Methodology

At RankmyAI, our mission is to provide users with an accurate, transparent, and actionable view of AI tools. Below, we outline our ranking methodology, including how we define, categorize, and evaluate each tool.

What is an AI tool?

We define an AI tool as any product or service that integrates artificial intelligence as a core component. Since AI capabilities vary widely—from text generation to predictive modeling, computer vision, and natural language processing—we apply this definition broadly to include all tools that demonstrate measurable AI functionality.

A company may have multiple AI tools included in our database if each tool has a dedicated website or subdomain, allowing us to track traffic and reviews separately. This ensures that each tool is ranked individually based on its own performance rather than being grouped under the broader company-level data.

We do not include companies that solely provide AI training, workshops, podcasts, or news, nor do we include individual AI developers offering their services. However, we do include AI tool directories to benchmark RankmyAI against other AI platform directories, as well as companies with multiple employees that provide AI consultancy and tool development services. To provide a complete and objective overview of the AI landscape, we do include NSFW tools that contain adult content.

We aim to manually verify whether each tool uses AI as a core component, but—given the scale of our dataset—we cannot guarantee that our database and rankings do not include some irrelevant companies or tools. However, based on our experience and research, we find that such tools often tend to rank lower in our rankings, meaning they do not significantly distort the results. Additionally, some companies in our database offer both AI and non-AI products or services. In such cases, their traffic, investment, and reviews may not solely reflect their AI-related activities. This should be taken into account when interpreting the insights from our rankings and research.

Data collection and Quality assurance

We gather data on AI tools and companies from multiple sources to ensure a comprehensive and up-to-date database. Our primary data sources include AI tool directories, startup lists, and social media platforms such as LinkedIn.

Data collection process

• Basic Information – We start by collecting fundamental details such as the tool name and website.
• Company Information – Using LinkedIn and the tool’s website, we gather key company details, including founding year, location, and number of employees.
• Review Data – We verify whether a tool has an account on major review platforms and collect relevant review data.
• Traffic Insights – We use SimilarWeb to obtain website traffic metrics.
• Investment Data – Funding and investment details are sourced from company websites, investment news, and investment data providers.

AI-powered classification and Verification

We do extensive data quality checks. Although part of our research is done automatically, we always do manual checks on our labelling and variables. To enhance efficiency and accuracy, we use AI models for:

• Tool Classification – Categorizing tools based on functionality and industry.
• Pricing Information – Extracting and standardizing pricing details.
• Company Descriptions – Generating concise summaries based on website content.
• Tool Existence Verification – Checking whether tools are still active and ensuring they qualify as AI tools.

Categorizing things is difficult. So we try our best. With your help we can improve our taxonomy and get the best user experience. Please refer to our roadmap to see features and rankings we are planning to publish.

Continuous updates and Quality control

Every month, we add new AI tools and remove those that are inactive to ensure our database remains as up-to-date as possible. Despite our rigorous data collection and validation process, errors may still occur due to the scale of our dataset. If you come across incorrect or outdated information, you can report it, and we will review and update the data accordingly.

We are also exploring the possibility of publishing an "AI Tool Graveyard" to provide insights into AI tools that have become inactive or discontinued. This would help users understand which parts of the AI market are oversaturated and track which types of tools fail to sustain themselves over time.

To ensure fairness and accuracy, we apply a Modified Competition Ranking method across all categories. This approach ensures that tools are ranked sequentially, with no gaps, even when multiple tools receive the same score. If two or more tools have identical scores, they share the same rank, and the next tool is assigned the immediate subsequent rank rather than skipping positions. This prevents gaps in ranking positions and ensures that tools with equal scores are treated equally, making comparisons more accurate and consistent. Each ranking category will be described in detail below.

RankmyAI is committed to providing objective, datadriven insights. Our rankings are determined entirely by performance metrics. We are not affiliated with any AI tool or company, and we do not accept payment for influencing rankings, promotions, or advertisements. If a tool is mentioned in our rankings or publications, it is solely because it stands out based on significant data trends or widely reported industry developments.

Traffic ranking

The traffic ranking is based on estimated visit data from SimilarWeb, measuring the total number of non-unique visits to the official websites and subdomains of AI tools. While this offers insights into online traffic, it does not reflect actual user engagement or activity on the platforms, nor does it take into account mobile app traffic of these tools. Additionally, if a company offers more than just AI-related services, the reported traffic ranking may reflect the broader popularity of the company as a whole, rather than solely that of its AI tool(s). Only AI tools for which website visitor data is available are included in this ranking.

Investment ranking

The investment ranking is based on the cumulative investment (in USD) of the company behind the AI tool, using data from multiple sources, including company websites, investment news, and investment data providers. Since investments are typically made at the company level, but our rankings focus on individual AI tools, we apply a method to distribute investment amounts fairly. Some companies in our database develop multiple AI tools. Instead of assigning the full company investment to each tool, we distribute the investment proportionally based on the number of tools from the same company in our dataset.

