So you paid, you uploaded your raw DNA file, and now you are looking at the screen wondering what actually happens next. Fair question. A lot of services go quiet at this point and leave you refreshing a page for hours. We would rather just tell you. Here is the whole timeline, from the second you hit upload to the moment your report is ready, with nothing hidden.
The moment you hit upload
Your file lands with us right away, usually in a few seconds. It is encrypted and tied to your account only, so no one is sitting there browsing your genome. You do not need to clean it, rename it, or convert anything first. Upload it exactly how your testing kit gave it to you. We take .txt, .csv, .vcf, .fastq, and .zip, so whatever your provider exported, it almost certainly works as is.
We check it first
Before any analysis runs, a real person confirms your file is a genotype file we can actually read, and that it is complete and not cut off halfway. This takes a short while, not days. If something looks off, we do not fail silently and leave you wondering what went wrong. We send it back and tell you exactly what to re-upload, in plain words. Once it passes that check, it moves into processing and the clock starts.
Then the real work runs
This is the part that takes the time, and it is worth understanding why. Four things happen here, in order:
- Parse. We read every position in your file and the letters you carry there.
- Quality-check. We catch positions that look unreliable, so they never reach your report as false confidence.
- Call your variants. We settle what you actually have at each spot.
- Annotate. We compare each one against curated clinical and population databases. This is the step that turns a list of letters into something you can read.
That last step is the whole point. Your raw file on its own does not mean much. The meaning comes from comparing your positions against what is known about them today. Most reports are finished in 8 to 12 hours, and we are on time about 99 percent of the time.
You do not have to sit and wait. Close the tab, go about your day, and come back. Your dashboard always shows exactly where your analysis is: received, processing, or ready.
Why it is hours and not minutes
A tool that spits out a result in thirty seconds is skipping the careful parts. We would rather take a few hours and get the quality checks and the annotation right than hand you something fast and shaky. Your genome is not a toy, and a report you cannot trust is worse than no report at all. The wait is the quality.
Your report is ready
When it is done, your dashboard flips to delivered and your results are right there. Depending on your plan, that covers traits, carrier status, pharmacogenomics, cardiovascular and hereditary risk, and more. You can download your files to keep, open the interactive results to move through each section at your own pace, and on the Max Plan you can ask the Health AI about any marker in plain language, with every answer tied back to a variant in your own data. See a sample report ›
After that, it is yours
Your report stays in your account, so you can come back to it whenever you want, from any device. We keep one analysis per account on purpose, so every genome stays isolated and easy to audit. And if you ever change your mind, you can delete all of your data any time from your account page, and it is gone for good. It is your genome. You stay in control of it, start to finish.
The short version
If you just want the timeline at a glance:
- You upload your file. It is encrypted to your account.
- We confirm it is readable, usually quickly.
- The analysis runs: parse, quality-check, call, annotate.
- In 8 to 12 hours, your report is delivered.
- You read it, download it, and keep or delete it whenever you want.