How Ranking Works

Section 01

1. What can appear

Only listings that are active (they passed review and are not paused, archived or removed) appear in search, browse and recommendations, and only while their creator's account is not suspended or closed. A paid listing also needs a creator who can take payments through Stripe; free listings do not. Products that were removed, paused, archived or are still in review never appear, whatever their past popularity.

Section 02

2. Search results

When you search, Lusso finds the listings that match your words and orders them by these parameters, most important first:

1. Relevance to your words. Your words are matched against the product name, its tagline, the creator's name, its tags and its description. A match in the name counts most; matches in the tagline, the creator's name and the tags count less, and matches in the description least. Product type and category are not matched against your words: use the filters for them. If nothing matches, Lusso looks again for product names spelled like your search, so a typo such as "agnet" still finds "agent", and orders those by how similar the name is.
2. AI products first. Between equally relevant results, AI products (such as agents, assistants, prompts, MCP servers, automations, models and datasets) come before templates, design assets, courses and services.
3. Customers. Then the number of customers who bought the product or claimed it for free. Refunded or revoked purchases do not count.
4. Recency. Then the most recently published listing.

Ratings, reviews, views, wishlist saves and the trending score do not change the order of search results. Filters you choose (category, product type, price, rating, compatible models, providers or platforms, security review) narrow the results; they do not reorder them.

Section 03

3. Sort options

Search, Explore and category pages have a sort menu. Each option orders listings as follows:

• Recommended (the default when you browse without searching): AI products first, then by number of customers, then listings with at least 3 reviews before those with fewer, then by average rating, then newest.
• Best match (the default when you search): as described under Search results.
• Best selling: by number of customers, then average rating, then newest.
• Newest: most recently published first.
• Top rated: listings with at least 3 reviews first, then by average rating, then by number of reviews.
• Price: low to high and Price: high to low: by listed price (the cheapest licence tier for listings with tiers, the suggested price for pay-what-you-want listings).
• Trending: by trending score (below); listings without a score follow, by number of customers, then newest.

When you search and pick another option, the listings that match your words are shown in that option's order.

Section 04

4. Trending score

The trending score measures recent activity. It is recomputed every hour from the last 7 days, adding up for each day:

• each purchase or free claim, weighted 3 (a fully refunded order stops counting);
• each appearance in search results, weighted 0.4;
• each click on one of the listing's outbound links (its demo, video, documentation, support or repository), weighted 0.4;
• each product page view, weighted 0.2.

Older days count less: each day's total is multiplied by e^−age/3 (age in days), so activity from 3 days ago counts about 37% as much as today's, and activity older than 7 days does not count. Views, search appearances and outbound clicks are counted at most once per visitor (and per signed-in account) per product per day. Bots and crawlers, a creator's activity on their own products and test orders are not counted. Wishlist saves, ratings and reviews are not part of the score.

Section 05

5. Home page, For You, product pages and suggestions

On the public home page:

• Trending this week: listings with a trending score, highest first.
• New on Lusso: most recently published first.
• Top rated: only listings with at least 3 reviews, by average rating, then by number of reviews.
• Popular AI products and the other category rails on the home page: by number of customers, then newest.
• The large spotlight card: today's Product of the day if the team picked one; otherwise the listing with the highest trending score that is not already in Best Selling (labelled "Trending now"); otherwise the most recently published listing (labelled "Newest on Lusso").

Each section of the home page shows listings that the sections above it did not already show, in its own order, and a section with too few listings left is not shown. Demo listings (shown outside the live site only, and never for sale) are not counted in the totals at the top of the page and only fill a spotlight or the cards at the top when no real listing can.

On For You, the home page you see when signed in, the large card, Explore by type, Trending Now, Top Rated and New Arrivals show the same listings to everyone; they are not personalised:

• The large card at the top shows one listing, chosen in this order: the Lusso team's Featured pick, then today's Product of the day if the team picked one (both labelled "Editor's pick"); otherwise the listing with the highest trending score (labelled "Trending now"), preferring one whose card shows a rating from at least 3 reviews or at least 5 sales; otherwise the listing with the most completed sales, if it has at least 5 (labelled "Best seller"); otherwise the most recently published listing (labelled "New arrival"). A listing you already own is never the large card.
• Explore by type: up to 8 top-level categories that have active listings, AI categories first, then by number of active listings (counting their subcategories).
• Trending Now: listings with a trending score, highest first. Until any listing has a score, the shelf is titled Best Selling and shows the Marketplace's Best Selling list (most completed sales first, listings with at least one sale).
• Top Rated: only listings with at least 3 reviews, by average rating, then by number of reviews. Team pins are not used here.
• New Arrivals: most recently published first. Team pins are not used here.

