diff --git a/egs/librispeech/ASR/zipformer_ctc_attn/train.py b/egs/librispeech/ASR/zipformer_ctc_attn/train.py
index 27a9add0d..06d4a4df0 100755
--- a/egs/librispeech/ASR/zipformer_ctc_attn/train.py
+++ b/egs/librispeech/ASR/zipformer_ctc_attn/train.py
@@ -711,6 +711,7 @@ def compute_loss(
         info["frames"] = (feature_lens // params.subsampling_factor).sum().item()
 
     # Note: We use reduction=sum while computing the loss.
+    info["symbols"] = sum([len(t) for t in token_ids])  # used to normalize att_loss
     info["loss"] = loss.detach().cpu().item()
     info["ctc_loss"] = ctc_loss.detach().cpu().item()
     info["att_loss"] = att_loss.detach().cpu().item()
diff --git a/icefall/utils.py b/icefall/utils.py
index 99e51a2a9..d51760c54 100644
--- a/icefall/utils.py
+++ b/icefall/utils.py
@@ -844,10 +844,13 @@ class MetricsTracker(collections.defaultdict):
 
     def __str__(self) -> str:
         ans_frames = ""
+        ans_symbols = ""
         ans_utterances = ""
         for k, v in self.norm_items():
             norm_value = "%.4g" % v
-            if "utt_" not in k:
+            if k == "att_loss":
+                ans_symbols += str(k) + "=" + str(norm_value) + ", "
+            elif "utt_" not in k:
                 ans_frames += str(k) + "=" + str(norm_value) + ", "
             else:
                 ans_utterances += str(k) + "=" + str(norm_value)
@@ -859,11 +862,13 @@ class MetricsTracker(collections.defaultdict):
                     raise ValueError(f"Unexpected key: {k}")
         frames = "%.2f" % self["frames"]
         ans_frames += "over " + str(frames) + " frames. "
+        symbols = "%.2f" % self["symbols"]
+        ans_symbols += "over " + str(symbols) + " symbols. "
         if ans_utterances != "":
             utterances = "%.2f" % self["utterances"]
             ans_utterances += "over " + str(utterances) + " utterances."
 
-        return ans_frames + ans_utterances
+        return ans_frames + ans_symbols + ans_utterances
 
     def norm_items(self) -> List[Tuple[str, float]]:
         """
@@ -871,14 +876,18 @@ class MetricsTracker(collections.defaultdict):
           [('ctc_loss', 0.1), ('att_loss', 0.07)]
         """
         num_frames = self["frames"] if "frames" in self else 1
+        num_symbols = self["symbols"] if "symbols" in self else 1
         num_utterances = self["utterances"] if "utterances" in self else 1
         ans = []
         for k, v in self.items():
-            if k == "frames" or k == "utterances":
+            if k == "frames" or k == "symbols" or k == "utterances":
                 continue
-            norm_value = (
-                float(v) / num_frames if "utt_" not in k else float(v) / num_utterances
-            )
+            if k == "att_loss":
+                norm_value = float(v) / num_symbols
+            elif "utt_" in k:
+                norm_value = float(v) / num_utterances
+            else:
+                norm_value = float(v) / num_frames
             ans.append((k, norm_value))
         return ans