Comments Received / PR Report

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Comments received / PR is the average number of comments a merged pull request (PR) receives from people other than its author. It shows how much scrutiny and discussion code gets before it ships.

Why it matters

  • Review depth: very low values can mean PRs merge with little scrutiny.

  • Clarity and rework: very high values can mean unclear PRs, complex changes, or heavy back-and-forth.

  • Consistency: large differences between teams can point to uneven review standards.

How it works

Comments received / PR = Total PR Comments Received ÷ Total PRs merged

  1. For each PR, Span counts every comment left on it, except comments by the PR's author, by bots and dev agents, by ignored Git usernames, and deleted comments.

  2. Span keeps merged PRs authored by people marked Contributor, outside ignored repositories and branches.

  3. Span adds up the comments on the PRs merged in the period and divides by the number of those PRs. The denominator is every merged PR, including PRs with no comments. It isn't limited to PRs that were reviewed.

  4. Each PR lands in the period of its merge date, with all its comments, whenever they were written.

What counts as a comment: on GitHub, conversation comments, inline comments on code, and the summary text of a submitted review. On GitLab and Azure DevOps, non-system notes and comments. Comments from all reviewers count.

Where to find it: Insights > Productivity > Quality > Code review, on the Comments received / PR card. It shows one decimal place (for example 3.2) and a percentile rank. It's also in team and person Code review tabs and custom dashboards. A team or person value describes the PRs that team or person authored.

Setup

  1. Connect your version control system.

  2. Add bot or service accounts to Settings > Metrics > Ignore Git Usernames if their comments shouldn't count.

  3. Mark people who write code as Contributor in Settings > People management.

Things to know

  • Worked example. A developer merges 25 PRs in a month, and reviewers leave 100 comments across them. Comments received / PR = 100 ÷ 25 = 4.0. If 5 of those PRs had no comments at all, they still count in the 25.

  • Out-of-office days don't matter. Comments written on any day count, including days the reviewer was out of office.

  • Reverted PRs drop out of both sides, along with open and closed-unmerged PRs.

  • Past months can change. A comment added to a PR after it merged raises that PR's count in the month it merged.

  • Ignore PR Comments phrases don't apply here. The Settings > Metrics > Ignore PR Comments setting doesn't remove comments from this metric. Use Ignore Git Usernames to drop a bot's comments.

  • Span counts more than GitHub's header. GitHub's PR header counts conversation comments only; Span adds inline comments and review summaries.

  • Rough reading guide: 0.5–1.5 suggests lightweight review or simple changes; 2–4 an active feedback process; 4.5–7 substantial feedback or complex work; above 7 heavy discussion. Compare against your own trend and team norms rather than these ranges alone.

  • Read it with other metrics: Comments authored / week (feedback given), PR Review Cycles, % of PRs Merged Without Review, PR cycle time, and Review themes.

Related articles

Comments Authored / Week

PR Review Cycles

% of PRs Merged Without Review

Total PRs Merged

Need help?

Contact your Span account team or reach out to support@span.app.