Quality index

The quality index (QI for short) is a single number from 0 to 100. It shows whether a channel is alive, whether it grows honestly, how much advertising it carries and whether it can be trusted. The QI does not replace a proper review of the channel: it helps you quickly shortlist strong channels and spot risky ones, and then you look at reach, posts and dynamics yourself.

The index is useful to anyone choosing channels: advertisers use it to avoid paying for an inflated audience, analysts to compare channels by more than subscriber count, and owners to see what keeps their channel from looking stronger.

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

Where to find the index

Where	What you see	Who can see it
Channel page, “Dashboard” tab, “Quality index” card (labelled “Channel score” above the title)	the total in large type — for example “77 / 100” — the rating in words, the five parts of the index as bars (“19 of 25”) and what the channel was compared with; the “How it is calculated” link leads to the methodology	everyone
Post page, channel card on the right, “Quality index” row	the number in the rating's colour and a scale of four zones; the “?” button opens the detailed breakdown (described below)	after signing in (free); guests see the row blurred with the “Available after signing in” badge
MAX channel rating, “By quality index” switch	the hundred channels with the highest index; every row shows the QI value	everyone
Channel page, “Similar channels” tab	the “QI” column in the table of similar channels and the “QI” tile in the “Channel vs the median of similar channels” block — with a mini chart of the index by day	everyone; sorting the table by the “QI” column — after signing in
“My” section: “My channels” and “Following”	the “Quality index” column for each of your channels and for the channels you follow	after signing in
“MAX statistics” page	the “Quality index” card (how many channels fall into each score range) and “QI by channel size” (the average index of channels of different sizes)	everyone

If you see a dash “—” with the note “score unavailable: not enough data”, the index has been calculated but there is too little data to show the total yet (see “Calculation reliability” below). If it says “not calculated yet”, the channel has not met the minimum conditions yet (see “When the index is not calculated” below).

We compare with similar channels, not with all of them

Most ratings compare a channel with every channel at once. Then a district newspaper with 3,000 subscribers always loses to a national news channel with a million — even though it may be the best one for its town.

We compare a channel only with similar ones: the same main category and the same size. The main category is the primary one of the channel's categories (see “Categories”). Sizes by subscriber count:

up to 1K;
1K–5K;
5K–20K;
20K–100K;
100K–500K;
over 500K.

If there are fewer than 30 similar channels, the channel is compared with all channels of its size — otherwise the comparison would be random.

The channel card always says what it was compared with, for example: “News and media, 5K–20K subscribers · channels in the group: 412”. If there are too few channels of the same category, it says “all channels” instead of the category.

What the number means

QI	Rating	Colour
85–100	High	dark green
70–84	Good	green
40–69	Medium	yellow
0–39	Low	red

Example: a QI of 73 is “Good”. The channel is clearly better than average among similar ones, but it has room to improve — what exactly is shown by the parts of the index and the list of weaknesses.

How to read the rating

A high QI does not guarantee that advertising in the channel will pay off, and a low one does not mean the channel is bad. The index shows risks and strengths in numbers. Before buying an ad, still look at the posts, reach and subscriber dynamics.

When the index is not calculated

A fair rating needs data. The QI is calculated only for channels (not for chats) that have:

at least 500 subscribers;
at least 5 posts in the last 30 days and at least one in the last 7 days;
views on at least 5 posts older than two days;
at least 7 days of our observations of the subscriber count.

If a condition is not met, the channel has no index. The dashboard card then says: “The quality index has not been calculated yet. It appears for channels with at least 500 subscribers that post at least once a week, after a week of tracking.” The channel card on the post page says “not calculated yet”.

Note

If a channel stops posting or its audience drops below 500 subscribers, its index disappears at the next nightly recalculation. It comes back by itself once the channel meets the conditions again.

What the index is made of

The index consists of five parts. Each part has its own maximum number of points; together they add up to 100.

