What the number is
The engine converts both faces into signatures and measures how close they are. The score is that closeness, mapped onto 0–100.
It is not a probability, and it is not calibrated as one. Two photos of the same person in identical conditions can score 100; the same two people photographed a decade apart in bad light might score 78. The number describes the comparison, not the odds.
That's why we show it on every result instead of collapsing everything into a green tick. The tick would be a judgement we are not entitled to make.
The bands, and what to do with each
These thresholds come from how the engine behaves in practice, not from a marketing rounding.
- 90–100 · Strong. Almost certainly the same person. These are the results worth acting on.
- 83–89 · Likely. Probably them, but find a second result that agrees before you rely on it.
- 70–82 · Possible. A similar face. Could be them in bad light, could be a stranger who resembles them.
- Below 70 · Weak. Treat as noise. Shown for completeness, not as evidence of anything.
Read the set, not the row
A single 91 is one data point. Ten results between 88 and 97, spread across unrelated sites, all showing the same person, is a different thing entirely — that's corroboration, and corroboration is what turns a lead into a conclusion.
The inverse is also informative. One high score in isolation, with nothing else near it, deserves more scepticism than its number suggests. Check what the page actually is before you conclude anything from it.
The thing a match never proves
A match means this face appears on that page. It does not mean the page belongs to that person.
This distinction is the entire point when you're hunting a stolen photo — the whole reason you're searching is that someone else is using the face. Keep it in mind in the other direction too: finding someone's face on an unflattering page is not proof they made it, posted it, or knew about it.
Why low scores are shown at all
Hiding them would make the results look cleaner and would be worse. A weak match is information: it tells you the engine found something in that neighbourhood and rated it poorly, which is different from finding nothing.
It also keeps us honest. A tool that only ever shows high numbers looks impressive and teaches you nothing about its own error rate.
What no score can tell you
Age. A strong match against a fifteen-year-old profile photo tells you who someone was, not who they are.
Intent, ownership, or context. The score is a measurement of two faces. Everything else — whether the account is theirs, whether the page is current, whether the story around it holds up — is your job.
Last updated 3 August 2026