Slow Review Processing

Review processing time is the duration between clicking "Review" and receiving your scored results. Understanding what affects processing time helps you set realistic expectations and troubleshoot when reviews take longer than expected.

The primary factor is content length. Short content (under 1,000 words) is processed fastest. Medium-length content (1,000-5,000 words) takes moderately longer. Very long content (over 5,000 words) takes the longest because the AI model needs to read and evaluate more text against each criterion. If you are consistently reviewing very long documents, expect processing times at the higher end of the range.

The number of criteria in your reviewer also affects processing time. Each criterion requires a separate evaluation pass, so a reviewer with seven criteria takes longer than one with three. This is a normal trade-off -- more criteria provide more granular feedback but require more processing time. If speed is critical, consider whether you can consolidate similar criteria or use separate focused reviewers for quick spot-checks.

Model selection has a significant impact. More capable models -- those with higher credit multipliers -- often take longer to generate responses because they perform more sophisticated analysis. Standard models are typically faster. If you need quick results for a routine check, a standard model may be the better choice. Reserve premium models for content where nuanced evaluation justifies the additional time.

Knowledge base retrieval adds a small amount of processing time. When a reviewer has an attached knowledge base, the system retrieves relevant passages before the AI evaluation begins. This retrieval is typically fast (under a few seconds) but adds to the total processing time. The improvement in review accuracy usually more than justifies this small overhead.

External factors can occasionally affect processing time. If AI provider APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are experiencing high load or degraded performance, response times increase. This is uncommon but does happen, especially during major product launches by the AI providers. If you notice widespread slowness, check the provider's status page.

For BYOK users, processing time may be affected by your API key's rate limits. If your key has a low requests-per-minute limit, high-volume usage can cause queuing. Check your provider dashboard for rate limit settings and increase them if needed.

If reviews consistently take more than a minute with standard-length content and a standard model, and the issue persists across multiple reviews, contact TeamBench support. Provide details about the content length, selected model, number of criteria, and approximate processing time, and the team can investigate whether there is an infrastructure issue affecting your account.