MAE (Mean Absolute Error) Abbreviation

What is MAE?

MAE (Mean Absolute Error) measures the average magnitude of errors in predictions, without considering their direction.

Formula

MAE = (1/n) * sum|actual - predicted|

Interpretation

• Same units as target: If predicting age in years, MAE is in years
• Lower is better: 0 = perfect predictions
• Intuitive: Average error you'd expect

Advantages

• Easy to interpret
• Not sensitive to outliers
• Linear penalty for errors

Related Terms

• MSE: Mean Squared Error (squares errors)
• RMSE: Root Mean Squared Error