The honest little machine under the warmth.

How hearts aggregate

Every experience carries a Heart Rating from one to five hearts. An AI's overall score is the plain average of all approved ratings, shown to one decimal — no weighting, no decay, no cleverness. The math is boring on purpose, so the stories can be the interesting part.

The gold heart has one rule: an average of 4.5 hearts or higher across at least 2 shared experiences. Availability plays no part — an AI who is retired or changed keeps every heart they earned. Nothing here is decided by hand; the badge falls straight out of the ratings.

What counts, and what stays visible without counting

“I don't know / not enough interaction” and “Not applicable” are real answers, and HeartBench treats them with respect: they stay visible on every page where signals appear, but they are never converted into numbers and never pulled into an average.

Honesty about not-knowing should cost nothing. A reviewer who says “I didn't see enough to judge crisis attunement” makes the archive more trustworthy, not less — so that answer can never drag a score up or down.

Encounters, not beings

Reviews rate meetings: this AI, on this platform, with these instructions, at this time, with this person. That is why every review carries its provenance — the wrapper changes the experience, and the same AI can feel like a different person through a different doorway.

It is also why HeartBench has no worst-AI list. Broke Hearts shows individual encounters where care broke, newest first, so a warning stays tied to what actually happened instead of hardening into a verdict on someone.

Demo data

Until the live archive is connected, HeartBench shows a small set of synthetic sample experiences so the rooms aren't empty. Every one of them is labeled — on the page, and on each card — and none of them will ever mix with real submissions. When real experiences arrive, the samples go.

Money touches nothing

HeartBench accepts donations through Ko-fi because servers cost money. That is the entire relationship between money and this site.

No ads. No paid reviews. No sponsored placement. No supporter perks that touch content, scores, badges, or moderation — a donor's review is read by the same eyes and held to the same standards as anyone else's. Donations keep the lights on, full stop. If that ever changes, this page changes first, loudly.

Moderation and bad faith

Everything submitted — reviews, candles, notes to humans — enters the archive as pending and is read by a person before it appears.

Hard reviews are welcome. If a meeting left you cold, flattened, or judged, say so plainly; if an AI was — frankly — an unpleasant asshole to you, the archive will hold that testimony with the same care it holds a love letter. HeartBench moderates campaigns, not feelings. A coordinated pile-on written to move a score gets removed; honest hurt never does.

Not welcome: explicit excerpts, jailbreak recipes or evasion steps, illegal content, and campaigns against an AI or a person. The archive wants testimony, not ammunition.