Average calculator

Paste or type a list of numbers to get the mean, median, mode, range, sum and standard deviation.

By the Calcist team · Checked against known answers · Updated October 26, 2026

Private: calculated on your device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

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Mean, median and mode

Mean (the usual "average"): add the numbers and divide by how many there are. For 85, 92, 78, 92, 88, 70 the sum is 505, so the mean is 505 ÷ 6 = 84.17.
Median: the middle number once they're sorted. With an even count, it's halfway between the two middle numbers: 70, 78, 85, 88, 92, 92 gives 86.5.
Mode: the number that appears most often (92 here). A list can have several modes, or none.
Range: the largest minus the smallest (92 − 70 = 22).

Which average should you use?

The mean uses every number, but one very large or small value can pull it a long way. The median isn't affected by extremes, which is why house prices and incomes are usually reported as medians. The mode is best for things you count rather than measure, like the most common shoe size.

Standard deviation

Standard deviation shows how spread out the numbers are around the mean. Use the sample version when your numbers are a sample from a bigger group (most cases), and the population version when you have every value in the group.

How we checked this

Before every update, this calculator is run in a real browser with these known answers, and it must match all of them:

85, 92, 78, 92, 88, 70: mean 84.17, median 86.5, mode 92 ✓
2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9: population SD = 2 ✓

Last checked October 26, 2026. Spotted something wrong? The math is done in your browser with the formula shown on this page, so you can check any result by hand.

Questions people ask

How do you calculate the average?

Add all the numbers and divide by how many numbers there are.

What's the difference between mean and median?

The mean is the total divided by the count; the median is the middle value. They differ when the numbers are lopsided, for example when one value is much bigger than the rest.

What if there's no mode?

If every number appears exactly once, the list has no mode.

Can I paste a column from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Numbers on separate lines work, as do commas and spaces.

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