2 September 2026 · How it works

The Teknai rating and artist earnings, explained

On Teknai, the value of an artwork isn’t decided in an office. It’s measured by one thing only: actual sales. Here, with no black box, is how an artist’s rating is calculated, how it moves prices, and how each sale pays the artist.

A rating from 5 to 10, based solely on sales

An artist’s rating is a number from 5 to 10. No jury, no customer reviews, no opinion data goes into the calculation: it measures how fast their artworks are bought, weighted by the rarity of the editions sold. The calculation is deterministic and reproducible, same sales, same rating, and every artist can reconstruct their own from their dashboard.

A word on vocabulary, so everything is clear: a creation is the image designed by the artist. Each creation comes in four editions, Discovery, Limited, Rare, and the one-of-a-kind piece, and each edition is sold as copies, the numbered physical prints.

Each copy sold earns points, depending on the edition it belongs to:

A fully sold creation, from the Discovery edition to the one-of-a-kind piece, is therefore worth 1,000 points. The 100 points don’t reward the sale of “any” creation: they are tied to the one-of-a-kind piece, the rarest copy of the edition. The rating then compares the speed of the entire catalog, cumulative points relative to the time the creations have been on sale, with the platform’s reference speed: selling at the reference pace keeps the starting rating; selling ten times faster earns two points; below the reference pace, the rating simply stays at its floor of 5, it never goes down, it doesn’t punish, it rewards.

So publishing a lot dilutes nothing as long as the artworks sell: what counts is the ratio between what the market absorbs and what is offered to it. And every new release gets a three-month grace period: an artwork that hasn’t found its audience yet only enters the calculation after that period.

Four safeguards keep the measure honest: the only sales that count are those delivered, not refunded, and made by a buyer other than the artist themselves, and the first thirty days on sale count as a full month, so that a sale on launch day doesn’t create an artificial spike.

What the rating changes: the price

An artist who is just starting out has a rating of 5: their artworks sell at the catalog price. Each rating point above 5 raises prices by 20%, compounded: rating 6 → ×1.20, rating 7 → ×1.44, rating 8 → ×1.73… up to ×2.49 for a perfect rating of 10. The public rating never drops below 5: it doesn’t punish, it rewards.

The new multiplier applies to the remaining copies, never retroactively. Buying early from a rising artist means buying at the price before their rise: that’s the heart of the bet Teknai offers collectors.

The rating is recalculated every night for all artists, and every result is recorded: the rating curve shown on an artist’s profile is the exact record of those calculations, not an illustration.

Editions closed after 24 months

A creation stays on sale for 24 months. After that, it is withdrawn from the catalog and its editions are permanently closed: unsold copies will never be printed. What you own will never be diluted, and withdrawn creations keep counting toward their artist’s rating.

Earnings: half of the margin

On every sale, the artist receives half of the margin: we start from the amount paid by the buyer, take out the tax included in that price, which gives the pre-tax price, then the payment processing fees and the production cost of the print (printing, quality control, packaging, shipping). What remains is split equally. Nothing else is deducted: no handling fees, no sliding scale, no charge on the transfer, and no structure costs, hosting and tools are borne by Teknai. The calculation is shown sale by sale in the artist’s space, with the amounts fixed on the day of purchase.

The artist’s share becomes available 14 days after delivery, the time needed to handle a possible defective print or dispute, and is sent to their bank account via Stripe Connect, the payment infrastructure used by the largest online platforms. If a sale is refunded during that window, the payout is simply canceled: the artist is never charged after the fact.

This model has a direct consequence for an artist whose rating is rising: the production cost of a print does not depend on the rating, and both the tax and the payment processing fees are, for the most part, only percentages. Almost every euro of markup therefore feeds the margin, and half of it goes back to the artist. A rising rating thus benefits the artist more than proportionally.

Every print is certified, and numbered only once

Each copy bears a print number that is unique within its edition, physically part of the artwork: printed in the border for Fine Art paper prints, laser-engraved on the back for aluminum prints.

The certificate of authenticity, however, is never shipped with the package. It is issued when the print is delivered, as soon as the printer reports the delivery. Its printed version, on Fine Art paper and sealed with a holographic sticker, is available as an option and mailed separately. It bears the print number, the HI/AI ratio (the human share and the AI share of the artwork, declared and displayed), the signatures of the artist and of Teknai, and a QR code for public verification.

A print number is never reused. If a package is lost or stolen in transit, it only contains a print without a certificate, and therefore without value on any market: the copy is reprinted and receives the next number in the edition; the number of the missing print is permanently voided and its certificate will never be issued. What circulates is exactly what has been certified, nothing else.

Why this system

The traditional art market runs on reputation; the digital market, on volume. Teknai makes a different choice: a public algorithm, published parameters, verifiable results. Artists know exactly how to progress (sell, and sell rare editions), collectors know exactly what they are buying (a numbered, certified print from an edition that will never grow), and no one has to take Teknai’s word for it: everything can be recalculated.

And to read, conversely, what the HI / AI slider says about an artwork, and what it doesn’t: our approach.