Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the gross domestic output (i.e., economic output) of a country, factoring in the effects of inflation. The flip side of this coin is that nominal GDP doesn’t account for the effects of inflation and thus has a higher value. Real GDP can be thought of as nominal GDP minus inflation. While nominal GDP is used to measure quarters within the same year, real GDP measures output across years.
Real GDP provides a practical method for comparing the quantity and value of goods and services across different years. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) puts out quarterly numbers for both real and nominal GDP.