About the Moving Average Calculator
A moving average smooths a series of numbers by averaging each value with the ones just before it. It is used to see the trend in prices, sales, temperatures or website visits without the daily noise. Paste your numbers in time order, choose the window length and pick the type: simple, exponential or weighted. The calculator shows the average for every point, the latest value, the highest and lowest averages and a scrollable table you can copy. The first values have no average until the window is full. Your data stay in your browser.
Updated October 2026
How to use the Moving Average Calculator
- 1Paste your numbers in time order, oldest first.
- 2Enter the window, the number of values to average.
- 3Pick simple, exponential or weighted.
- 4Read the latest average and the table.
- 5Press Copy result to take the averages with you.
Choosing a type
One thing to watch is the edges of the series. With a window of 10 you lose the first nine points, which matters if you only have 30 numbers, so a shorter window may suit short data better than a long one.
A simple moving average treats every value in the window equally, which makes it easy to explain and check by hand. When a large old value leaves the window, the average can jump, and this sometimes looks like a signal even though nothing new happened.
Exponential and weighted averages reduce that effect by weighting recent values more. They lag less behind a turning point, but they are also more sensitive to a single unusual value, so the best choice depends on how you want to use the line.
Where moving averages are used
- Prices: crossovers of a short and a long average are watched by traders.
- Sales and traffic: a 7-day average removes the weekday pattern.
- Weather and sensors: smoothing noisy readings.
- Quality control: spotting a slow drift in a process.
- Forecasting: a simple baseline to beat.
Related tools
For the plain average of one list use the Average Calculator, and the Weighted Average Calculator when your values carry different importance. The Standard Deviation Calculator measures how noisy the original data are, and the Linear Regression Calculator draws a straight trend line through the points. A smoothed line describes the past and does not predict the future.
Features
- Simple, exponential and weighted averages
- Any window length
- Full table with your value next to each average
- Highest and lowest average
- Copy the averages as a column
- Clear errors for non-numbers
- Private and free
Frequently asked questions
What is a simple moving average?
It is the plain average of the last N values. With a window of 3, the average at point 5 is the mean of points 3, 4 and 5.
What is an exponential moving average?
An EMA gives more weight to recent values using a smoothing factor of 2 divided by the window plus 1. It reacts faster than a simple average.
What is a weighted moving average?
A WMA gives the newest value the biggest weight and the oldest the smallest, with weights 1, 2, 3 up to N, so it follows the data more closely than a simple average.
Why are the first values blank?
There are not enough earlier values to fill the window yet. A 5-day average first appears on day 5.
How do I choose the window?
Short windows such as 5 or 10 follow the data closely but are noisy. Long windows such as 50 or 200 are smooth but slow to react.
How is the first EMA value set?
It starts from the simple average of the first window, which is the common convention in charting software.
Can I use it for stock prices?
Yes, paste closing prices in order. The result is a statistic about the past and not a prediction or advice.