diff --git a/bin/ls/ls.1 b/bin/ls/ls.1
--- a/bin/ls/ls.1
+++ b/bin/ls/ls.1
@@ -541,6 +541,9 @@
 and
 .Pa ..
 and other files which start with a dot, depending on other options).
+The
+.Fl h
+option will make the total also provide the number of bytes.
 .Pp
 The default block size is 512 bytes.
 The block size may be set with option
diff --git a/bin/ls/print.c b/bin/ls/print.c
--- a/bin/ls/print.c
+++ b/bin/ls/print.c
@@ -216,7 +216,14 @@
 
 	if ((dp->list == NULL || dp->list->fts_level != FTS_ROOTLEVEL) &&
 	    (f_longform || f_size)) {
-		(void)printf("total %lu\n", howmany(dp->btotal, blocksize));
+		if (!f_humanval)
+			(void)printf("total %lu\n", howmany(dp->btotal, blocksize));
+		else {
+			(void)humanize_number(buf, 7 /* "1024 KB" */,
+			    dp->btotal * 512, "B", HN_AUTOSCALE, HN_DECIMAL);
+
+			(void)printf("total %s\n", buf);
+		}
 	}
 
 	for (p = dp->list; p; p = p->fts_link) {