Citation index

The citation index (CI for short) shows how influential a channel is: whether other MAX channels pick up its content and how much weight those channels carry themselves. It is not a mention count: a repost by a national channel and a link from a channel with 50 readers weigh differently, and a network of empty channels cannot inflate the index no matter how often it links.

For advertisers, the index helps find channels that set the agenda rather than merely gather subscribers. For owners, it shows who cites them and how visible that is across MAX.

The full methodology is on the page “How the channel citation index is calculated”. This article explains the same in plain words and also shows where to find the index on the site and who can see what.

Where to find the index

Where	What you see	Who can see it
Channel page, “Dashboard” tab, “Citation index” card (labelled “Citations” above the title)	the index value and its change over the period, the level among similar channels, the rank across MAX and a chart of the index by day; the links “How it is calculated” and “More — the “Mentions” tab”	everyone
Channel page, “Mentions” tab	in detail: the level among similar channels, mentions and the index by day, who mentioned the channel, which posts spread, whom the channel cites itself	partly everyone, partly after signing in and with a subscription (see the table below)
Post page, channel card on the right, “Citation index” row	the number, a bar showing the share of similar channels it outranks and a line like “Rank 2,857 of 71,183 · Above 82% of peers”; the “?” button opens an explanation	after signing in (free); guests see the row blurred with the “Available after signing in” badge
MAX mentions rating	the hundred most cited MAX channels	everyone
Channel page, “Similar channels” tab	the “CI” column in the table of similar channels and the “CI” tile in the “Channel vs the median of similar channels” block with a mini chart by day	everyone

If no one has mentioned the channel in the last 30 days, its index is 0, and the site says so: “no mentions in 30 days”.

What counts as a mention

A channel is mentioned when another channel, in one of its posts:

reposts its post (forwards it to its own feed), or
links to the channel — in the text, under a word, in a button under the post or in a link preview.

One post and one mentioned channel make one mention: if a post has three links to the same channel, it is still one mention. A channel linking to itself does not count.

Not included in the index:

mentions in advertising posts — that is a paid placement, not a citation (their number is shown separately on the “Mentions” tab; how we recognise ads — see “How we detect ads”);
mentions between channels of the same owner who verified both channels — your own channels do not “cite” each other;
mentions in group chats — we do not collect chat messages.

The index uses mentions from the last 30 days: old mentions gradually drop out of the calculation, so the index reflects the channel's influence now, not at some point in the past.

How a mention becomes weight

Every mention brings the channel some “weight”. How much depends on four rules.

1. A repost weighs more than a link. A repost means the content was taken; a link more often means “follow our neighbour”. A repost counts as 1, a link as ½.

2. Repeats bring diminishing returns. A channel that reposts you every day weighs more than a one-off, but not 30 times more: each next post from the same channel adds less than the previous one. For example, 1 repost gives the connection a strength of 1, 3 reposts — 2, 7 reposts — 3.

3. Mutual mentions count half. When two channels mention each other, it usually looks like a post exchange or cross-promotion.

4. A channel that mentions everyone splits its weight. A channel that mentioned dozens of channels in a month shares its weight among all of them — a link from a “channel roundup” weighs little. A single random link does not pass on the channel's full weight either: only a steady connection (about seven reposts a month) gets the full share.

Whose voice weighs more

The weight of a channel that mentioned you has two parts:

reach — how many views its post gets on average over a month;
85% of the weight it received itself from other channels' mentions.

So a mention from a large, often cited channel weighs a lot, while one from a channel with no views weighs nothing. Weight cannot be created out of nothing: if nobody reads any channel in a chain, the chain passes nothing on. Citation indexes for scientific papers work the same way: what matters is not only how often you are cited, but by whom.

Why the index is hard to inflate

A network of empty channels with no views passes on nothing, however often its channels link to each other and to you. Mutual mentions count half, and “roundup” channels split their weight among everyone they mention.

What the number means

One unit of the index is the full attention of a channel whose posts get 1,000 views. For example:

a channel with a reach of 10K reposted you seven times in a month and mentioned no one else — CI about 10;
a national channel with a reach of 200K reposted 20 channels three times each in a month, you among them — also about 10;
five small channels linked to you once each — CI about 0.5.

The index has no upper limit: for the most cited MAX channels it reaches the hundreds. No mentions in 30 days means CI 0.

What we compare with

A bare number is hard to judge, so next to it we show the channel's position:

among similar channels — the same main category and the same size as for the quality index (under 1K subscribers, 1K–5K, 5K–20K, 20K–100K, 100K–500K, over 500K); only channels that someone has cited are compared. If there are fewer than 30 of them, we compare with all cited channels of the same size;
across MAX — the rank among all public cited channels, for example “#2,857 in MAX”.

Levels

Based on its position among similar channels, a channel gets one of five levels. On the dashboard they are shown as badges, with the channel's level highlighted:

Level	Share of similar channels the channel outranks
high	90% or more
above average	75–90%
average	50–75%
below average	25–50%
low	less than 25%

Below the badges it says, for example: “Place among similar channels — higher than 82%. To reach the “high” level, the channel needs to overtake 37 more channels.” For the group leaders it says “This is the top level of the group.”

When it is updated

The index is recalculated every night. The chart on the dashboard and the “Mentions and index by day” chart on the “Mentions” tab show what the index was on each day. If the chart shows weeks or months, each point is the average index over its days.

What the index does not take into account

We have been building the MAX database since late September 2026, and the post history is still being filled in — during the first months the index grows for every channel. Comparing channels with each other is fine; treat the absolute numbers of the first months with caution.
Advertising deleted after a day often disappears before we see it.
Mentions from private channels are not fully counted.
Reach can be inflated by bots. The quality index (the “Growth integrity” part) checks that, not the citation index — look at them together.

The citation index is also part of the quality index: in the “Trust” part, up to 25 points out of 100 come from the channel's citation position among similar channels.

Who can see what

What	Guest	After signing in (free)	Channel owner	“Premium” and “Business”
“Citation index” card on the dashboard: number, position and chart	✓	✓	✓	✓
“Mentions” tab: the “Citation index” block (level among similar channels)	✓	✓	✓	✓
“Mentions” tab: “The period in brief” and “Mentions and index by day”	—	✓	✓	✓
The “Channels that mentioned this channel” table	5 rows	5 rows	up to 100 rows	up to 100 rows
Index row and the “?” explanation on the post page	blurred	✓	✓	✓
Detailed reports on the “Mentions” tab (mention exchange, source circle, speed, the “Channels this channel mentions” table, mutual pairs, comparison with similar channels)	—	—	—	✓

The “Channel owner” column applies only to the page of your own verified channel. A closed block is shown as a blurred example with the “Available after signing in” or “Available with a subscription” badge. All blocks of the tab and their access are described in detail in “Mentions”, and what the subscriptions include — in “Plans”.