> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.heralded.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Heralded Score > How the score is built from your answers, why it is calibrated, and how the scale was measured. The Heralded Score is one number for how well AI answers treat you when buyers ask about your category. It runs from 0 to 100 and is built entirely from [Mentioned and Recommended](/methodology/mentioned-and-recommended). ## The raw score Each answer earns points: | The answer | Points | | - | - | | leaves your brand out | 0 | | names your brand, on the Weak or Mentioned rung | 50 | | recommends your brand, on the Recommended or Leading rung | 100 | A Weak answer earns the same 50 as a Mentioned one, even when it names you to criticise you. The score measures whether the engines put you in front of buyers. What they say about you is [how AI describes you](/methodology/how-ai-describes-you), shown next to the score and not part of it. Averaged the same way as Mentioned and Recommended, the points come to the mean of the two, so the raw score is (Mentioned + Recommended) รท 2. ## Why the score is calibrated Raw scores bunch up at the bottom. Most brands are named in a small share of answers, so a raw score of 15 can already put a brand among the real contenders in its category. Shown as-is, the scale would make nearly every brand look like a failure and hide real progress. Heralded places the raw score on a calibrated scale, where each number marks a measured position: | Score | Typical of a brand that | | - | - | | 10 | is a weak contender, surfacing now and then | | 30 | is a typical contender in its category | | 50 | is a typical top-three brand | | 70 | is a typical category leader | | 100 | is named and recommended in every answer | Between these points the scale is a straight line, with one addition at the bottom: a single named answer always reads at least 1. So 0 means that across the prompts that don't name you, no measured answer named you. ## How the scale was measured In September 2026 Heralded took the latest Snapshot of 47 brands and ranked the brands each one named. It found the raw score of a weak contender, a typical contender, a typical top-three brand and a typical category leader, and pinned the calibrated scale to those four points. Two caveats apply. The sample is small, and it was measured with an earlier version of the answer reading. Heralded plans to refit the scale on a much larger set of brands. ## The score bands Next to the score, Heralded names the band it falls in. Five bands cover the scale: | Score | Band | | - | - | | 0 to 9 | Invisible | | 10 to 29 | Under-visible | | 30 to 49 | Emerging | | 50 to 69 | Strong | | 70 to 100 | Leader | A Strong score sits between a typical top-three brand and a typical category leader. The band names a range of the score. It is not [Recommended](/methodology/mentioned-and-recommended), the share of answers that recommend you. The API serves the 50 to 69 band as `Recommended` in `heralded_score_band`, `score_bands` and the `band` of a score, as it always has, and the names never change within v1. The app, the emails and the share cards show it as Strong. ## Score versions A refit of the scale, or any change to how the score is computed, becomes a new **score version**. Heralded never draws a change across two versions, so a refitted curve can't pass itself off as a move. Only reads on the current version, v7.0, are served. [Versioning](/versioning#the-score-version) covers what this means in the API. ## The range and the answer count Next to the score is its [95% range](/methodology/ranges). Hover over it to see how many answers the score was read from, counting the measured answers to prompts that don't name your brand. More answers mean a narrower range. ## When there is no score The score needs both Mentioned and Recommended. If either couldn't be measured, the score is left empty. See [When a figure is empty](/methodology/empty-figures). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.