Methodology
The AI Power Index ranks AI software by public activity — everything on this site is derived from publicly observable signals. The formula is public, the components are named, the weights were ratified before the first ranking was inspected, and every score on the site expands to its exact breakdown.
The Formula
POWER = 45% SIZE + 25% GROWTH + 15% MENTIONS + 15% SEARCH INTEREST
Weights ratified 2026-08-14 and frozen before the first scored run · method prototype-v4 · percentile normalization within one global cohort of all 18 tools
Current example · Coding leader
POWER = 0.0 × 60.0% + 0.0 × 20.0% + 0.0 × 20.0% = 0.0 · coverage 75/100
Every Power Score on the site expands to this exact breakdown — click any score on a ranking page. Missing components renormalize the shown weights; the coverage note tells you when.
Components
Size
45%The tool's most representative public usage counter — npm weekly downloads, GitHub stars, VS Code marketplace installs, HuggingFace model downloads, or Discord members. The counter actually used and its unit are recorded per tool, per day.
Growth
25%30-day delta of the size series. Vendors provide history only for npm; for every other tool growth is bootstrapped from the daily snapshots this site has collected (it becomes real for all tools after ~30 days of history).
Mentions
15%Hacker News story mentions (quoted, disambiguated queries). X is excluded by owner decision (metered cost); Reddit's JSON API is walled. Single-source, therefore the most gameable component — the shadow audit stress-tests it hardest.
Search
15%90-day mean of the Google Trends interest index (unofficial API; disambiguated per-tool queries). Rate-limit holes are recorded as holes, never filled with zeros.
Percentiles are computed over the log-scale value within one global cohort of all 18 tools; category pages show the per-category slice of the same index. Cross-category comparisons are soft by construction.
Index & Watchlist
Index
A tool enters the index when it has a public usage counter (npm, GitHub, marketplace, HuggingFace or Discord). Twelve of the eighteen tracked tools qualify today.
Watchlist
Tools with no public usage counter (verified: Replit, Lovable, Windsurf, v0, Firefly, ChatGPT Images) are scored on attention only — WATCH = 60 SEARCH + 40 MENTIONS — ranked among themselves and never merged into the index. A partial score must not compete with full-signal tools.
Confidence
Computed from signal coverage, not assigned: high = two or more counter source families for the tool's size signal; medium = a single counter; low = watchlist (attention-only). Missing signals are holes, never zeros — the coverage note on every score shows what a score is actually built from.
Sources
Included (all free, public)
- —npm registry + downloads API
- —GitHub API (stars)
- —HuggingFace API (model downloads)
- —VS Code marketplace (installs)
- —Discord invite API (public server members)
- —HN Algolia (mentions)
- —Google Trends (search interest, unofficial API)
Excluded
- —X API — owner decision: metered per-result cost
- —Reddit JSON — walled (returns HTML without OAuth)
- —Paid traffic estimates (Ramp/Similarweb) — rejected for v0.1 on cost
- —Private telemetry, vendor dashboards, funding data — by charter
Snapshots & Timeframes
Cadence
One snapshot per day, collected automatically at 06:00 from the public sources above. 2 snapshot(s) tracked since 14 AUG 2026 — the index is a time series, not a directory.
Movement
Movement is always measured against the selected timeframe: 24H, 7D and 30D are live. 90D and 1Y unlock as history accumulates — the first 90-day window completes in late October 2026.
What this index is — and isn't
This is a public-activity index, not a market-position ranking. It ranks what is publicly observable: downloads, stars, installs, community size, mentions and search interest. It says nothing about private usage, revenue, or market share, and it structurally favors tools with open, observable footprints. Scores are computed from frozen, ratified weights (method prototype-v4); every snapshot is versioned JSON in git; holes are holes. Nothing here is investment advice, and no vendor was consulted or compensated.