Percent Difference Calculator (Symmetric)
Enter two values and the tool reports both at once: (1) the symmetric percent difference |A − B| / ((|A| + |B|) / 2), which treats A and B as peers (swap-invariant); and (2) the directional percent change (b − a) / a in both directions. News and lab write-ups regularly confuse the two — e.g. "+25%" and "−20%" describe the same pair (80 vs 100), whose symmetric percent difference is 22.22%. The signed and absolute differences plus the mean are shown for sanity-checking.
Enter two valid numbers (can be positive, negative or zero).
Symmetric percent difference
22.22%
Formula: |A − B| / ((|A| + |B|) / 2) × 100%. Treats both inputs as peers — swapping A and B gives the same answer.
Percent change A → B
+25%
Percent change B → A
−20%
Formula: (new − old) / old × 100%. Directional metric — use when one value is a natural baseline (old → new, expected → measured). Undefined when the baseline is 0.
Absolute difference |A − B|
20
Signed difference A − B
−20
Mean (A + B) / 2
90
Use percent change when one value is a natural baseline (old → new, expected → measured). Use percent difference when the two values are peers (supplier A vs B, replicate 1 vs 2) and no value is the "reference".
Formula
Symmetric % difference = |A − B| / ((|A| + |B|) / 2) × 100% (undefined when A = B = 0) % change A → B = (B − A) / A × 100% (undefined when A = 0) % change B → A = (A − B) / B × 100% (undefined when B = 0)
- · Same name, two purposes: symmetric percent difference (peer comparison) takes the absolute value and is always ≥ 0; percent change (directional) keeps the sign so you know which way the value moved.
- · For same-sign A and B the symmetric percent difference is bounded in [0%, 200%); with opposite signs it can exceed 200% because the averaged denominator stays small.
- · Percent change needs a non-zero baseline — a move from 0 (e.g. "sales went from 0 to 5") cannot be expressed as a percentage and must be reported in absolute terms.
- · When citing a percentage in writing, name the reference: "2020 was up 8% on 2019" is unambiguous; "the two years differ by 8%" is not.
- · Matches the relative-difference / relative-error definitions in the NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook §1.3.6.7.1 and BIPM GUM §5, using the average of absolute values as the denominator.
- · The URL keeps the a and b inputs so you can bookmark or share a specific comparison.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between "percent difference" and "percent change"?
Percent change is directional: (new − old) / old × 100%, with "old" fixed as the baseline. 80 → 100 is +25%; 100 → 80 is −20% — they differ. Percent difference is symmetric: |A − B| / ((|A| + |B|) / 2) × 100%, with the mean of magnitudes as the denominator, so swapping A and B leaves the answer unchanged. 80 vs 100 is always 22.22%. Rule of thumb: when one value is a natural baseline (old → new, expected → measured) use percent change; when the two values are peers, use percent difference.
Why doesn't "up 25% then down 25%" return to the original value?
Because the baseline changes between the two percentages. 100 up 25% → 125; 125 down 25% = 125 × 0.75 = 93.75, not 100. The second 25% is measured against 125, which is larger than 100. Getting back to 100 requires (100 − 125) / 125 = −20%, not −25%. Symmetric percent difference sidesteps this directional asymmetry — 100 vs 125 is always 22.22%.
Why is the result undefined when both values are 0?
The symmetric formula |A − B| / ((|A| + |B|) / 2) becomes 0/0 when A = B = 0, which is mathematically indeterminate. Conceptually, "how many percent apart are two zeros" is ill-posed — the values are identical so any percentage would be 0, but the denominator is also 0. The tool surfaces "undefined" rather than 0% so the result is not silently misreported.
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