Enter real and reactive power to calculate apparent power and power factor.
How to Use the Power Factor Calculator
Real and reactive power are the two inputs; apparent power and the power factor itself both derive from that same pair.
In an AC circuit, not all the power you're pushing through actually does useful work — some of it sloshes back and forth without ever being consumed, and power factor is what tells you how much of the total is the useful kind.
apparent power = √(real² + reactive²)
power factor = real power ÷ apparent powerA power factor of 1.0 means everything's real power, no waste. Lower numbers mean a bigger gap between what's flowing (apparent power, measured in VA) and what's actually being used (real power, in watts) — utilities care about this because they have to size equipment for the apparent power even though they're only billing for the real kind. This Power Factor Calculator takes real and reactive power and returns both the power factor and the phase angle between them.