What is MAE (Mean Absolute Error)?

MAE – Mean Absolute Error in statistics is a quantity used to measure how close forecasts or predictions are to the eventual outcomes.The mean absolute error is an average of the absolute error where is the prediction and the true value. Note that alternative formulations may include relative frequencies as weight factors. The mean absolute error used the same scale as the data being measured. This is known as a scale-dependent accuracy measure and therefore cannot be used to make comparisons between series using different scales. The mean absolute error is a common measure of forecast error in time series analysis, where the terms “mean absolute deviation” is sometimes used in confusion with the more standard definition of mean absolute deviation. The same confusion exists more generally.

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