# Scoring Methodologies ## Overview At the heart of Provider Intelligence is a sophisticated scoring engine that converts raw performance data (latency in milliseconds, packet loss percentages, etc.) into normalized, comparable scores (0–100). These scores enable apples-to-apples comparisons of providers and determine the overall scores. Understanding how scoring works is essential for: * **Customizing queries**: Choosing the right [results calculation](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/build-a-query/specify-results-calculation) and [metric priorities](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/build-a-query/prioritize-metrics). * **Interpreting results**: Knowing why one provider scores higher than another. * **Validating decisions**: Explaining the methodology to stakeholders who want to understand the logic behind the recommendations. Additionally, we calculate metric trends, identifying whether raw metric performance is improving, worsening, or staying the same over time. This section provides a detailed breakdown of the algorithms used. ### Key Principles 1. **Relative vs. absolute scores**: A provider's performance score calculation, which transforms raw values into normalized scores, is calculated relative to other providers in the same city during the same time period. A score of 100 means "best in class for this location," not "perfect performance." Other score types, such as stability and overall score, are either calculated in an absolute manner or derived from already normalized calculations. 2. **Higher is always better**: All scores are normalized such that 100 is optimal and 0 is worst. This applies even to metrics like latency and packet loss, where the raw value should be low. 3. **Hourly granularity**: All metric scores are first calculated per hour, then averaged over your selected time frame (1, 3, or 6 months). ## Related Articles * [Understanding Scores](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/understanding-scores) * [Performance Scoring](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/performance-scoring) * [Stability Scoring](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/stability-scoring) * [Performance & Stability Scoring](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/performance-and-stability-scoring) * [Trend Analysis](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/trend-analysis) * [Overall Scoring](https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies/overall-scoring) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.thousandeyes.com/product-documentation/internet-insights/provider-intelligence/scoring-methodologies.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.