How the score is computed
The formula is public on purpose: a rating nobody can verify is worth nothing. Not one value in it can be steered directly by an object's owner.
The general form
Each component is converted into a percentile within its own category — the share of objects in that category the object beats. A percentile rather than an average, because these distributions are heavy-tailed and a couple of giants break any linear scale.
Score = 100 × H × Σ (weight × percentile)
H is the purity multiplier, from 0 to 1. A multiplier, not a deduction: a channel with inflated numbers is not "slightly worse", it is not comparable at all.
Channels
| Component | What we measure | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Median views on recent posts | 0.40 |
| Engagement rate | Views divided by subscribers | 0.25 |
| Posting rhythm | Publishing frequency, optimum around one post a day | 0.20 |
| Stability | Spread of views across our measurements | 0.15 |
Stability is not computed yet: it needs a longer measurement history than we have so far. Until then its weight is spread across the other components proportionally.
Reach rather than subscribers: subscribers can be bought for pennies, views cost noticeably more. Rhythm scored against an optimum rather than "more is better": a channel spamming 30 times a day is worse than one posting once.
Bots
| Component | What we measure | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Mentions | Reach of posts linking to the bot | 0.80 |
| Own description | The bot describes itself rather than leaving Telegram's placeholder | 0.20 |
Bots have no public popularity metric — no user count, no DAU. Only the owner knows those. So we use what can be measured from the outside instead.
What the formula leaves out, and why. Until 1 October 2026 it included availability and response speed. Availability only meant that the bot's page opens — the same for every live bot. And "response speed" was the load time of the t.me page, not the bot's reply. A bot's own reply cannot be measured from outside without signing in to Telegram, so we neither show it nor count it. A bot that doesn't work gets no score at all.
The purity multiplier
| Condition | H |
|---|---|
| Scam or fake flag from Telegram | 0 |
| Telegram restriction in place | 0.5 |
| Name does not match the brand it claims | 0.7 |
| Engagement rate outside the corridor 1.5–150% | 0.6 |
| Subscribers rising, views flat | 0.5 |
What the formula leaves out
Owner-reported user counts, paid placement and user votes. Votes will only arrive together with protection against vote stuffing, and in a block of their own — not inside the main score.