Enter a base and an exponent to get the base raised to that power. It handles whole, negative and fractional exponents, so the same field solves 2 to the 10th, one over two to the fifth, and square or cube roots written as fractional powers. Nothing is sent anywhere — the math runs on your device.
Enter a base and an exponent.
How it works
Raising a number to a whole power means multiplying it by itself that many times: 2⁵ is 2×2×2×2×2 = 32. The exponent counts the factors, not the multiplications, so an exponent of 1 returns the base unchanged and an exponent of 0 returns 1 for any non-zero base.
Negative exponents are reciprocals — 2⁻³ equals 1 ÷ 2³ = 0.125 — and fractional exponents are roots: 9^0.5 is the square root of 9, and 8^(1/3) written as 8^0.333… approaches the cube root. A negative base with a fractional exponent has no real value (the tool flags it), and 0 raised to a negative power is division by zero.
Practical examples
Compound powers of two
A storage size doubles each step. After 10 steps it is 2¹⁰ = 1024 times the original — which is why a "kilobyte" is 1024 bytes, not 1000.
A square root as a power
Entering a base of 225 and an exponent of 0.5 returns 15, because raising to the one-half power is the same as taking the square root.
Shrinking by a negative power
Base 10 with exponent −4 gives 0.0001. Negative exponents move the decimal point left, which is how very small quantities are written in science.
Frequently asked questions
What does the exponent actually mean?
It is the number of times the base is used as a factor. 3⁴ means 3×3×3×3 = 81. The base is the number being multiplied; the exponent (or power) is how many copies are multiplied together.
Why is any number to the power of 0 equal to 1?
Because dividing a power by the base lowers the exponent by one: 2³=8, 2²=4, 2¹=2, and continuing the pattern 2⁰=1. It holds for every non-zero base. The case 0⁰ is treated as 1 here, the common convention in algebra.
Can I use a negative exponent?
Yes. A negative exponent is the reciprocal of the positive power: x⁻ⁿ = 1 ÷ xⁿ. So 5⁻² is 1 ÷ 25 = 0.04. Enter the minus sign in the exponent field.
How do I get a square or cube root?
Use a fractional exponent. The square root is the ½ power (enter 0.5), the cube root is the ⅓ power (enter 0.3333333), and the nth root is the 1/n power. The tool computes these directly.
Why does a negative base with a decimal exponent give an error?
Because there is no real number for it. (−8) to the 0.5 power would be the square root of a negative number, which is imaginary. This tool works with real numbers, so it reports the result as undefined instead of guessing.
Can the base or exponent be a decimal?
Both can. You can raise 1.5 to the power 3, or raise 2 to the power 2.5. A decimal comma is accepted too, so 1,5 is read as 1.5 for users who type numbers the Serbian way.
What happens with very large results?
Results are computed as double-precision floating point, which tops out around 1.8 × 10³⁰⁸. Beyond that — for example 10 to the 400th — the tool reports the result as out of range rather than showing infinity.
Is aᵇ the same as bᵃ?
Almost never. 2³ = 8 but 3² = 9. Exponentiation is not commutative, so the order of base and exponent matters. A rare coincidence is 2⁴ = 4² = 16.
How is this different from multiplication?
Multiplication is repeated addition; exponentiation is repeated multiplication. That makes powers grow far faster — 2×10 is 20, but 2¹⁰ is 1024.
Are my numbers sent anywhere?
No. The calculation happens entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, and analytics never receives the numbers.
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