This chapter outlines the various methods that have been developed in the past three decades to characterize the electroactive performance of conducting polymers (CP) to provide fundamental metrics such as strain, strain rate, stress, force, modulus of elasticity, and work capacity. In addition to providing metrics, these characterization techniques have served as valuable tools for studying CPs, providing a greater understanding of the actuation process, optimizing synthesis conditions, and geometric parameters for optimal device performance. The issues associated with the determination of metrics and the need for standardization are discussed.