Top-Box Score Calculator
Find the share of respondents choosing the highest rating (or top two).
How top-box scoring works
Top-box score is the percentage of respondents who chose the single highest rating on a scale (e.g. "Excellent" on a 5-point scale). Top-2-box extends this to the two highest ratings combined. Both are standard customer-experience and brand-tracking metrics.
Enter the count of respondents who chose the top rating, the count who chose the second-highest rating, and the total number of respondents. The calculator returns both the top-box and top-2-box percentages.
Top-box metrics are reported independently of the full response distribution because they are easy to track over time and to compare against a target or competitor benchmark.
The formula
Top-box % = Top-rating count ÷ Total × 100. Top-2-box % = (Top + second-highest) ÷ Total × 100.
Divide the count of respondents who chose the top rating by the total number of respondents, and multiply by 100. Add the second-highest rating's count for top-2-box.
Worked example
400 respondents: 120 chose the top rating, 80 chose the second-highest
Top-box = 120 ÷ 400 × 100 = 30%. Top-2-box = (120 + 80) ÷ 400 × 100 = 50%.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just report the average rating?
Top-box focuses attention on genuine enthusiasm rather than a blended average, which can mask a bimodal distribution (many very satisfied and many very dissatisfied respondents averaging out to a mediocre-looking mean).
Should I use top-box or top-2-box?
Top-box is stricter and tracks true top performance; top-2-box is more stable with smaller samples. Many trackers report both, and consistency period over period matters more than which one you pick.
How is this different from the Likert Scale Analysis Calculator?
That tool summarizes a full 5-point distribution (mean, top-2-box and bottom-2-box together). This tool is a focused, simpler top-box/top-2-box calculation from raw counts, useful when you only have the top-rating counts on hand.
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