Average Speed Calculator

Average speed is how fast an object has traveled over the entire distance from start to finish. By dividing total distance by total time, you get a value that takes into account the effects of individual accelerations and braking events and summarizes them in one number.

This calculator offers two different calculation types. You can either enter the distance and time to show average speed or leave one of those fields blank to calculate that value. For multi-segment distances, you can switch modes and input data for each segment with the tool adding up the distance and time then dividing it out.

The formula for calculating average speed is:

This concept can be summed up in a single line.

If you travel 250 miles in 5 hours, your average speed is 250 divided by 5, which equals 50 miles per hour. Even if you use kilometers and time, the same division (kilometers per hour) will give you the same result. Since the output unit depends on the input units, this tool allows you to combine different units in order to display the desired speed unit.

Since distance, time and speed are related to each other, you can calculate the third element if you know two of them. If you enter the distance and target speed, you will get the required time. If you enter time and speed, you will get the traveled distance. Leave empty the field for the value you want to calculate and fill in the other two values.

How to Calculate Average Speed of a Car

In a real trip the distance traveled is determined by using an odometer, map or GPS route. This measures along the road rather than in a straight line. The time is then recorded and times for stops at petrol stations, meals and breaks are deducted to give only the actual driving time.

A train covers 120 miles in two hours and ten minutes but stops four times for about 2.5 minutes each time. The total stoppage time is 10 minutes so the actual travel time is two hours. The average speed is found by dividing 120 by 2 to get 60 miles per hour.

A journey with multiple legs

When speed varies during a trip, calculating average speed becomes more interesting. The rule remains the same: all distances are added up, all times are added up and then you divide. This is the average speed for the entire trip, not the average speed of each section, which is a common mistake in calculations.

Suppose a student rides his bike to school, covering 8 kilometers in 30 minutes, then rides home, covering 12 kilometers in one hour. The total distance traveled is 20 kilometers and the total time spent traveling is 1.5 hours, so the average speed would be approximately equal to 20 divided by 1.5, or about 13.3 kilometers per hour.

Suppose you drive 10 km at 30 km/h and another 20 km at 60 km/h. The simple average of 30 and 60 is 45, but that's not correct. The first leg takes 20 minutes, the second also 20 minutes, so in total you've driven 30 km in 40 minutes, which gives a computed speed of about 45.5 km/h. However, this only works if the times for both legs are equal. If the distances change, then the slower leg takes longer, so the correct result is more influenced by the slower leg. The multi-leg mode does these calculations and displays the actual average in addition to the simple average.

speed, pace, rate

Runners and cyclists often think in terms of pace rather than speed. Pace is the opposite of speed and refers to how long it takes to cover a certain distance, such as minutes per mile or kilometer. If you run 10 km in 50 minutes your pace would be 5 minutes per kilometer. The calculator shows both speed and pace so that you can choose which one is most relevant for your sport.

Although "rate" and "speed" sound similar, they are distinguished in physics. The rate is a scalar which has only magnitude. Speed is a vector and includes direction as well. Only if the entire path is straight will both be equal. If you deviate from a straight line, average speed, calculated as total distance divided by total time, will be less than average rate.

Applications of average speed

Drivers plan the duration of a route and check after driving whether the result was reasonable. Runners and cyclists track how effective their training has been. Logistics teams use average speed for route planning, and even biologists use the average speed of tagged animals to study their movement patterns. As long as there are differences in speeds, an individual average value allows a fair comparison.

This is how this calculator works:

Select the mode at the top. For a single leg of travel, enter two out of three values (distance, time, average speed) to calculate the third value. For multiple legs of travel, select the number of legs and then enter distance and time for each leg. Selecting appropriate units for your data will display average speed, pace, and details about the route in the right side of the results area.

The average speed represents the whole route so fluctuations within that route are not visible. If you want to know your top or instantaneous speeds, or if you need to check for speeding violations, then you will need a different method of measurement with shorter time intervals rather than the average value calculated by this tool over the entire route.