Your Snap Score is a running number on your Snapchat profile that reflects your cumulative activity on the app. It is not a follower count, not a popularity rank, and not something Snapchat makes easy to reverse-engineer. According to Snapchat’s own help center, the score is determined by a “super-secret, special equation” combining Snaps sent, Snaps received, Stories posted, and a few other factors the platform does not fully disclose.
This guide explains exactly how Snap Score works, what increases it, what definitely does not, how Snapchat+ affects it, and how to view yours and your friends’ scores.
What Is a Snap Score?
Your Snapchat score (also called Snapscore or Snap points) appears directly below your display name on your Profile screen. It accumulates over the lifetime of your account and cannot be reset or deleted. Snapchat confirms this directly: there is no way to lower or reset your Snapscore.
The score is visible to you and to people you are friends with on Snapchat. Strangers who are not on your friends list cannot see your score.
Official confirmed components (per Snapchat support):
- Snaps you send
- Snaps you receive
- Stories you post
- “A couple other factors” (undisclosed)
Snapchat has never published exact point weights per action. Everything beyond the four components above is based on community testing, not official data.
How to Check Your Snap Score
Your own score: Tap your profile icon in the top left corner of the camera screen. Your Snapscore appears beneath your display name and username.
A friend’s score: Tap on a friend’s name or profile anywhere in the app. Their Snapscore appears below their username on their profile card.
Note: You can only see scores for mutual friends. If someone has not added you back, their score will not be visible. For adding new friends, our guide on how to add someone on Snapchat covers every method including username, phone number, Snapcode, and nearby.
How to see how much a friend’s score has changed: Snapchat has a built-in tracker for this. Tap a friend’s profile, then look for the score change indicator which shows how much their score has gone up recently. This feature reflects increases over a short recent period rather than lifetime total.
How Does Snap Score Go Up?
Based on what Snapchat confirms and consistent community-verified patterns:
Sending photo or video Snaps increases your score. Every Snap you send to an individual friend adds to your count.
Receiving Snaps increases your score when you open them. A Snap sitting unopened in your inbox does not add points until you open it.
Posting Stories contributes to your score. Viewing your own or others’ Stories does not.
Group Snaps work differently from individual Snaps. Sending one Snap to a group counts as a single point for the sender, not one point per recipient. Each person who opens that group Snap gets a point for receiving it.
A practical rough estimate many users rely on: +1 for each Snap sent, +1 for each Snap received and opened, with Story posts adding a small amount. These are observed patterns, not official figures. If you want to project how fast your score can grow, our Snapchat score calculator lets you estimate based on your daily activity.
What Does NOT Increase Snap Score
Text chats and messages. No matter how long or how many, chats do not count. This is one of the most persistent misconceptions about Snapscore. Only photo and video Snaps and Story posts affect the score.
Viewing Stories. Watching Snapchat Stories, including Discover content and friends’ Stories, does not add any points.
Snapping My AI or Snapchat bots. Sending Snaps to Snapchat’s AI features or any official bot account does not count toward your score. Only person-to-person Snaps matter.
Video and audio calls. Snapchat calls, regardless of duration or frequency, have zero effect on score.
Snap Map activity. Appearing on the map, checking locations, or updating your Bitmoji status does not contribute anything.
Screenshots. Taking screenshots of Snaps or chats does not add points (though it still notifies the other person).
Unopened received Snaps in your inbox. Points for receiving a Snap credit only when you actually open it, not when it is delivered.
Snapchat+ Snapscore Multiplier
Snapchat+ subscribers have access to the Snapscore Multiplier feature. When enabled, you grow your score twice as fast when sending to or receiving from other Snapchat+ subscribers. This is the officially stated multiplier per Snapchat’s help documentation.
Important clarifications:
- The multiplier is off by default. You have to turn it on manually.
- It only applies when both people in the exchange are Snapchat+ subscribers with the feature enabled.
- Regular exchanges with non-Snapchat+ friends use standard scoring.
How to enable Snapscore Multiplier:
- Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon
- Tap your Snapchat+ membership card
- Toggle Snapscore Multiplier on
Note: Some articles describe this path differently. The path above reflects Snapchat’s current official documentation.
When Does Snap Score Update?
Snap Score does not update in real-time. Updates are batched on Snapchat’s servers and pushed periodically.
