There is a huge variety of total stations on the market, and every survey instrument maker offers two or more models. Like theodolites and EDM, they can be differentiated by the precision of their direction and/or distance reading systems. Direction measurement precisions are typically in the range of 5" to 0.5". Like theodolites, the more precise electronic total stations generally use a double circle reading mechanism that averages readings from both sides of the circle to minimise mechanical alignment errors. Distance measurement precisions vary from +/-(1mm+1ppm) to +/-(10mm+5ppm), and the maximum range of the total station distance meter can be as low as several hundred metres or as high as several kilometres. Some distance meters in total stations do not require a prism at short ranges. Some total stations have motorised horizontal and vertical movements so that they can carry out simple, repetitive functions or can be remotely controlled.

In general total stations include an integrated display of data, storage of data and basic computations such as coordinate calculations, station move, traverse closure, offset measurements, entry of data point attributes and set out direction and distance from coordinates. Some older models of total station rely on an external data recorder to provide the more sophisticated functions and/or extended storage capabilities.