Teams & projects
RICE score calculator
Score one feature or project at a time with reach, impact, confidence and effort; compare the numbers to decide what to build first.
Use the same time window for reach (for example one quarter) on every item you compare, or the scores are not comparable.
How the RICE score is calculated
RICE is a prioritization formula popularized by the product team at Intercom: RICE = reach × impact × confidence ÷ effort. Reach is how many people or events the change affects in a fixed period. Impact is how much it moves the goal for each of them, on a fixed scale of 3 (massive), 2 (high), 1 (medium), 0.5 (low) and 0.25 (minimal). Confidence is a percentage that discounts ideas backed by little evidence. Effort is the total work in person-months across design, engineering and everyone else involved.
Example: a new onboarding checklist would reach 2,000 new users per quarter with high impact (2). The team is 80% confident in those numbers and expects 4 person-months of work. RICE = 2,000 × 2 × 0.8 ÷ 4 = 800. If the same idea could be shipped in 2 person-months, the score would double to 1,600.
| Item | Reach | Impact | Confidence | Effort | RICE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onboarding checklist | 2,000 | 2 | 80% | 4 | 800 |
| Bulk export | 500 | 3 | 100% | 2 | 750 |
| Dark mode | 6,000 | 0.5 | 80% | 3 | 800 |
| Billing redesign | 8,000 | 1 | 50% | 10 | 400 |
| Search filters | 3,000 | 1 | 100% | 1.5 | 2,000 |
Getting useful RICE scores
The formula is only as good as its inputs, so fix the rules before scoring. Pick one reach window for everything, usually a quarter, and estimate reach from data such as page views or support tickets instead of guesses. Keep impact on the fixed five-step scale; inventing values like 10 for a favorite project breaks the comparison. Use confidence honestly: 100% when you have research and metrics, 80% when you have some support, 50% when it is mostly a hunch. Anything below 50% is usually better treated as an experiment to run first.
Read the result as a ranking, not a verdict. Two items within about 10–20% of each other are effectively tied, given how rough the estimates are. RICE also ignores dependencies, deadlines and strategic bets, so a contractual commitment or a platform upgrade may rightly be scheduled above a higher-scoring feature. Scoring as a group, and writing down why each number was chosen, makes it easier to revisit the estimates when real results arrive.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good RICE score?
There is no absolute threshold. RICE scores only mean something relative to other items scored with the same reach period and impact scale; work on the highest scores first.
How is effort measured in RICE?
In person-months: the total time from everyone involved. A project needing one designer for two weeks and two engineers for one month is about 2.5 person-months.
What is the difference between RICE and ICE scoring?
ICE multiplies impact, confidence and ease, usually each on a 1–10 scale, and has no reach factor. RICE adds reach and divides by effort, which makes it harder to over-rate niche features.