Part	Points	What it shows
Audience	25	whether the audience is alive and responds to posts
Growth integrity	25	whether the subscriber count grows naturally
Ad load	20	how much advertising the channel carries
Trust	20	whether the channel is verified and known to other channels
Calculation reliability	10	whether there is enough data for a confident rating

Each part is first scored from 0 to 100, and then converted into points according to its weight. How this works is shown in “How the total is calculated” below.

Audience — 25 points

We look at the last 30 days and only at the channel's own posts (no reposts):

Reach — how many people see a typical post compared with the number of subscribers. We take the median views of posts older than two days, not the average: one viral post should not embellish the channel. The median is the middle of the range: half of the posts have more views, half have fewer. Posts younger than two days are left out because their views are still growing.
Engagement — how many reactions there are per view. We do not collect comments, so only reactions (emoji under the post) count.
Regularity — on how many of the 30 days posts were published; a pause longer than a week takes off another 20 points out of 100.

Reach and engagement are scored by the channel's place among similar channels: a channel with reach better than 80% of similar ones gets 80 out of 100 for reach. Weights inside the part: reach — half, engagement — 30%, regularity — 20%.

Example: reach is better than 80% of similar channels (80), engagement is better than 50% (50), posts went out on 24 of 30 days with no long pauses (80). The “Audience” part = 0.5 × 80 + 0.3 × 50 + 0.2 × 80 = 71 out of 100, that is 71 × 25 / 100 ≈ 17.8 points out of 25.

Growth integrity — 25 points

We start at 100 and deduct points for signs of inflated subscribers over the last 30 days:

Sign	Deduction
Subscribers grew by more than 10% in a week while reach barely grew	30
A sharp jump: +5% in one day and three times the usual growth	25 (two or more jumps — 40)
Three or more days with identical growth (±2%) at more than 50 a day	25
Subscribers grew by more than 3% while the channel was silent for 5 days or longer	20
Unsubscribes exceed 60% of subscribes	15

The score does not go below zero.

Why these signs. Real subscribers come together with interest in the posts: when the audience grows, views grow too. If subscribers suddenly jumped while views stayed flat, or the growth is identical day after day, or the channel is silent and subscribers keep coming anyway — this is usually what bought subscribers look like. A triggered sign appears in the “Weaknesses” list, for example “Sharp subscriber growth without reach growth” or “Repeated identical daily gains”.

We cannot see history before we started tracking

MAX does not provide the history of a channel's subscriber count. We only see changes from the day we started tracking the channel. If there is less than 30 days of history, the signs are checked on what is available, and the “Calculation reliability” part gets fewer points.

Ad load — 20 points

Advertising is not bad, but an advertiser needs to know how loaded the channel is with it: the more ads, the less attention each one gets. We start at 100:

Sign over 30 days	Deduction
10–25% of posts are ads	20
25–50% of posts are ads	45
More than 50% of posts are ads	70
On average more than one link to other channels per two posts	15
Half or more of the links to other channels lead to 1–2 channels (looks like an ad network; counted from 5 links in 30 days)	15

If ads make up less than 10% of posts, nothing is deducted for the ad share.

A post counts as an ad if it has an advertising label, typical advertising wording or an external link with a call to follow it. How exactly we recognise ads is explained in “How we detect ads”. In the index breakdown this part is described in words: low, moderate or high load.

Trust — 20 points

We add up the signs (maximum 100):

Sign	Points
The owner verified the channel via the datool.ru bot	30
The channel has the A+ mark in MAX	20
Other channels cite it — place among similar channels by the citation index	up to 25
The channel has been in our database for 90 days or more / a year or more	10 / 15
The channel's name and address have not changed for 90 days	10

Notes:

Owner verification — the channel owner proved that the channel is theirs via the datool.ru bot. How to do it — see “Channel verification”.
A+ mark — MAX's own mark for channels in the Roskomnadzor registry; on the site it is shown as a green shield next to the name.
Citations — the higher the channel's place among similar channels by citation index, the more points: a place better than 80% of similar channels gives 20 points out of 25.
Age in the database — how many days the channel has been in our catalogue. We have been building the MAX catalogue since late September 2026, so during the first months this sign is zero for every channel.

