Mean, Median, Mode Calculator
Get the mean, median, mode, range, and geometric mean of any data set in one calculation.
Details
Separate them with commas, spaces, or new lines.
Mean (average)
5
From 8 numbers
How many numbers
8
Total (sum)
40
Smallest
2
Largest
9
This finds the mean, median and mode of a set of numbers. Paste or type your data and it returns all three, or just the one you want.
It also gives the range and the count, and shows the sorted list, which is what makes the median easy to check by eye.
The three kinds of average
'Average' is not one thing. There are three, they answer different questions, and picking the wrong one is how statistics mislead people.
The mean is what most people mean by average: add everything up and divide by how many. The median is the middle value once the numbers are sorted. The mode is whichever value appears most often.
On tidy, evenly spread data they land close together. On lopsided data they can be miles apart, and that gap is usually the most interesting thing about the set.
Six of the seven numbers are below the mean. That is what a single outlier does, and it is why median is used for incomes and house prices.
What to enter
- What do you want to find?
- All three at once, or just the mean, median or mode on its own.
- Your numbers
- Type or paste them separated by commas, spaces or new lines. Order does not matter, since the calculator sorts them for you.
Which average to use, and when
- Mean
- Best for evenly spread data with no extreme values. Uses every number, which is both its strength and its weakness.
- Median
- Best when the data is lopsided or has outliers. Incomes, house prices and waiting times are reported as medians for exactly this reason.
- Mode
- The only one that works for non-numeric data: most common shoe size, most popular colour. Some data has no mode, and some has several.
- Range
- Highest minus lowest. Shows the spread, though standard deviation describes it far better.
What this assumes
Every value is weighted equally. Weighted averages need a different calculation.
With an even count, the median is the average of the two middle values.
How to calculate the mean, median and mode
Each one is a different operation, and only the mean needs arithmetic.
- sum
- Everything added together
- how many
- The count of values, not the highest one
Mean: add and divide. Total the numbers, then divide by how many there are.
Median: sort, then take the middle. Sorting first is essential. With an even count, average the two middle values.
Mode: count repeats. Whichever value appears most. If nothing repeats there is no mode; if two tie, there are two.
See a worked example: 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 10, 90
- Values
- 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 10, 90
Mean: they add to 120, and 120 ÷ 7 = 17.14.
Median: already sorted, and with seven values the middle is the fourth, which is 5.
Mode: 3 appears twice and everything else once, so the mode is 3.
Note that six of the seven numbers sit below the mean. Remove the 90 and the mean drops to 5.00, while the median only moves from 5 to 4.
Mean 17.14, median 5, mode 3
Frequently asked questions
In everyday use they are the same thing. 'Average' informally means the mean: add up and divide.
In statistics, average is the umbrella term and the mean, median and mode are all averages. That is why a headline saying 'the average is X' is worth questioning: it rarely says which one.
Whenever the data is lopsided or has extreme values. The mean uses every number, so one enormous value drags it away from where the data actually sits.
This is why incomes are reported as medians. A handful of very high earners pull the mean well above what most people earn, so the median describes the typical person far better.
Sort them, take the two in the middle, and average those. For 2, 4, 6, 10 the middle two are 4 and 6, so the median is 5.
Notice the median does not have to be one of your actual numbers, which surprises people.
Both. If every value appears exactly once there is no mode at all. If two values tie for most frequent, the set has two modes and is called bimodal.
A bimodal result is often a signal worth chasing: it usually means two different groups have been mixed into one dataset.
It depends entirely on the question. For 'what is the total split evenly', use the mean. For 'what is typical', usually the median. For 'what is most common', the mode.
The most useful habit is calculating all three. When they agree, the data is well behaved. When they diverge sharply, that gap is telling you something.
Problems people actually run into
One outlier moving the mean somewhere nothing sits
In the example above the mean is 17.14, yet six of the seven numbers are below 10. No data point is anywhere near the 'average'.
This is how a genuine number becomes misleading. A room of ordinary earners plus one billionaire has a spectacular mean income and a completely unchanged median. Check the median whenever the mean looks surprising.
Forgetting to sort before taking the median
The median is the middle value of the sorted list, not the middle of the list as it was written down.
Taking the middle of unsorted data gives an essentially random number that happens to be from your set, which is why it can slip past unnoticed.
Results are estimates for general information only and are not professional financial, medical, or legal advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Last updated: September 4, 2026