The listing in the large card is not repeated in the shelves under it, and a card never carries a "New" badge on a shelf where more than two in five listings are new (it marks listings published in the last 14 days), or on a product you already own.

Three For You shelves use only what you did on Lusso yourself (nothing from other websites, and no inferred profile). Each appears only when it has something to show, and you change it by changing what you saved, follow or own:

• Continue with your library: the products you own, the most recently bought or claimed first.
• Because you saved …: listings in the same category as the product you saved most recently (then its parent category), by average rating, number of customers and newest; never a product you saved or own.
• New from creators you follow: listings the creators you follow published in the last 90 days, newest first; never a product you own.

On product pages and your wishlist:

• Similar products on a product page: listings of the same product type, and of the same category when it has one. Those sharing at least one tag with the product come first, then by average rating, number of reviews, number of shared tags and newest. When fewer than four qualify, the row is completed with listings of the same type in any category, then listings of the product's parent category (by average rating, then newest), then the creator's other listings that More from this creator does not already show.
• More from this creator on a product page: the creator's other listings, newest first.
• Suggestions on your wishlist page: trending listings, then listings with at least 3 reviews by average rating, then the newest; never a product you own.

Top this week, on the home page and For You, shows the first five listings of each Top Chart that has any (see Top Charts below).

Section 06

6. Top Charts

Top Charts ranks listings from the same hourly activity totals as the trending score. There are three charts, each of which can be narrowed to one top-level category:

• Top Paid: paid listings by completed purchases in the last 28 days (test orders are never counted, and refunded or charged-back purchases are taken back out). A listing appears after at least 3 completed purchases in that time.
• Top Free: free listings by downloads in the last 28 days. A listing appears after at least 3 downloads in that time.
• Trending this week: by the trending score above, over the last 7 days. A listing appears after at least 25 product page views in those days.

Equal totals keep the earlier-published listing first. Each row shows how it moved compared with the same chart computed one week earlier, or "New" if it was not on that chart. Only live listings that can be bought or downloaded are ranked; demo, unpublished and removed listings never appear. A chart with no listing above its minimum says so instead of showing anything. Sales and download counts are shown on a row only from 5. Creators cannot pay for a chart position, and the Lusso team does not place or pin listings in the charts.

Section 07

7. Editorial placements

Featured, Product of the day, AI spotlight and curated collections are chosen by the Lusso team for quality, usefulness and variety, and the website labels them where they appear. When no product of the day has been picked, the home page's spotlight shows the top trending listing instead, labelled "Trending now", or the newest listing, labelled "Newest on Lusso" (see above), and Featured and the website's AI spotlight are not shown when nothing has been picked. In the Lusso apps, AI spotlight shows the team's picks followed by the best-selling AI products.

The team can also pin listings to the front of the New on Lusso and Top rated rails on the public home page (a Top rated pin still needs at least 3 reviews); the Featured pick and the Product of the day can also lead For You, labelled "Editor's pick". Pinned listings are not marked individually. Creators cannot pay for any of these placements. The team can also choose a listing for any slot a Sponsored placement can use (the home spotlight, the section bands, section and category pages, product pages and For You); it shows there only while no paid placement is booked, labelled "Featured" or "Staff pick".

Section 08

8. Paid placements (Sponsored)

Lusso sells a small, capped number of paid placements to advertisers. They are advertising, not ranking. Buying one never changes where any listing appears in search results, sort orders, Trending, the charts, For You, similar products, collections, editorial picks, reviews or Ask-Lusso answers: none of those reads the paid placements, and the same parameters described above apply to the advertiser's own listing. A creator's plan tier is not a ranking parameter either. The AI app directory's affiliate relationships are a separate matter and are described below.

Creators' own promotions. A creator can book a Sponsored placement for their own live listings in Creator Studio, for whole weeks at a flat weekly price from our rate card (see the Advertiser Terms). Each slot has a fixed number of positions per page and a fixed number of weekly bookings that take turns; nobody can buy more than a slot's positions. Where they appear, and the most that one page shows:

• Home spotlight: a wide card on the home page under Staff Picks, never inside the hero. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• Home Sponsored row: the home page's own row headed "Sponsored", after the leading AI apps. At most 3 sponsored items per page.
• Home section bands: one card, second in line, in a section's band on the home page. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• Section pages: the first card of the results on a section page, page 1 only. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• Category pages: the first card of the results on a category page and its topics, page 1 only. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• Search results: the first and sixth results on page 1 of a search, only for listings that match the words searched. At most 2 sponsored items per page.
• Product pages: a "Sponsored alternatives" row after "You may also like", from the same category and never the same creator. At most 2 sponsored items per page.
• Ask Lusso: one card under a finished answer, only for a listing that matches the question; the assistant never sees it. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• For You: one card in a member's For You feed, the same rotation for every member. At most 1 sponsored item per page.
• Lusso Clipping: the first card of the clipping marketplace, promoting a creator's live clipping campaign. At most 1 sponsored item per page.

