⌀ Average Calculator
Mean of a list of numbers (comma or space separated). Runs privately in your browser.
Mean, median, and when they disagree
The mean is the sum divided by the count. It is the default 'average' in most contexts and the one this calculator leads with. Paste any list — test scores, monthly sales, page load times — separated by commas or spaces; the parser filters out non-numbers automatically.
The median — the middle value when sorted — is also shown where relevant, because the mean lies when data is skewed. If nine employees earn 30,000 and the owner earns 300,000, the mean salary is 58,500 while the median is 30,000. Both are correct answers to 'what's the average'; they answer different questions.
All three calculations
Mean = (sum of values) ÷ (number of values). Median = middle value of the sorted list (or the average of the two middle values for even counts).
Where an average quietly misleads
- Including zeros or blanks that aren't real data points — a zero drags the mean but not the median.
- Using the mean for heavily skewed data like incomes or house prices, where the median is the honest figure.
- Averaging rates or ratios directly. Averaging speeds over equal distances requires the harmonic mean, not the arithmetic mean.
- Small samples. The mean of three numbers can be dominated by one outlier.
A week of sales, one of them zero
Weekly sales: 120, 135, 98, 142, 155, 110, 0 (a holiday closure). Sum = 760 over 7 values, mean = 108.6 — but that closure drags it down. Median of the same list is 120. For 'a typical week', excluding the 0 and averaging 6 days gives 126.7 — context decides which number is honest.
Questions about averages
Does the calculator remove invalid entries?
Yes — non-numeric text is filtered out automatically, so pasted lists with stray letters or symbols still work.
Mean or median — which should I report?
Median for skewed distributions (income, prices, response times); mean when the data is roughly symmetric. This calculator shows both.
What about mode and range?
The mode (most frequent value) is easy to eyeball from a sorted list; the range is max − min. For typical 'average' questions, mean and median cover it.
Can I paste data from a spreadsheet?
Yes — comma, tab and space separated values all parse. Paste the column directly.
Is the average rounded?
The result keeps full precision; the display trims floating-point noise, so you see a clean figure you can round yourself.
Related maths tools
Tip: double-check inputs before relying on results for important decisions.