About this site
The Five-Factor Inventory is a free Big Five personality test. It exists for one reason: most tests that are genuinely backed by research are locked behind a fee or a sign-up, and most tests that are free tell you very little that is true. We wanted a version that is both.
What we are trying to do
There is a real test under the surface here, not a quiz dressed up as one. The questions are a published, public-domain instrument, the scoring follows the method psychologists use, and the write-up is meant to be read by a person who is curious about themselves rather than processed for a score. That is the whole project. No funnel, no account, no thirty-page upsell at the end.
We also try to be honest about the limits. A personality test can describe patterns; it cannot predict your future or hand you a verdict. Where the science is solid we say so plainly, and where an effect is small we say that too, because a test that oversells itself is just a horoscope with better fonts.
The instrument behind the test
The questionnaire uses the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Big-Five markers, developed by the psychologist Lewis Goldberg and released into the public domain. That last part matters. Because no company owns these items, we can show you the full result for free and tell you exactly what you are taking. The fuller explanation of the model, and the studies it rests on, lives on the home page and in our sources.
Who writes and checks it
The test, the trait write-ups, and these pages are written and edited by Maya Renner, who works on personality models and the way self-report tests are put together. Every interpretation is checked against the peer-reviewed Big Five and NEO-PI-R literature we cite. The standards we hold ourselves to, including how we handle corrections, are set out in the editorial policy.
How the site is paid for
Right now it is not monetised. There are no ads, no affiliate links, and nothing is sold. If that changes, you will see it disclosed here and in the editorial policy, and any tracking that comes with advertising will be opt-in rather than switched on quietly. We would rather lose the revenue than bury the disclosure.
Independence
We are not affiliated with the Myers-Briggs organisation, with any commercial test publisher, or with any employer running assessments. Nobody pays us to steer your result, and the result is computed on your own device from your own answers. There is nothing to put a thumb on.
One thing this site is not. It is not a clinical or diagnostic tool, and it should not be used to make decisions about hiring, treatment, or anything else with real stakes for you or someone else. The full explanation is in the disclaimer, and it is worth two minutes of your time.
Get in touch
Found an error, have a question, or want to point out something we got wrong? We read everything. The contact page has the details, and corrections genuinely do get made.
Around the rest of the site
Not taken it yet? The personality test is the whole point of the site, and the pages below sit behind it:
- Editorial policy — how the content is written, sourced, and corrected.
- Disclaimer — what your results are, and are not, meant for.
- Privacy policy — what is and is not collected when you visit.
- Cookie policy — why there is no cookie banner on this site.
- Terms of use — the terms you accept by using the site.
- Contact — corrections, questions, and privacy requests.