Batting Average Calculator
Calculate a player's batting average from hits and at-bats, the standard measure of hitting success in baseball and softball, with a quick rating against typical benchmarks.
Enter the number of hits and at-bats to calculate a batting average, the standard measure of a hitter's success rate in baseball and softball.
Understanding Batting Average
Batting average (AVG) measures how often a hitter gets a hit per official at-bat: AVG = Hits ÷ At-Bats. An at-bat excludes plate appearances that end in a walk, a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice bunt or fly, or catcher's interference, since those outcomes aren't considered a fair test of a batter's hitting ability. Batting average is traditionally written as a three-digit decimal without the leading zero — a player who gets a hit in 3 out of every 10 at-bats has a .300 average, read aloud as 'three-hundred.'
In modern MLB, a batting average around .250 is roughly league average, .300 or higher is considered great, and anything above .320 over a full season is All-Star caliber. Averages below .200 are informally called the 'Mendoza Line,' named after infielder Mario Mendoza, and are usually a sign a hitter is at risk of losing their roster spot. At the top end, Ted Williams was the last player to bat over .400 in a season, hitting .406 in 1941, while Ty Cobb holds the highest career batting average in MLB history at .366.
Batting average has two well-known limitations: it doesn't give any credit for walks, even though drawing a walk gets a batter on base just as effectively as a single — that's what on-base percentage (OBP) measures instead. It also treats every hit the same, so a batter who hits only singles can have the same average as one who hits mostly doubles and home runs, even though the second batter creates far more offensive value — that's what slugging percentage and OPS (on-base plus slugging) are designed to capture.
Frequently Asked Questions
About this calculator
This calculator finds a player's batting average — the fraction of official at-bats that result in a hit — from hits and at-bats, showing the result in the traditional three-decimal format (e.g., .300) along with the formula and substitution used to calculate it. A quick rating puts the result in context against typical benchmarks, from below the 'Mendoza Line' up to All-Star caliber.
- Traditional formatting — Results are shown the way batting averages are traditionally written — three decimals with no leading zero, like .275 or .300.
- Step-by-step calculation — See the formula and the substituted values alongside the result, so it's clear exactly how the average was calculated.
- Instant performance rating — Every result includes a quick rating — from Poor to Excellent — based on typical batting average benchmarks in modern baseball.
- Built-in validation — The calculator checks that at-bats is greater than zero and that hits doesn't exceed at-bats, so results are always mathematically valid.
- Historical context included — The explainer covers what counts as an official at-bat, real benchmark numbers from MLB history, and why batting average alone doesn't capture the full offensive picture.