Terms

FormatDNA is an independent guide to content formats. It is free to use, requires no account, and is not affiliated with YouTube, TikTok, Twitch or any other platform it describes.

The quiz produces a score by comparing what you tell us about your time, budget, equipment and preferences against a set of characteristics we have assigned to each format. The whole model is published — the weights, the hard limits and the calibration are all described on the methodology page, and you should read it before treating a number as meaningful.

It does not know your topic, your existing audience, whether you are any good on camera, or whether you will enjoy the thing it suggests. It is most useful for ruling formats out, which is most of the value.

No score on this site should be read as a prediction that a channel will succeed.

Where example channels are listed, they are named as illustrations of a format. It does not imply any relationship with, endorsement by, or approval from those creators. Each one is checked against the live platform and signed off by a person before it appears, and a format with nothing signed off shows nothing rather than a plausible guess.

Links to other sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for their content.

A saved quiz result gets an unlisted permalink. Unlisted means it is not indexed by search engines and not linked from anywhere on this site — but anyone who has the URL can open it. Treat it as shareable, because that is what it is for. It contains no personal data.

The writing, the format taxonomy and the scoring model are the operator's work. You are welcome to quote from it with attribution and a link — that is what the machine-readable summary at /llms.txt exists for. Wholesale republication is not permitted.

The site is provided as-is. It may be wrong, it may be unavailable, and it changes without notice. Decisions about how you spend your time remain yours.