How the golden ratio face test works
The golden ratio face test compares the proportions of your face with the golden ratio, a number close to 1.618 that artists and architects have used for centuries. It measures your face from one selfie, entirely on your device, then shows every number it found.
- Your photo stays on your device. It is read by your browser and never uploaded.
- Your face is mapped. A face model in your browser places hundreds of points on your face, and a second small model finds your hairline.
- Your head is straightened. The points come with depth, so the tool turns your face to look straight at the camera before it measures. A slight turn or tilt does not change your ratios.
- Your ratios are measured. Each one compares two distances, for example the width of your mouth with the width of your nose.
- You see your match. Each ratio gets a match out of 100, where 100 means it equals 1.618 exactly, and the average of the four is your golden ratio match.
The four ratios we measure
- Face length to width. The distance from hairline to chin, compared with the widest point across your cheekbones.
- Mouth width to nose width. The distance between the corners of your mouth, compared with the width of your nose at the nostrils.
- Lower lip to upper lip. The height of your lower lip, compared with the height of your upper lip.
- Nose to chin, against lips to chin. The distance from the base of your nose to your chin, compared with the distance from the line between your lips to your chin.
The test also shows your facial thirds and fifths, two older rules of proportion used in art and medicine.
How to get the most accurate result
- Look straight into the camera. The tool asks for a new photo if your head is turned or tilted more than a little.
- Hold the phone at eye level, about an arm length away. A low camera stretches the chin and a close camera makes the nose look wider, which changes two of the four ratios.
- Keep a relaxed, closed mouth. A smile widens the mouth and thins the lips, so the mouth and lip ratios move.
- Pull your hair back. The face length ratio needs your hairline. With a fringe it is estimated and left out of your match.
- Use a photo without filters. Some beauty filters reshape the face, especially the nose and jaw.
Understanding your result
Your result shows your golden ratio match out of 100, then a table with each ratio.
- Yours is your measured ratio, with two decimals.
- Ideal is the golden ratio, rounded to 1.62.
- Match is how close your ratio is to the ideal, out of 100, with a few words such as very close or some way off.
- Your facial thirds show what share of your face length each third takes. The classical ideal is a third each, though real faces usually have a slightly longer lower third.
- Your facial fifths show the five widths across your face at eye level, compared with the classical ideal of five equal parts.
Turn on Show what was measured to see the thirds, the fifths and the mouth and nose widths drawn on your photo.
Accuracy, limits and the science
The golden ratio has a long history in art and design, and plenty of popular articles claim that the most beautiful faces follow it. The research tells a different story. When scientists measured faces that people rated as attractive, they found that those faces were close to the average of many faces, not close to 1.618. In one well known set of studies, the most preferred eye positions were close to the population average and did not match the golden ratio at all.
Our own test photos agree. Across 201 straight on faces from 912 public portraits, the average face was about 1.35 times as long as it was wide, and the average mouth was about 1.33 times as wide as the nose. Both are far from 1.618, which is why most matches land in the middle of the scale. In our tests, 8 in 10 faces had a golden ratio match between 40 and 68 out of 100. So a lower match is completely normal and says nothing about how anyone looks.
We include the golden ratio because people are curious about it, and because comparing your face with a classical ideal is fun. For a measure that reflects what research ties to attractiveness, try our attractiveness test, which gives most weight to symmetry and typical proportions. Read how we tested this tool on our methodology page.
Some limits to keep in mind.
- The face model places points on the surface of your face. Small differences of a pixel or two can change a ratio by a few hundredths.
- Lip measurements change with expression and lipstick, and nose width changes with the camera distance.
- The hairline is read from your hair, so with a fringe or a hat the face length ratio is estimated.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. It is read by your browser, measured there and forgotten when you close the page. We do not upload it, store it or see it. The share card is made on your device too, and your photo appears on it only if you tick the box.
Read our privacy policy for the full details, or learn more in our guides to facial thirds and canthal tilt.