How RealSmile scores faces — the 4 criteria
Your Face Score is validated directly against how people rate faces — a percentile cross-validated at r ≈ 0.8 on 1,566 human-rated faces. The 4 research criteria below are the signals that drive those human ratings: two are peer-reviewed effects; the other two are presentation factors that affect read confidence.
Criterion 1
Symmetry
Left-right facial symmetry, measured by 68 landmark points.
Strongest meta-analytic effect on perceived attractiveness (Rhodes 2006).
Criterion 2
Averageness
How close your facial proportions are to the population mean.
Often the LARGEST single contributor to attractiveness ratings (Rhodes 2006).
Criterion 3
Sexual dimorphism
Masculine markers (FWHR, jawline) for men; feminine markers (softer features) for women.
Effect size meta-analyzed by Geniole 2015 (FWHR).
Criterion 4
Skin + photo quality
Surface clarity, even skin tone, and image quality affect read confidence.
Photo-quality variance is one of the largest non-face confounds.
Three scoring models. One honest scale.
We’re the only face-rating tool that publishes its accuracy — including the version that failed. Here’s exactly what each tier measures — or see what each of the 17 measurements means, what it reads from your photo, and whether you can change it.
Free scan
Your validated Face Score
The scan shows your Face Score — a validated percentile, tested against 1,566 human-rated faces (r ≈ 0.8), the only published accuracy check in the category — plus your strongest measurement (1 of 17 revealed). Free, no signup — 1 scan a day, or 5 with a free account. Methodology
Full report
Every measurement your photo supports (typically 15 of 17) + your 30-day plan + 3 days of Pro (activate after checkout)
Every metric scored against its ideal range, which flaws are fixable vs just the photo, your personalized 30-day plan, and a 7-9 page PDF you keep.
Pro
Always our newest model — 3 days free with every report
Pro subscribers are scored by our newest model (currently v2) and get every future model the day it ships, with unlimited rescans.
The AI gave you a number.
Now find out what real people say.
Opt in and real people rate your photo 1–10 — anonymously, numbers only, no comments. Your Human Score is the average of at least 10 real votes, shown next to the AI’s. Every consented photo also helps train more accurate future models.
Mog your friends. Settle it with data.
Upload 2–6 selfies. Each ranked on the exact same 17 metrics. Winner gets the crown, everyone gets the receipts.
743rd
911st
822ndMost face scores have never been checked against anyone.
| Tool | Validated against human ratings? | Photo handling | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| RealSmile | Yes — 1,566 human-rated faces, r≈0.8Photos: Processed in memory, deleted instantlyOutput: 0–100 percentile + 17 measurements | Processed in memory, deleted instantly | 0–100 percentile + 17 measurements |
| FaceIQ Labs | No published validationPhotos: Uploaded and stored on their serversOutput: Score + measurements | Uploaded and stored on their servers | Score + measurements |
| Umax | No published validationPhotos: Uploaded to their serversOutput: Score + glow-up plan | Uploaded to their servers | Score + glow-up plan |
| LooksMax AI | No published validationPhotos: Uploaded to their serversOutput: Score + ratios | Uploaded to their servers | Score + ratios |
| PrettyScale | No published validationPhotos: Uploaded to their serversOutput: Single percentage | Uploaded to their servers | Single percentage |
| Anaface | No — golden ratio is not evidence-basedPhotos: Uploaded to their serversOutput: Golden-ratio breakdown | Uploaded to their servers | Golden-ratio breakdown |
| Photofeeler | N/A — the scores are human votesPhotos: Shown to other usersOutput: 3 trait scores from people | Shown to other users | 3 trait scores from people |
Pick the audit for the room you're walking into.
Same 17-metric engine, two purpose-built deliverables. Dating buyers get Tinder/Hinge/Bumble photo ranking. Pros get LinkedIn-grade headshot scoring + a sales-page-ready reshoot brief.
Dating audit
Tinder · Hinge · Bumble
Pick your best 3 photos. Stop guessing.
