Percent to fraction calculator

Type a percent, with or without the % sign. The fraction appears as you type, in lowest terms, with a decimal row and a mixed number when it's over 100%.

For a repeating percent such as 33.3̅%, type 33.(3)% with the repeating digits in brackets. Typing 33.33% gives 3333/10000 instead, which is close to a third but not equal to it.

Percent means out of 100, so write the percent over 100. 40% is 40/100. Then divide the top and bottom by their greatest common factor, 20, to get 2/5.

If the percent has a decimal, multiply the top and bottom by 10 for each decimal place first. 12.5% is 12.5/100, which is 125/1000, and that simplifies to 1/8.

The word comes from the Latin per centum, "by the hundred". The % sign grew out of the Italian per cento: writers shortened "cento" to two small circles with a line between them, and the sign we use came from that.

Working in hundredths is older than the word. In ancient Rome, Augustus taxed goods sold at auction at 1/100, which is a 1% tax.