Average position
Average position is where your brand comes, on average, among the brands an AI answer names, counted over the answers that name you.
Average position is where your brand usually comes among the brands an AI answer names. If you're named first in some answers and third in others, your average position sits somewhere between 1 and 3. Lower is better.
It tells you whether you're the brand the platforms lead with or one they add at the end of a list. Both count as being named, but people read from the top, so the first name gets more of their attention.
How it's worked out
Take every answer that names you. Note where you came in each one, then average those places.
For example, say 10 answers name Fernhill Coffee. It comes first in 6 of them, second in 3 and fourth in 1. That's 6 + 6 + 4 = 16, divided by 10 answers, so Fernhill's average position is 1.6.
Tools differ on who they count. Some only count the brands you track. Others count every brand in the answer. If an answer names an outsider first and you second, the first kind of tool calls you first, and the second calls you second.
Read it next to visibility
Average position only looks at the answers that name you. It says nothing about the answers that leave you out.
So a brand named in 2 answers out of 140, first both times, has an average position of 1. That looks perfect and means very little. Always check how often you're named before you celebrate where.
In AnswerOrbit
We call it position. We count every brand an answer names, whether you track it or not, in the order each one first appears, and average your place over the last seven days of answers that name you. It's one of the headline numbers on the Overview.