what is total utility

Total utility is an economic term that refers to the overall satisfaction or fulfillment that a consumer receives through the consumption of a specific good or service. It is the aggregate sum of utility gained from all units of a good or service being studied. Each individual unit of a good or service has its own utility, and each additional unit of consumption will have its own marginal utility. Marginal utility is the satisfaction a consumer receives from consuming one additional unit of a good or service. Total utility helps economists understand the demand for goods and services. The law of diminishing marginal utility states that as more units of a single good or service are consumed, the additional satisfaction, called the marginal satisfaction, drops. The first good consumed provides the highest marginal utility, the second one a little lesser, and so on. Total utility is maximized when marginal utility is zero.