Analyst AI

Summary#

Analyst AI is a chat assistant that answers questions about your brand, competitors, keywords, content, backlinks and audience, and points you at the exact Metric Vault tool to run next. It has its own screen and also follows you around the app as a floating panel.

Purpose#

Metric Vault has more than seventy screens. The hardest part of using it is not running a tool — it is knowing which of the seventy answers the question in your head. Analyst AI exists to close that gap: describe the problem in ordinary language and get both an answer and a route to the data.

It is also the fastest way to interpret a report you are staring at. "What is the number one thing I should fix?" is a better first question than reading forty sections in order.

Overview#

There is one assistant with three surfaces:

• The Analyst AI screen in Get Started — a full-width chat with suggestion chips and starter questions.
• The floating assistant — a bubble available on every screen, opened with Ctrl + / (Cmd + / on a Mac) or by clicking it.
• A sidebar dock — the same conversation pinned beside your work.

Those three share one conversation and one engine. The header labels the model: Metric Vault Assistant · GPT-4o.

A fourth place the same bubble appears is not Analyst AI. On the public marketing site it is the support assistant: it answers questions about the product, pricing and getting started, needs no account, and has no access to your data or your tools. See Requirements below.

Behind the answer, the assistant carries a catalogue of the platform's tools, so when a question would genuinely benefit from live data it names the tool to run and offers it as a one-click shortcut rather than describing where to click.

The shortcut on the FAB is suppressed while you are on the dedicated Analyst screen, so Ctrl + / never opens a second copy on top of the one you are already using.

The second mode#

The header carries a Talk to SEO Specialist switch. That is a different assistant in the same window: instead of answering your question and offering a shortcut, it works out which tool answers it, shows you the exact credit cost and runs the tool for you once you confirm. Back to Assistant returns here.

Analyst AI itself is unchanged by that switch. The two keep separate conversations, so nothing you ask one appears in the other, and each thread is still there when you switch back. See SEO Specialist.

Benefits#

• Ask in plain language instead of choosing a tool from a list of seventy.
• Get a direct answer, not a referral — the assistant is instructed to always answer rather than deflect.
• One-click shortcuts to the right tool, with the right input already in mind.
• Available on every screen without losing your place.
• Keeps the conversation, so follow-up questions do not need re-explaining.

Use Cases#

• Interpreting a report. "What is the #1 thing I should fix?" on a result you have just run.
• Finding the right tool. "How do I see which keywords my competitor ranks for that I don't?" gets you an answer and a route to Gap Finder.
• Drafting. "Generate pitch email" produces a first draft you can edit.
• Planning. "Rank my top 3 competitors" turns a vague worry into an ordered list and the tools to verify it.
• Learning the vocabulary. New to SEO and unsure what a referring domain is? Ask; it answers in one or two paragraphs.

Requirements#

• A signed-in account. Signed out, sending a message shows Please sign in to use Analyst AI.
• That applies to Analyst AI inside the app. The chat bubble on the public site is the support assistant, which answers without an account and costs nothing. It is rate limited per network address rather than per account, so a shared connection sending a great many messages in one hour can be asked to wait.
• A paid plan. Analyst AI is metered like a light tool, and the Free plan is limited to the zero-cost technical tools.
• The platform must have an AI provider configured. If it does not, the request returns an error rather than a fabricated answer. See AI models used across the platform.

Permissions#

Cost#

The Quota Cost card on the screen reads 1 credit / per message you send, which is what each message records against your monthly usage total. A message is metered as a light call, and light calls are never refused for being over your monthly premium allowance.

Two things are worth knowing precisely:

• Each message does record one run against your monthly usage total — the used number in the topbar meter. It never blocks an Analyst message, because only tools costing 3 credits or more are checked against the quota, but it does raise the figure that heavier tools are measured against. See Tracking your usage.
• Analyst AI requires a paid plan, for the same reason: it is treated as a chargeable call, and the Free plan only includes the zero-cost tools.

Running a tool that Analyst AI suggests costs that tool's normal price. See How credits work and Tool catalog and credit cost.

Navigation Path#

Dashboard → Get Started → Analyst AI

From anywhere else in the app, press Ctrl + / (Cmd + / on a Mac) to open the floating assistant, or click the assistant bubble, whose tooltip reads Metric Vault Assistant (Ctrl/⌘ + /). See Keyboard shortcuts.

Inputs#

The chips and starter questions disappear once you send the first message; they are a starting point, not a menu.

The chips send a full question, not just their label, and add "My website is <domain>" for the website selected in the website switcher, so "my report", "my brand" and "my competitor" are about your site and the answer names it. Every message also carries that website as context; switch website to ask about another one.

