In a method for determining the rolling force in a roll stand for rolling metallic material which is to be rolled, the rolling force is determined by means of at least one neural network. According to the invention, the neural network is trained using, in particular measured, values for the rolling force under different operating conditions with a view to improving the determination of the rolling force. The neural network is advantageously trained using values for the rolling force and values for the different operating conditions for roll stands of different rolling trains.