These placements are chosen by context only: the page, its section or category, or the words you searched for or asked. Each person sees the same placement at most a few times a day (a frequency cap per placement). Accounts that have not confirmed they are 18 or older never see paid placements, and none is ever targeted using profiling or sensitive data. A placement shows the listing's real rating and reviews only, never anything it has not earned. When no paid placement is booked, the slot shows a pick by the Lusso team labelled "Featured" or "Staff pick" (never paid), or nothing.

Sponsorships sold by our partnerships team (Partners), and how many at a time:

• Category Sponsor: the first card of the results on one category page and its topic pages, on the first page of results only. At most 1 sponsored card per page.
• Section Sponsor: the first card of the results on one section page (Apps, Repos, Courses or Digital Products), on the first page of results only. At most 1 sponsored card per page.
• Home Sponsored Row: a separate row headed "Sponsored" on the home page, never inside the hero or an editorial band. At most 3 cards (4 in launch week).
• Sponsored App: the first tile of one use-case view in the AI apps showcase, at most 1 per view, and at most 2 sponsored tiles on the All view.
• Launch Week Spotlight: during launch week only, the sponsored card on one section page and one card in the home row, inside the limits above.

The organic results keep their own order and number after a sponsored card; a placement is shown in addition to them, never in place of a result's earned position. When more paid placements share a slot than it shows, they take turns evenly by the hour. An unsold slot shows nothing. Newsletter and social media sponsorships appear outside the website and are marked as ads where they appear.

Every paid placement carries a visible "Sponsored" label and the line "Paid by" with the advertiser's name (and the payer's, when someone else paid). "Why am I seeing this?" next to the label shows who paid and why you see it: everyone who opens the page sees the same placement, and it is not targeted using your personal data, your location or your activity. Paid placements are never labelled Featured, Top, Best, Recommended, Verified or Partner.

An advertiser can only promote a live listing that passed our normal review (and security review, where the product runs code), or an app our editors already include in the AI apps showcase; paying does not add an app or skip a review. The Lusso team approves each placement before it runs and can pause it. These are never for sale: the home hero, featured and staff picks, product of the day and the ai spotlight, collections and pins, top charts and the leaders bands, search results and their order, for you and similar products, product pages and checkout, ask lusso answers, reviews, ratings and verification badges, security reviews, the editorial order of the ai apps directory.

Section 09

9. AI app directory (external apps)

The AI app directory under Apps lists third-party AI apps that are not sold on Lusso; each one is labelled "External app, not sold on Lusso". They are never mixed into product results. The directory, its "Leading AI apps" band (on the home page and under Apps) and each use-case list show the apps in an order the Lusso team sets, and that order partly reflects commercial relationships:

• Apps with an affiliate or partner relationship with Lusso may be featured or ranked higher. Apps whose maker runs an affiliate programme are placed first, alongside the best-known AI apps, which are featured whether or not they have a programme.
• Lusso may earn a commission when you sign up for or buy an app through one of its links. Each affiliate link is labelled next to the link, and every band and list carries a disclosure. See the Affiliate Disclosure.
• Within that order, apps are chosen for what they do. No maker pays a fee to be listed. Ratings never decide this default order: they appear in three labelled layers (the Lusso community rating, ratings from other places, and Lusso's “Good for” scores) and order the list only when you pick “Best for” or “Top rated”, as explained in How Ratings Work. A search shows the apps whose name or maker matches your words.

Section 10

10. Personalisation

Rankings are the same for everyone; we do not personalise them based on profiling of your personal data. The exceptions only leave things out: suggestions on your wishlist page leave out the products on your wishlist, and the products you already own are left out of For You's large card, the suggestions on your wishlist page and a product page's similar products. The Ask-Lusso assistant, where enabled, searches the same public listings its own way: listings that match any of your words, ordered by how well they match (a match in the product name counts extra), then by number of customers, average rating and newest. It does not use the trending score, and you can always browse without it.

Section 11

11. Reviews and ratings

Only customers who bought or downloaded a product on Lusso can review it, once per product, and creators cannot review their own products. Each review is labelled by how the reviewer got the product: "Verified purchase" if they paid, "Free download" if they got it free, and "Refunded purchase" if the payment was later refunded or reversed. Ratings are calculated from all published reviews; we do not remove negative reviews unless they break our Acceptable Use and AI Policy.

Section 12

12. Equal treatment

Products from all creators are ranked with the same parameters. If Lusso or a company related to it ever lists its own products, they will be ranked by the same rules and identified as such.

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