Up to 10 photos scored on 17 facial metrics + dating-app-specific signals. The report tells you which to lead with, which to drop, and what to reshoot.
- → 5-page PDF, 1–2 min after upload
- → Per-photo score + ranking + cut-list
- → Reshoot brief for your photographer
Professional audit
LinkedIn · About · Sales
Headshot built for hire signals.
The same engine retuned for trust + competence + warmth. Built for LinkedIn profiles, sales pages, About sections, speaker bios — anywhere strangers decide if you're the right hire in 0.4 seconds.
- → Trust + Competence + Warmth scoring
- → Wardrobe + lighting + crop directives
- → Pro reshoot brief, photographer-ready
Twelve instruments. One scan.
Photos are processed in memory and deleted instantly — nothing is kept unless you choose to save it. No signup, no waiting.
Looksmaxxing Test
Validated Face Score + full measurement map + written PDF report.
Mog Your Friends
Rank 2–6 selfies. Crown the mogger. Share the receipts.
Dating Photo Ranker
Upload your Tinder / Hinge / Bumble photos. See which gets the most matches.
Rank My Headshots
LinkedIn headshot ranked by 6 professional metrics.
Face Score
One number — a validated percentile. The fastest reality check on the net.
Smile Analyzer
Duchenne detection — genuine vs polite.
See all 12 tools
Am I Pretty?
Honest face score tuned for women — brows, eyes, skin, symmetry.
Facial Symmetry
Violet-axis analysis. Map your asymmetries.
FWHR
Face width vs height — the dominance ratio.
Celebrity Scores
52 famous faces on the same metrics. See where you rank.
Hairstyle Try-On
See yourself with 20+ hairstyles before the barber.
Canthal Tilt
Positive / neutral / negative. Hunter-eyes detector.
More than one scan
Your results live in a dashboard, free
One tap creates your free account right after your scan — nothing extra to fill in.
Built solo. No VC. No hype-cycle vibes.
I built RealSmile because the dating-photo space is full of $100 coaches selling vibes and $20 voting tools that take days. The same engine running every free scan is what powers the paid audit — same scoring, same metrics, applied to YOUR specific photos with a written PDF on top.
Want to start with the free read? Run the free looksmaxxing test — your score in seconds — or read how the face report works.
The report and the audits are one-time purchases — Pro is the only recurring plan, and it’s optional — and I read every reply to hello@realsmile.online myself.
— Randy, founder
17
metrics per scan
Symmetry, FWHR, canthal tilt + 14 more
Private
by default
Deleted after analysis
Free
instant scan
No signup · photos auto-deleted
One-time
pricing
No subscription required
One-time scan. Rest of your photos fixed.
Free scan gives you your overall face score. The full report unlocks every metric and a 7-9 page personalized PDF you can send to your photographer.
Get my full report →Questions people ask before scanning
What is RealSmile?
RealSmile is an AI face analysis app that scores your photo on 17 facial-geometry metrics, returns a 100-point geometry-conformance score (proximity to ideal ranges, not a population rank), and emails a written PDF with a 30-day improvement plan in under 2 minutes. The free tier returns your score and your single strongest metric. Paid unlocks every metric, your validated Impression Percentile, and the personalized PDF. The scan needs no subscription. Your photo is processed and deleted right away. Nothing is kept unless you choose to save it.
How accurate is RealSmile face scoring?
RealSmile's Face Score is validated against human judgment: on 1,566 held-out faces from the SCUT-FBP5500 benchmark it correlates with the averaged ratings of 60 people at r ≈ 0.8 (5-fold cross-validated). The geometry scores are computed from 68 facial landmarks using ratios from peer-reviewed attractiveness research (Rhodes 2006, Penton-Voak and Perrett 2001). A score reads the photo as well as the face — across 1,350 people who scored two or more photos of themselves, the same face's Face Score spanned a median of 13 percentile points between photos, so lighting, angle and expression are worth getting right. The full study is published at /face-score-validation.
