# How we rank — every agent is researched & quality-gated

> Source: Agents·Index — https://theagentsindex.com/methodology
> Index last updated: August 27, 2026

Agents·Index is a curated index, not a scraped one. Before any agent appears here it must pass an automated quality gate — the same checks are enforced in code, so a thin or unverified page is structurally impossible to publish.

## The quality gate

Every listing must clear four bars before it can be published:

1. **Structured research.** A minimum set of structured fields — what it is, what it does, key features, pricing and real use cases — must be present and complete. A stub can't pass.
2. **Sourced facts.** Claims are backed by cited sources, not marketing copy. Pricing and capabilities reflect what the agent actually does.
3. **On-topic fit-check.** An agent that isn't genuinely relevant to this directory is rejected, however complete its record — relevance is a gate, not a nice-to-have.
4. **Freshness.** Listings carry a last-verified date and are re-checked over time.

## Why we don't score agents

We do not give agents a rating — no stars, no 0-10, no grade. A rating is only worth reading if its input is independent of whoever publishes it, and any number computed from our own research would measure our work rather than the agent. What every page publishes instead is the evidence: the sources itemised and labelled by the claims they support, the date we last checked plus a changelog of what moved, an explicit "best for" and "not for", and real cons and limitations — which are required to publish.

## How listings are ordered

Within a category, listings are ordered by editorial tier and then alphabetically — never by who paid. Any commercial placement is labelled "Sponsored" and still has to pass the very same quality gate; money can move where an agent appears, never whether it earned a page. See https://theagentsindex.com/pricing.

## Corrections & submissions

Anyone can submit an agent for review, but a submission is only ever a candidate — it enters the same research-and-gate pipeline before it can be published, and nothing a submitter writes becomes page copy unverified. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we re-verify.