analytics-dictionary / term / experimentation
Multi-armed bandit
A multi-armed bandit shifts traffic towards better-performing variants while a test is still running.
Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026
It balances exploring options with exploiting the best one, so less traffic is wasted on losers. It suits short-lived campaigns and optimisation, but gives less clean learning than a fixed A/B test.
Use bandits when the aim is to maximise results, not to understand why.
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