How long does the RealSmile audit take?
The free score and 17-metric breakdown return in 60 seconds. The personalized PDF report generates inside 2 minutes and a copy emails automatically. No queue, no scheduling, no human review delay. For visible appearance change after acting on the plan, fixable factors (lighting, angle, expression, hairstyle, grooming, skin clarity) respond inside 30 days; bone-structure factors do not change without intervention.
What does the 17-metric face report measure?
The engine calculates 17 facial-geometry measurements: canthal tilt, orbital tilt symmetry, eye shape (hunter eye index), eye spacing, brow arch, brow-eye proximity, facial symmetry, facial thirds balance, facial proportion balance, facial width-to-height ratio (FWHR), midface ratio, jaw taper, jawline angle, chin proportion, nose proportion, philtrum ratio and lip ratio. Jawline angle and eye spacing are withheld when a front-on photo cannot measure them reliably, so a typical report shows 15. Each measurement is taken from your 68 facial landmarks and mapped against a gender-calibrated reference range, with research citations attached. Alongside the measurements you get your Face Score — a separately validated 1-99 percentile of how people tend to rate your photo.
How much does RealSmile cost?
The scan and your validated Face Score (percentile) are free — 1 scan a day with no signup, 5 with a free account. The full 17-metric report with PDF and 30-day plan is $14.99, one-time. The Dating Photo Audit ($19.99) and the Professional LinkedIn Audit ($49) are one-time too. The only recurring plan is Pro at $3.99/week, and it is optional. See full pricing at /pricing.
Does RealSmile store my photos?
Not by default. On desktop, analysis runs in your browser. On mobile, your photo is processed in memory by our scan server and deleted immediately after the landmarks are measured — never written to disk. By default nothing is kept: no photo, no copy, nothing used to train anything. There are three exceptions and all three are your choice — you can save a scan photo to your own account, you can submit a photo to the community rating pool, and the paid Audit keeps a thumbnail so you can reopen your report. Each one is deletable, and deleting removes the file itself, not just the link to it. To delete your scores too, email hello@realsmile.online with the word "delete" and the records are purged the same day.
How is this different from other face-rating services?
RealSmile is one-time payment for an instant 17-metric AI report. Human-vote services like Photofeeler cost $20 to $100 per photo test with no metric breakdown and a wait queue — RealSmile also offers a free Human Score from real 1-10 votes (see /photofeeler-alternative). Qoves charges $150 per year for ongoing human consults. FaceApp is a filter and aging toy, not a scoring system. Same landmark math the academic literature uses, no subscription, no scheduling, and the PDF is yours to keep.
What is the difference between the free version and the $14.99 report?
The free version returns your overall geometry-conformance score out of 100 and your single strongest metric. The full report adds all 17 metrics with tier labels, your validated Impression Percentile, a 7-9 page PDF, your facial archetype, and a personalized 30-day plan ordered by points-recoverable per hour of effort. The free tier exists to let you sanity-check the system before paying anything.
Is looksmaxxing safe?
Softmaxxing is completely safe and is the only path RealSmile recommends. Softmaxxing covers grooming, skincare, fitness, posture, hairstyle, expression coaching, and photo conditions, all of which respond to behavior change inside 30 days with no medical risk. RealSmile does not recommend or score any surgical procedure. The 30-day plan ranks fixes by leverage so the safest, highest-impact changes happen first.
Can AI rate attractiveness accurately?
AI can measure the objective geometric signals that correlate with rater agreement, but it cannot tell you whether you are attractive to a specific person. RealSmile reports geometric ratios (symmetry, FWHR, canthal tilt, facial thirds) and a Face Score that correlates with averaged human ratings at r ≈ 0.8 on 1,566 held-out faces. The photo moves the numbers — the same face's Face Score spans a median of 13 percentile points between photos (1,350 people who scored two or more) — so use them for photo optimization, not as a verdict on your worth.
