what is total utility 
total utility is the aggregate amount of satisfaction or fulfillment that a consumer receives through the consumption of a specific good or service total utility is often compared to marginal utility which 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 1understanding total utilityin economics utility refers to the satisfaction gained from consuming a good or service total utility is usually defined as a quantifiable summation of satisfaction or happiness obtained from consuming multiple units of a particular good or service 1utility and total utility are used in the economic analysis of consumer behaviors within a marketplace economists seek to quantify total utility using special calculations economists may also study several economic metrics in conjunction with total utility when seeking to understand how consumer behaviors align with supply and demand in economics economists typically view changes in behavior and consumption by analyzing marginal increases and marginal decreases marginal changes will usually be either scaled increases or scaled decreases in the case of total utility marginal refers to the increasing or decreasing level of utility that is obtained with added consumptions 1rational choice theorytotal utility is often studied alongside rational choice theory and the law of diminishing marginal utility rational choice theory says that consumers seek to maximize their utility with each unit of consumption consumer theory and demand theory suggest that consumer actions are driven toward utility maximization by attempting to acquire the most satisfaction possible in the most affordable way in general classical economic theories show that most consumers want to get the highest possible level of utility per unit for the money they spend 2total utility is usually measured in relative units called utils 3 when measuring total utility analysis can span from one unit of consumption to multiple units for example a cookie provides a level of utility as determined by its singular consumption while a bag of cookies may provide total utility over the course of time it takes to completely consume all the cookies in the bag the law of diminishing marginal utilityto better understand total utility one must understand the law of diminishing marginal utility which states that as more of a single good or service is consumed the additional satisfaction referred to as marginal utility drops the first good consumed provides the highest utility the second good has a lower marginal utility and so on therefore total utility grows less rapidly with each additional unit consumed of the same good or service 1