Step-by-Step Guide#

1. Open Dashboard → Get Started → Analyst AI, or press Ctrl + / from any screen.
2. Read the empty state — Your senior SEO strategist — and either click a starter question or type your own.
3. Press Enter, or click the send button.
4. A … bubble appears while the assistant thinks. Answers typically arrive in a few seconds.
5. Read the answer. Where the assistant recommends running something, use the one-click shortcut rather than navigating manually.
6. Ask follow-ups. The conversation is kept, so you do not need to restate context.
7. To start fresh, open the gear menu (Assistant settings) and choose Clear conversation.

Reading the Results#

An Analyst answer has up to three parts. Knowing which is which tells you how much weight to give it.

The written answer. One to three short paragraphs, in your message thread on the left. This is the assistant reasoning from its training and from whatever context the app has passed it — the screen you are on, the tools you have used recently. It is analysis, not measurement. It is excellent for interpretation, prioritization and explanation, and it is not a data source. If it states a specific number about your site, verify it by running the tool that measures it.

Tool suggestions. Where a question would genuinely be answered better by live data, the assistant names the tool and offers a shortcut. These are the most valuable part of the reply. A suggestion is a pointer, not a run — nothing is charged until you accept it, and then you pay that tool's normal price.

Insights. Sharp, opinionated observations, surfaced only when they are relevant. For a factual or content question the assistant leaves them out rather than padding.

How to judge an answer. A good answer is specific, names a next action, and tells you which tool would confirm it. A weak answer is general advice you could have found anywhere — usually a sign the question was too broad. Narrow it: "How do I improve my SEO?" produces a lecture; "Which of my pages is closest to page one and what is holding it back?" produces an action and a tool.

States you will see.

The header shows Metric Vault Assistant with a GPT-4o tag and a green status dot reading Working with Analyst AI. The gear menu holds a single item, Clear conversation, and repeats the model label in its footer.

The four KPI cards above the chat describe the assistant rather than any run: Response Time ~3s (streaming · cached context), Context Aware — All Tools (cross-tool synthesis), Tool Shortcuts — 1-click (to run any analysis), and Quota Cost 1 credit (per message you send).

Examples#

Screenshots#

Tips#

• Ask about the screen you are on. "Summarize report" is one click and gives you the executive version.
• Ctrl + / is faster than navigating to the Analyst screen, and it keeps your result visible behind it.
• Name your domain in the first message of a session; the assistant carries it through the follow-ups.
• If the answer is too general, add a constraint — a page, a competitor, a timeframe.
• Use Clear conversation when you switch clients, so old context does not leak into new answers.

Best Practices#

• Treat the assistant as an analyst, not as a database. Ask it what to do; ask the tools what is true.
• Accept the tool suggestions. The answer plus the measurement is worth far more than either alone.
• Ask one question at a time. Multi-part questions get shallower answers on each part.
• Use it to triage before you spend credits — deciding not to run a 20-credit workflow is worth as much as running the right one.
• Keep messages under the 2,000-character limit in the floating panel; paste an excerpt rather than a whole article.

Common Mistakes#

• Believing a specific number it states about your site. Verify with the tool. The assistant reasons; the tools measure.
• Reading FREE as "unmetered". Messages are light calls: never blocked by your monthly allowance, but counted in your usage total and unavailable on the Free plan.
• Asking one enormous question. Break it into steps.
• Expecting it to run tools by itself. It suggests; you accept. Nothing is charged silently.
• Forgetting to clear the conversation between unrelated projects.

Limitations#

• It does not run tools on your behalf, and it does not spend credits without you.
• Its answers are generated text. They are not measurements and carry no verification badge.
• The floating assistant caps a message at 2,000 characters and 4 images.
• The hourly fair-use limit of 100 light calls per hour applies, shared with every other light tool.
• It needs an AI provider configured on the platform; without one it errors rather than answering.
• It is not available on the Free plan.
• The conversation lives in your browser. Clearing it, or clearing site data, removes the history.

Troubleshooting#

FAQs#

Is it really free? The cost card says 1 credit per message, which is what your usage record shows, but no message is ever refused for being over your monthly premium allowance. Each message does count one run in your usage total, and Analyst AI needs a paid plan. Running a tool it suggests costs that tool's normal price.

Which model answers? The header and the settings footer both label it GPT-4o.

Can it see my reports? It is given context about the screen you are on and the tools you have been using, which is why "summarize report" works. It is an assistant reading over your shoulder, not a query engine over your database.

Will it run a tool without asking? No. It suggests tools and offers shortcuts. You accept, and only then is a credit charged.

Is the floating assistant a different thing? No. One engine, one conversation, three surfaces: the full screen, the floating panel and the sidebar dock.

How do I start over? Open the gear menu labelled Assistant settings and choose Clear conversation.