Does it work for women?
Yes. All 17 metrics apply to any face. Benchmarks are computed separately by gender so a female score is compared against female reference distributions, not male ones. The 30-day plan adjusts for gender-typical photo conventions on dating apps and LinkedIn, including lighting, angle, expression coaching, and wardrobe notes.
What research is the scoring based on?
The geometric metrics draw on Rhodes 2006 (Annual Review of Psychology, PMID 16318594) on cross-cultural attractiveness preferences, Penton-Voak and Perrett 2001 on symmetry and sexual dimorphism, and the Geniole, Carre, and McCormick FWHR meta-analysis (PMID 26181579) on facial-width cues. Expression scoring uses Ekman FACS coding for Duchenne markers. First-impression weighting is calibrated to Willis and Todorov 2006 (PMID 16866745).
Still unsure? See the accuracy test or email us.
About our tools
Free AI Face Analysis Tools — Instant Results, Private by Default
RealSmile offers a suite of free AI-powered face analysis tools designed to help you understand your facial features, improve your photos, and make data-driven decisions about your appearance.On desktop, analysis runs in your browser; on mobile, your photo is processed in memory by our scan server and deleted. Your photo is processed and deleted right away. Nothing is kept unless you choose to save it.
Our Looksmaxxing Test measures 17 facial metrics including facial symmetry, canthal tilt, facial width-to-height ratio (FWHR), jawline angle, hunter eye index, midface ratio, and more. You get your validated Face Score (a 1-99 percentile), your facial archetype, personalized strengths and areas to improve, and actionable recommendations backed by peer-reviewed research.
The Golden Ratio Test analyzes how closely your facial proportions match the mathematical golden ratio (phi = 1.618), a standard of beauty studied since ancient Greece. Our AI maps 68 facial landmarks to calculate precise proportional measurements across your facial thirds — the free facial thirds test scores the upper, middle, and lower third ratio on its own — plus eye spacing, nose width, and lip ratios.
Use the Face Score tool for an overall attractiveness analysis, or the Photo Ranker to compare multiple photos and find which ones perform best for dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble, or professional platforms like LinkedIn. The Facial Symmetry Test provides a detailed bilateral comparison of your left and right facial features.
The Jawline Test measures your gonial angle in degrees and gives a ranked improvement plan. The Canthal Tilt Test measures your eye angle — positive canthal tilt (+3° to +8°) is consistently rated the most attractive. The Hunter Eyes Test evaluates eye shape using the hunter eye index, canthal tilt, lid hooding, and brow ridge prominence.
The FWHR Calculator measures your facial width-to-height ratio, the most researched masculinity metric. The Masculinity Test scores all 5 key markers of facial masculinity. The Face Shape Test identifies whether you have an oval, oblong, round, square, heart, or diamond face and gives style recommendations tailored to your shape. The Am I Ugly Test gives an honest AI breakdown of what actually drives your score.
The Face Rating tool gives you a brutally honest 1-10 rating based on symmetry, jawline, and expression — the quickest way to rate your looks with AI.
The Smile Analyzer detects whether your smile is genuine (Duchenne) or posed, measuring muscle activation around your eyes and mouth — perfect for choosing your most authentic-looking photos.
For readers comparing this suite against other consumer raters, our AI face evaluation deep-dive covers what an honest 2026 rater actually measures, where the perceptual literature backs the verdict, and a five-minute reproducibility check before you treat any score as signal. If your scan flags changeable factors like skin quality or jaw definition, the best looksmaxxing products guide covers the low-cost routine items that actually move those metrics.
All tools use face-api.js with 68-point facial landmark detection, running in your browser via TensorFlow.js on desktop, and on our scan server (processed in memory, then deleted) on mobile. Results are instant — no waiting for votes or peer reviews. Whether you are exploring looksmaxxing, optimizing your dating profile photos, or preparing a professional headshot, RealSmile gives you objective, AI-powered insights in seconds.