Position tracking across AI answer engines
Position in AI answers is the ordinal slot a source occupies within the citation set. It is not organic rank and should never be reported as such, but it does distinguish the source an answer leans on from the one it lists last.
How it differs by engine
Read from the DOM order of the rendered citation set.
Google AI Overviews position
Read from the DOM order of the citation carousel.
google_ai_overviews
Google AI Mode position
Inline DOM order within the answer, alongside panel order.
google_ai_mode
ChatGPT position
Pill order in the answer body, and list ordinal for enumerated recommendations.
chatgpt
Perplexity position
Explicit numbered markers within the answer.
perplexity
Microsoft Copilot position
Numbered footnotes beneath the answer.
copilot
Gemini app position
Left-to-right chip order beneath the answer, plus drawer list order.
gemini
DeepSeek position
Numbered references beneath search-enabled answers.
deepseek
Qwen position
Order of inline source links within the answer body.
qwen
Kimi position
Order of document references across the answer body.
kimi
Baidu ERNIE position
Order of source links within the SERP AI answer block.
baidu_ernie
Naver position
Order of references within the answer surface.
naver
Sampling
What the API returns
{
"engine": "google_ai_overviews",
"field": "position",
"prompt": "best ai visibility tracking tool",
"country": "GB",
"language": "en",
"n": 30,
"positions": [
{
"url": "https://nostimates.com/engines",
"avg_position": 1.8,
"best_position": 1,
"spread": 0.9
}
]
}Response fields
| Key | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| url | string | Cited URL. |
| avg_position | float | Mean ordinal across samples in which it appeared. |
| best_position | integer | Best slot achieved in the sample set. |
| spread | float | Standard deviation of position across samples. |
Position FAQ
- What is position tracking?
- Position in AI answers is the ordinal slot a source occupies within the citation set. It is not organic rank and should never be reported as such, but it does distinguish the source an answer leans on from the one it lists last.
- How is position sampled?
- We report mean position with its spread, because a source that alternates between slot one and slot five is a different story from one that sits consistently at slot three.
- What does position cost?
- Included wherever the engine renders an ordered citation set.
Get position on your prompt set
Track it in the dashboard or pull it in through the API. Send us the prompts, the brands and the markets, and we'll come back with a per-engine coverage plan and the credit arithmetic behind it.