Greatest Common Divisor

The result of this function is the greatest common divisor (gcd) for the integers a and b.

To perform the calculation, enter the values for a and b, then click the 'Calculate' button.

Example of determining the gcd using the Euclidean algorithm

This example shows how to calculate the greatest common divisor of the integers 328 and 256.

First, the larger number is divided by the smaller number.

328 ÷ 256 = 1 R 72

Then divide the divisor by the remainder.

Repeat this step until the calculation works out.

256 ÷ 72 = 3 R 40
72 ÷ 40 = 1 R 32
40 ÷ 32 = 1 R 8
32 ÷ 8 = 4

The last divisor is then the gcd of the two starting numbers.

gcd(328, 256) = 8