Is it near real time, near real-time, near-real time, or near-real-time?

Your energy usage will be available in

  • near real time
  • near-real time
  • near real-time
  • near-real-time

on your mobile.

Which is/are correct?

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Solution 1:

Wikipedia seems to suggest the third option is correct, near real-time.

While hyphenation is often arbitrary, I would suggest to follow the established usage in this case.

Having said that, in the same paragraph it also uses near-real-time:

...a near-real-time display depicts...

Here near real-time is used as a modifier of display, so the hyphenation clarifies that it is one unit, rather than, say, a near-real time display