> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.honestly.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How are scores and heatmap colors calculated? > How every answer becomes a score between 0 and 100 %, however many answer options a question has, and what decides whether a heatmap cell turns red, yellow or green. Questions in a survey have different numbers of answer options: sometimes 4, sometimes 5, 7 or 8. So that you can still compare their results side by side, Honestly converts every answer into a score between 0 and 100 %. The numbers in your dashboard and the colors of the heatmap are built from these scores. ### How does an answer become a score? Every answer is spread evenly across the range from 0 to 100 %: * The worst answer option of a question always scores **0 %**. * The best answer option always scores **100 %**. * The answer options in between are evenly spaced. As a formula: `Score = (answer − worst answer) ÷ (best answer − worst answer) × 100` For star ratings, 1 star is 0 % and 5 stars are 100 %. ### Why doesn't the number of answer options matter? The two ends are always the same, 0 % and 100 %. The number of answer options only changes the size of the steps in between: * **4 answer options:** 0 / 33 / 67 / 100 % * **5 answer options:** 0 / 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 % * **7 answer options:** 0 / 17 / 33 / 50 / 67 / 83 / 100 % * **8 answer options:** 0 / 14 / 29 / 43 / 57 / 71 / 86 / 100 % The best answer is worth 100 % on every question and the worst 0 %. That is why you can compare a question with 4 answer options directly with a question with 7 answer options in the same heatmap. With an even number of answer options (4, 6 or 8) there is no true middle: no answer scores exactly 50 %, and every single answer sits clearly on the positive or the negative side. In a heatmap, such questions can therefore swing a little further than questions with an odd number of answer options. ### How is the value of a heatmap cell calculated? In a heatmap, each row is a question and each column is a group, for example a department. The value of a cell is the plain average of all individual answer scores that people from this group gave to this question. An example for a question with 4 answer options and 10 answers in one department: * 4 × best answer = 4 × 100 % * 4 × second-best answer = 4 × 67 % * 2 × second-worst answer = 2 × 33 % That gives (400 + 267 + 67) ÷ 10 = **73 %**. If you show several questions in one heatmap, the **Average** row combines each group across all questions. Every single answer counts the same, so a question with more answers carries more weight. ### What color does a cell get? The color is a continuous gradient without thresholds: * **0 %** is red. * **50 %** is yellow. * **100 %** is green. Every value in between gets a blended shade; 75 %, for example, sits exactly halfway between yellow and green. There is no value at which a cell becomes "officially green". The color is **absolute, not relative**. The same score has the same color in every heatmap and every dashboard, no matter how well or badly the other cells do. A heatmap in which every value lies between 70 and 85 % is therefore yellow-green throughout, not artificially stretched from red to green. ### Why is a cell gray or a column missing? A gray cell has no value. Usually this is because of the anonymity threshold: if too few people in this group answered the question, no result is shown. A cell is also gray if nobody in the group answered this question. If a group does not reach the threshold at all, it does not appear as a column in the first place. Find out more in [How is the anonymity at Honestly ensured?](/help/before-you-begin/anonymity-ensured). ### Special cases #### NPS Questions on the [Net Promoter Score](/help/faq/nps) are not converted into percentages: * 0 to 6 counts as −100 * 7 and 8 count as 0 * 9 and 10 count as +100 The value therefore lies between −100 and +100. The colors follow the same logic on this scale: −100 is red, 0 is yellow and +100 is green. #### Top 2 If you choose **Top 2** instead of **Average** under **Select the calculation type** in the chart editor, each answer counts either as 100 % (one of the two best answer options; for stars, 4 or 5 stars) or as 0 %. The value of a cell is then the share of answers that fall on the two best answer options. #### Your own scale instead of percentages Under **Settings → Results display** or in the dashboard settings, you can show averages on your own scale instead of as percentages, for example 1–5. This only changes the number shown, not the color: both are the same even conversion. 3.0 on a scale from 1 to 5 is therefore the same yellow as 50 %. How to switch the display is explained in [Display Means in Dashboards](/help/dashboard/display-means). ### Related articles * [Display Means in Dashboards](/help/dashboard/display-means) * [How do I create a heatmap?](/help/dashboard/create-heatmap) * [How are the Honestly Charts calculated?](/help/dashboard/charts-calculation) * [Understanding Score Values and Percentages in Survey Results](/help/faq/scores-and-percentages) * [What is NPS?](/help/faq/nps)