If the channel changed its address, the breakdown shows the note “Profile has changed”. If nothing has changed for 90 days, the strength “Profile is stable” appears.

Calculation reliability — 10 points

Five checks, each worth 20 points out of 100:

we have observed the subscribers for 30 days or more;
there are 20 or more posts with views older than two days in 30 days;
fresh posts have reaction data;
we know whether other channels cited the channel in 30 days;
the channel's data was updated within the last day.

This part also sets the confidence of the rating: high (80–100), medium (40–79) or low (below 40). With low confidence we do not show the overall rating — only the separate parts and the list of missing data. The dashboard then says: “The overall score is unavailable: there is not enough data for a confident calculation yet. The index parts are below.”

How the total is calculated

Each part is first scored from 0 to 100 and then multiplied by its weight: for example, “Audience” at 70 out of 100 gives 70 × 25 / 100 = 17.5 points. The total is the sum of the five parts rounded to a whole number.

Example:

Part	Score out of 100	Weight	Points
Audience	70	25	17.5
Growth integrity	100	25	25
Ad load	80	20	16
Trust	25	20	5
Calculation reliability	100	10	10
Total			73.5 → 74, “Good”

This breakdown immediately shows where the channel loses points: here it is “Trust” (the owner has not verified the channel and it is rarely cited).

Detailed index breakdown

On the post page, the “Quality index” row has a “?” button. It opens the “Channel quality index” window with a detailed breakdown of the score:

The total number and the rating in words, in the rating's colour, for example “73 Good”.
A scale from 0 to 100 with the four rating zones and a mark where the channel is: zones to the left of the total are bright, to the right — pale.
“Points scored” — the five parts of the index: each in its own colour, points scored out of the maximum and a bar showing the share of the maximum.
“Strengths” — up to four, for example: “Reach above 80% of channels of the same category and size”, “Owner verified”, “The channel stands out in mentions”, “Profile is stable”.
“Weaknesses” — up to three, for example: “Sharp subscriber growth without reach growth”, “High advertising load”, “Repeated identical daily gains”.
“Data limitations” — only when the total is hidden because of low confidence: up to two reasons, for example “Few subscriber snapshots” or “Data is older than 24 hours”.
What the channel was compared with — the category, size and the number of channels in the group.
The links “How we calculate it” (the methodology page) and “Report an error in the rating”.

The window opens when you hover over “?”, click it or use the keyboard. The channel dashboard shows the same information in a shorter form: the total, the five parts as bars and the comparison group.

When it is updated

Once a day, at night. The index history is stored by day: how the score changed can be seen on the mini chart of the “QI” tile on the “Similar channels” tab (the “Channel vs the median of similar channels” block). If we change the methodology, old values are not recalculated.

The current methodology is version 1.2 (October 2026).

What the index does not take into account

Comments — we do not collect them: neither texts, nor authors, nor their number.
Post forwards — MAX does not report how many times a post was forwarded.
Subscriber history before we started observing — MAX does not provide it, we only see changes from the day we started tracking the channel.

Who can see the index

What	Guest	After signing in (free)	Channel owner	“Premium” and “Business”
“Quality index” card on the dashboard	✓	✓	✓	✓
Index row and the “?” breakdown on the post page	blurred	✓	✓	✓
Rating by quality index, the “QI” column on the “Similar channels” tab	✓	✓	✓	✓
Index in “My channels” and “Following”	—	✓	✓	✓

A closed block on the site is shown as a blurred example with the “Available after signing in” or “Available with a subscription” badge, so you can see what will open. What the subscriptions include — see “Plans”.

Disagree with the rating?

Click “Report an error in the rating” in the index breakdown or write to us — we will review the channel manually. If you are the owner, verify the channel via the datool.ru bot: it adds 30 points to the “Trust” part and unlocks detailed statistics for your channel.