We recognize that this method is not perfect, as we do not have insight into how much funding is allocated to each individual tool. However, assigning the full investment amount to every tool from the same company would create an unfair advantage in our rankings. As of March 2025, there are approximately 260 companies in our database that have multiple tools, accounting for around 650 tools out of 25,000 AI tools tracked. Only AI tools for which investment data is available are included in this ranking. Additionally, if a company provides both AI and non-AI services, its investment ranking may reflect broader company funding, rather than investment specific to its AI tool(s). This should be considered when interpreting the rankings.

We realize that many AI tools will never appear in our investment ranking, either because they are not publicly funded or due to company policies that restrict disclosure of investment information. To provide a more comprehensive measure of company resources, we are currently exploring alternative rankings based on for example turnover, and number of employees.

Review ranking

The review ranking is based on the weighted average of review scores from major review platforms. To prevent AI tools with just a single 5-star review from ranking disproportionately high, we apply a stabilization method: each tool with reviews is assigned a fictional baseline of 25 reviews with a score of 4. This ensures that tools with a large number of reviews and a slightly lower average are not ranked below tools with only one or a few 5-star ratings.

Additionally, if a company offers both AI and non-AI services, the reported review ranking may reflect broader company satisfaction rather than solely user satisfaction with its AI tool(s). This should be taken into account when interpreting the ranking. Only AI tools for which review data is available are included in this ranking.

Overall ranking

The overall ranking is based on the combined performance of an AI tool across website traffic, investment, and review score. We calculate a weighted average of these raw metrics, meaning rankings are determined by actual data rather than ranking positions within individual categories.

Only tools with at least one data point (traffic, investment, or reviews) are included in this ranking. If a tool is missing data for one or more metrics, we impute the missing values using the median of companies with available data. To account for extreme values, we apply log transformation to the imputed traffic, investment, and review data before standardizing the dataset by calculating Z-scores. Each metric—traffic, investment, and reviews—is then given equal weight in the final overall score.

A tool that performs strongly on two metrics but underperforms on the third may appear lower in the overall ranking than expected when only considering the first two metrics. To secure a high position in the overall ranking, a tool must perform well across all three metrics. As such, having available data for traffic, investment, and reviews is important for a tool’s placement in the ranking.

While the choice of equal weighting may be debated, we are currently exploring whether expert input or additional data can improve our weighting methodology. Our approach has been statistically validated, but we continuously strive for improvement and refinement. We are actively testing enhanced data imputation techniques, including the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm, to further enhance accuracy and robustness.

For a detailed mathematical explanation of our ranking methodology, please visit our RankmyAI Methodology Documentation. Expanding our dataset and refining our approach remains a top priority to improve the reliability and accuracy of our rankings.

Risers ranking

The risers ranking tracks AI tools that have shown the biggest improvement in their position within the Overall ranking compared to the previous month. The tool with the largest increase in its overall ranking position moves to position 1, the tool with the second-largest increase to position 2, and so on. Tools with zero change in the Overall ranking are included in the risers ranking but not in the fallers ranking.

A tool appears in this ranking when it has significantly gained positions, either due to a strong improvement in its own performance (in traffic, investment, and/or review score), because other tools have experienced a notable decline, or due to the removal of inactive tools from the dataset. In some cases, shifts in review scores can also affect ranking position—for example, when a tool’s review account is suspended or reviews are removed by a review platform. This means that a high position in the risers ranking does not always indicate direct growth in the tool’s performance but may also be influenced by changes in the broader AI landscape.

Fallers ranking

The fallers ranking tracks AI tools that have shown the biggest decline in their position within the Overall ranking compared to the previous month. The tool with the largest decrease in its overall ranking position moves to position 1, the tool with the second-largest decrease to position 2, and so on. Tools with zero change in the Overall ranking are included in the risers ranking but not in the fallers ranking.

A tool appears in this ranking when it has significantly lost positions, either due to a strong decline in its own performance (in traffic, investment, and/or review score), because other tools have experienced notable growth, or due to the addition of new AI tools to the database, increasing competition. In some cases, shifts in review scores can also affect ranking position—for example, when a tool’s review account is suspended or reviews are removed by a review platform. This means that a high position in the fallers ranking does not always indicate a direct decline in the tool’s performance but may also be influenced by changes in the broader AI landscape.

Sub rankings

Sub rankings are not separate rankings but filtered subsets of one of the key rankings—most often the overall ranking. These rankings group AI tools with similar characteristics, such as use case, country, company size or industry, to provide a more focused comparison.

To create a sub ranking, we extract relevant tools from our main rankings (traffic, investment, reviews, overall, risers, and fallers) and adjust their ranking positions and ranking growth based on this new subset. For example, if we generate an image generation ranking, and the highest-ranked image generation tool in the overall ranking holds position 33, it will be reassigned as position 1 in the sub ranking. If the second-highest image generation tool is ranked 112 overall, it will become position 2 in the image generation ranking, and so on.

Sub rankings are essential for understanding the best AI tools for specific use cases and tracking how the AI landscape is evolving within certain industries or countries. They are the beating heart of our platform, allowing users to make more informed comparisons beyond the general rankings.

Over time, we will continue expanding our sub rankings, but we also welcome ideas and suggestions. If there’s a specific sub ranking you would like to see, you can share your suggestions here.