AO3 Purity Test · 100 Items · Free · No Sign Up
AO3 Purity Test
Check every AO3 tag, trope, or fanfiction experience you've read or experienced. Your final score shows just how deep into the Archive you've gone. Also called the AO3 Rice Purity Test by fans looking for a fanfiction-themed spin on the classic checklist.
Start the AO3 Purity TestFor entertainment only. Some tags and experiences reference mature fanfiction content. Your answers stay in this browser.
100-item AO3 checklist
Check what you've read or done.
Your progress
How to answer: For tags and tropes, check the box if you've read them. For actions and experiences, check the box only if you've personally done them.
Leaving an item unchecked simply means it doesn’t lower your score.
100 − checked items = your AO3 Purity Score
Your result
Your AO3 Purity Score
About this checklist
What Is the AO3 Purity Test?
The AO3 Purity Test is a fanfiction-themed spin on the classic Rice Purity Test. Instead of focusing on general life experiences, this version checks the AO3 tags, tropes, reading habits, fandom experiences, and Archive features you've encountered. Fans often search for it as the AO3 Rice Purity Test or AO3 rice purity when they want a score that feels closer to Archive of Our Own culture than a campus checklist.
People use both names, but the checklists are not the same. A classic purity checklist asks what you have done in ordinary life. An AO3 Purity Test asks what you have read, filtered, bookmarked, written, or lived through inside fanfiction spaces. Slow burn, hurt/comfort, dead dove warnings, WIP subscriptions, and the difference between “/” and “&” relationship tags all belong here in a way they never would on a general-life list.
This page is free and needs no account: one hundred original items, one point each, and a private result that stays in your browser. You can finish in about five to eight minutes, share only the score if you want, and ignore anyone treating the number like a moral grade. It is not affiliated with the Organization for Transformative Works or Archive of Our Own.
Simple rules
How Does the AO3 Purity Test Work?
Scroll the checklist and mark every item that applies. The list mixes seventy tags and tropes, twenty reading and AO3 site habits, and ten writing or community experiences. Sections move from everyday romance tropes into deeper Archive formats, then into late-night reading habits, AO3 features you may use, and creator or community moments.
Use two different standards while you check boxes. For tags and tropes, mark an item if you have read at least one fanfiction featuring it. For habits, AO3 features, and community experiences, mark the item only if you have personally done or lived it. That split keeps “I have seen enemies to lovers” separate from “I have published on AO3,” which is where many generic lists get confusing.
When you finish, your AO3 Purity Score is calculated as:
100 − number of checked items
Every item counts the same, and the same answers always produce the same score. More checks mean a lower score and a longer trail through fanfiction culture. Fewer checks mean a higher score and an earlier place on the Archive path. Unchecked items simply do not count; you never have to force an answer on every line if something does not apply.
Score ranges
What Does Your AO3 Purity Score Mean?
Your score is simply how many items you left unchecked, shown on a familiar 0–100 scale. It does not measure taste quality, writing skill, morality, maturity, or whether your fandom habits are “too much.” Two readers can land on the same number for completely different reasons: one may live in fluff and coffee-shop AUs, while another mostly marks site habits and longfic stamina.
Your result also shows three easy totals—Tags & Tropes, AO3 Habits, and Writing & Community—so the number is easier to talk about without listing every sensitive tag you marked. Labels below describe how many items you checked. They are playful Archive metaphors, not verdicts. A lower score does not mean “dirty,” “impure,” or “bad.”
Still early in the tags, with plenty of common tropes and site features left to explore.
Familiar romance tropes and the occasional late-night chapter, without living inside advanced filters yet.
Comfortable with common tags, AUs, and the habit of chasing one more related work.
Filters, bookmarks, favorite tropes, and recurring authors are part of ordinary reading life.
Well past the first page of search results, including niche formats and heavier warning tags.
Longfics, subscriptions, orphan_account knowledge, and careful tagging habits feel normal.
The Archive is basically part of your identity now—as a reader, a careful tag browser, and likely someone active in fandom too.
Side by side
AO3 Purity Test vs. Rice Purity Test
Both checklists use one hundred items and a 0–100 score, which is why people bundle them in search as an AO3 Rice Purity Test. The shared format stops there. The classic Rice Purity Test covers general life experiences many people associate with school, dating, parties, and adulthood milestones. This AO3 Purity Test focuses on fanfiction tags, Archive habits, and fandom community moments.
If you want a broad conversation-starter about life experiences, take the classic list. If you want a score your group chat will actually recognize—mutual pining, only one bed, kudos, private bookmarks—stay on this page. They share a familiar format, but they measure different corners of experience.
| AO3 Purity Test | Rice Purity Test | |
|---|---|---|
| Main topic | AO3 & fanfiction | General life experiences |
| Items | 100 | 100 |
| Focus | Tags, tropes, fandom & AO3 habits | Personal experiences |
| Score | 0–100 | 0–100 |
| Best for | Fanfiction / AO3 users | General audience |
Same neighborhood
AO3 Purity Test vs. Fanfiction Purity Test
A fanfiction purity test—or fanfic purity test—can cover fandom culture in general: shipping habits, convention stories, or the chaos of falling into a new fandom overnight. A fandom purity test might stay even broader and barely mention any single archive. Those lists can be fun, but they often skip the details that make AO3 feel like AO3.
This AO3 Purity Test stays closer to the Archive. It includes Archive of Our Own tags, filtering habits, bookmarks, subscriptions, relationship-tag conventions, site skins, kudos, gift works, and other AO3-only experiences beside the tropes every fanfic reader knows. If you wanted a fanfiction purity test because you live in the Archive, one focused checklist is enough—you don’t need a different test for every search phrase.
Take the test for entertainment, compare scores with friends if you want, and keep the result in perspective. The useful part is the shared vocabulary: which tropes you have met, which habits you recognize, and how deep your own path through the Archive has already gone.
Keep exploring
More Purity Tests
Compare your Archive score with the classic Rice Purity Test, or try another modern checklist next.
Private by default
Your answers stay with you.
Your selections stay only in this browser so you can come back later. Shared links and score cards show the number only—not which tags or experiences you checked.
Read privacy details · Take the classic Rice Purity Test
Independent project. Not affiliated with Archive of Our Own, the Organization for Transformative Works, Rice University, or Rice Thresher.
Quick answers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the AO3 Purity Test?
The AO3 Purity Test is a 100-item fanfiction checklist. You mark AO3 tags, tropes, reading habits, and community experiences you've encountered, then receive an AO3 Purity Score from 0 to 100.
How many questions are in the AO3 Purity Test?
There are 100 items: 70 tags and tropes, 20 reading or AO3 site habits, and 10 writing or community experiences.
How is the AO3 Purity Score calculated?
Start at 100. Each checked item subtracts one point. Score equals 100 minus the number of checked items. Every item counts the same.
What is a good AO3 Purity Test score?
There is no official good, bad, or average score. Higher scores mean fewer checked items; lower scores mean more Archive and fandom experiences on this list. The labels are for fun, not judgment.
Is the AO3 Purity Test the same as the Rice Purity Test?
No. People sometimes call this the AO3 Rice Purity Test because it borrows the familiar 100-item format. The classic Rice Purity Test covers general life experiences; this version is built around AO3 and fanfiction culture.
Is this also a fanfiction purity test?
Yes. It works as a fanfiction purity test and fanfic purity test, with extra AO3-specific items so it also covers Archive habits that a generic fandom purity test might skip.
Does the AO3 Purity Test save my answers?
We don’t store your answers on a server. They stay in your browser on this device so you can resume later, and they are not included in shared score text.