Typical timing:
- Fastest: A few minutes after activity
- Common: 15 to 30 minutes
- Slower periods: 1 to 3 hours during high-traffic times like evenings and weekends
- Rare delays: Several hours during system maintenance
If your score or a friend’s score appears frozen, it is almost always a display delay rather than a real freeze. The score is updating on Snapchat’s backend, but your device has not received the refresh yet.
To force a score refresh:
- Close the app completely and reopen it
- Log out and log back in
- Go to Settings and clear the app cache (this does not delete Snaps or chats)
- Check on a different device, as updates sometimes appear on one device before another
If a friend’s score appears to have stopped changing, that typically means either a display delay or they have genuinely reduced activity. Snapchat scores freeze when users stop sending Snaps and posting Stories.
How to Increase Your Snap Score (Legitimate Methods)
The straightforward answer: send more Snaps and post more Stories. That is the only confirmed path.
What actually works: Send photo or video Snaps to friends regularly instead of defaulting to text chats. Maintain streaks with a few active friends since streak exchanges are a natural way to keep Snaps flowing — if you ever lose one accidentally, our guide on recovering a lost Snapchat streak covers the restoration process. Post Stories consistently when you have something worth sharing.
If you have Snapchat+ and so does a friend, enabling the Snapscore Multiplier on both sides doubles the points from your exchanges.
What to avoid: Mass-sending the same Snap to large numbers of people repeatedly can look like automated behavior to Snapchat’s systems. Keeping your activity natural and directed at people you actually know is a better long-term approach than chasing score through volume.
Why You See Score Jumps of +2, +3 or More
Because scores do not update live, you often see multiple points appear at once. If you sent three Snaps and received two before the score refreshed, you will see a jump of five points all at once when the update finally displays. The math is cumulative, not instant.
Can Your Snap Score Go Down?
No. Snapchat’s official position is that there is no way to lower or reset a Snapscore. If you see a drop, it is a display glitch that corrects itself after a refresh. Scores only accumulate.
The one exception is platform enforcement: accounts flagged for fraudulent behavior such as fake engagement or bot activity can have their scores reset as a penalty.
Common Snap Score Myths
Myth: Chats count if you send enough of them. No. Text chats have never contributed to Snapscore regardless of volume.
Myth: Videos score higher than photos. Both give the same credit. A one-second video and a photo are treated identically. A 60-second video does not score higher than either.
Myth: Checking someone’s score too often freezes it. Your viewing activity has no effect whatsoever on score updates. Frozen-looking scores are always display delays.
Myth: You can get multiple points per Snap by sending to many people. Snapchat counts the action of sending, not the number of recipients. Sending to ten people at once counts as one send for scoring purposes.
Myth: Snap Score is being removed. This rumor resurfaces regularly. Snapchat has no announced plans to remove Snapscore, and it remains actively integrated into the platform experience.
Myth: A high score means someone is currently very active. Scores accumulate over the lifetime of an account. A person with a very high score may have been intensely active years ago and barely uses the app today. Score is a lifetime metric, not a real-time activity indicator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Score updates batch, so if you sent one Snap and received one before the display refreshed, you see a +2 jump all at once. The score is counting multiple actions at once, not a single action worth two points.
No. Only photo and video Snaps and Story posts count. Text conversations have no effect on score.
Yes, but only when you open them. An unread Snap sitting in your inbox does not add points until you open it.
Snapchat uses a private formula. The confirmed inputs are Snaps sent, Snaps received (when opened), Stories posted, and undisclosed additional factors. Exact point weights are not published.
Yes. The Snapscore Multiplier feature doubles your score growth for exchanges with other Snapchat+ subscribers when both parties have it enabled. The feature is off by default and must be activated in your Snapchat+ membership card settings.
No. Scores only increase. Any apparent decrease is a temporary display error that corrects itself after refreshing.
It is almost certainly a display delay. Scores typically refresh within a few minutes to an hour. If it appears frozen for more than several hours, the person may have reduced their Snapchat activity significantly, since inactive accounts stop accumulating points.
No. Sending one Snap to a group counts as one point for the sender. Each recipient individually gets a point when they open it, but the sender does not receive one point per recipient.
Posting Stories adds to your score. Viewing Stories, including others’ Stories and Discover content, does not.
Alex Bennett is an entrepreneur whose practical tips have helped thousands improve their careers and grow with confidence.