Microsoft Copilot position tracking
copilotpositionAnonymous
Footnote numbering gives Copilot an explicit citation order, read directly rather than inferred from layout.
How it renders
Numbered footnotes beneath the answer.
Sampling
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.
Gotcha
Footnote order follows reference order in the text, which correlates with Bing rank but is not the same thing. Report them separately.
What the API returns
A single collection call against Microsoft Copilot for the position field, sampled n times and returned as one object per prompt.
{
"engine": "copilot",
"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. |
Microsoft Copilot position FAQ
- Does Copilot footnote order match Bing rank?
- Loosely, not reliably. Treat them as related signals, not the same one.
- Is position worth tracking here?
- Cheaply, yes, mostly as a cross-check on your Bing organic work.
Cross-check Copilot position against Bing organic
We'll wire position tracking into your Copilot collection.
Other Microsoft Copilot data
Across every engine
Compare how position behaves on every engine we track.
Position across all engines →