AI engineering glossary · Evaluation metrics
What is precision at k?
Precision at k (also called P@k, precision@k): Among the top k results returned, the fraction that are relevant. It is easy to interpret and matches how users look only at the first page, but it ignores the order within the top k and the total number of relevant items.
Precision at k: an example
If 3 of the top 5 search results are relevant, precision at 5 is 3 / 5 = 0.6.
Related terms
More Evaluation metrics terms
- Precision-recall break-even point
- Precision-recall curve
- Precision-recall trade-off
- Prediction interval coverage
- Prevalence
- Proper scoring rule
- R-precision
- Recall
Where you learn it
Precision at k is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.