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"A*" and "A star" redirect here. For other uses, see A* (disambiguation).
Class Search algorithm
Data structure Graph
Worst case performance O(|E|) = O(b^d)
Worst case space complexity O(|V|) = O(b^d)
Graph and tree
search algorithms
α–β A* B* Backtracking Beam Bellman–Ford Best-first Bidirectional Borůvka Branch & bound BFS British Museum D* DFS Depth-limited Dijkstra Edmonds Floyd–Warshall Fringe search Hill climbing IDA* Iterative deepening Johnson Jump point Kruskal Lexicographic BFS Prim SMA* Uniform-cost
Listings
Graph algorithms Search algorithms List of graph algorithms
Related topics
Dynamic programming Graph traversal Tree traversal Search games
v t e
In computer science, A* (pronounced "A star" ( listen)) is a computer algorithm that is widely used in pathfinding and graph traversal, the process of plotting an efficiently traversable path between points, called nodes. Noted for its performance and accuracy, it enjoys widespread use. However, in practical travel-routing systems, it is generally outperformed by algorithms which can pre-process the graph to attain better performance,[1] although other work has found A* to be superior to other approaches.[2]

Peter Hart, Nils Nilsson and Bertram Raphael of Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) first described the algorithm in 1968.[3] It is an extension of Edsger Dijkstra's 1959 algorithm. A* achieves better time performance by using heuristics.