubs.

Former pub owner Matt Cortland created the website dubbed "Guinndex" to track the cost of a pint of plain after using AI to ring over 3,000 pubs across all 32 counties.

Mr. Cortland created a female chatbot called Rachel with an automated Northern Irish accent, who last St. Patrick’s weekend rang every licensed premises that had a phone number listed on Google.

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After untold man-hours saved and over 1,000 pubs giving a price, Mr. Cortland arrived at €6.06 as the average price of a pint of Guinness.

But it doesn’t take a computer expert to know that the most expensive stout would be found in Temple Bar, where the Oliver St John Gogarty and the Temple Bar were tied at €11 each.

However, the Guinndex also verified that the cheapest pint was found at €3.10 at Glynn’s Bar in Dunmore, Co. Galway, and that the cheapest county on average was Co. Tyrone at £4.56 (€5.27).

"I’m a former pub and bar owner, so I know what it’s like to be on the other end of customer pricing calls," Mr Cortland wrote on the website.

"But I also know what it’s like to be on the consumer end and paying a kidney for a pint.

"I apologise to everyone I tortured over Paddy’s weekend. Rachel just wanted a wee drink."

The American spent time testing dozens of AI voices before landing on "someone warm, someone you’d believe", which he says was inspired by Newry woman Rachel Duffy from "The Traitors UK".

Dublin didn’t fare well on the Guinndex and is the dearest county by a wide margin, averaging €6.92 for a pint of Guinness, compared to a €5.83 average for the other 31 counties.

The website also takes contributions from people who want to help keep the prices up to date and anyone can hit the "Contribute" button on the site to submit the price of their last pint, flag a correction if a price is wrong, or share photos of pints.

Pub owners can also message to make an amendment if they want their price to be updated.

"The whole point is for this to be a living index, not a one-off snapshot," Mr Cortland stated.

"Rachel got us started, but keeping it accurate means hearing from actual people in actual pubs.

‘If you’re sitting there with a pint right now, tell us what you paid."

With so much data at his disposal and the use of powerful AI tools, Mr Cortland was also able to determine that the most popular surname used for a pub name was Ryan’s (39), followed by Murphy’s (36) and Kelly’s (27).

Animal names are also popular, with variants of fox and horse being used in 28 pubs each, followed by swan (13) and greyhound (ten).

Meanwhile, calling your business The Corner Bar or Village Pub, or any variation of "Bridge", is a surefire way not to stand out, as they are the most generic names and have 60 to 70 pubs with the same name each.

Only a handful of the pubs that Mr. Cortland’s chatbot Rachel spoke to seemed to realize they were talking to an AI agent, he said.

When questioned, Rachel admitted she was putting together a price comparison list, leading to one pub near Nenagh in Co. Tipperary telling her to "f*** off."

At McIntyre’s Bar in Co. Donegal, the bartender launched a full interrogation, saying: "Five eighty. What time is it? How many are coming? Where are you coming from? What part of the country are you from? Who’s this I’m speaking to?"

At The Plough in Curraglass, Co. Cork, the barman refused to give the price, saying: "You’d have to call in and I’ll tell you."

The chatbot said she couldn’t do that. He said: "Ah, well done. You’ll never know, though, will you?"

Sadly, one thing Rachel can’t do is get a round in…

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* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.

Sláinte to the AI bot on the hunt for Ireland’s cheapest pint of Guinness

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