> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.growthmention.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Average position

> How early in an AI answer your brand is named, on average. Lower is better.

**Average position is how early your brand is named in the answers that name it.** A brand named first has position 1, the second brand named has position 2, and so on. Lower is better.

It matters because people read answers top to bottom. Being the first name in a recommendation is not the same result as being the fifth.

## How it's calculated

For each answer, every brand is given the order in which it was **first** named. Average position is the mean of your brand's positions:

```text theme={null}
Average position = sum of your positions ÷ number of answers that name you
```

This is calculated for each assistant, then averaged over the assistants that named you, each counting equally.

**Example.** In ChatGPT's answers you were named 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd: 2.0. In Perplexity's you were named 4th twice: 4.0. Your average position is **3.0**.

## Things to know

* **Only answers that name you count.** An answer that leaves you out doesn't pull your position down — that's what [brand visibility](/metrics/brand-visibility) measures. So read the two together: a great position in very few answers is still a small presence.
* **First mention only.** If a brand comes up again later in the same answer, only its first appearance counts.
* **No position without a mention.** If your brand wasn't named at all in a period, there's no average position for it — it's shown as a dash, not as zero.

## Compared to what

Position is most useful against your competitors. The **Competitors** table on the dashboard shows each brand's average position alongside its visibility and [share of voice](/metrics/share-of-voice).