# Difference between search score and explain value?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-between-search-score-and-explain-value/49825>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 11, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-between-search-score-and-explain-value/49825 "2016-05-11T20:31:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kevin1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@kevin1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kevin1)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-between-search-score-and-explain-value/49825/1 "2016-05-11T20:31:00Z")

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Hi,

I'm seeing a search result where there is a big difference between the score returned in the search vs the score when it's explained. In general, I also noticed that the two scores are not exactly the same. What is the difference between them?

Here's a snippet of the search results with explain on:

```
  {
    "_shard": 4,
    "_node": "KjOdjnQqQ-yQ3a0hvhlTcA",
    "_index": "index",
    "_type": "type",
    "_id": "id",
    **"_score": 0.6251602,**
    "_source": {
      .....
    },
    "_explanation": {
      **"value": 7.0064363,**
      "description": "product of:",
      "details": [
        {
          "value": 12.845133,
          "description": "sum of:",
          "details": [
          ........
          ]
        },
        {
          "value": 0.54545456,
          "description": "coord(6/11)",
          "details": []
        }
      ]
    }
  },

```

Thanks,  
Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-between-search-score-and-explain-value/49825/2 "2017-07-05T22:52:24Z")

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