The effective average action ERGE involves a smooth IR regulator cutoff. The idea is to take all fluctuations right up to an IR scale k into account. The effective average action will be accurate for fluctuations with momenta larger than k. As the parameter k is lowered, the effective average action approaches the effective action which includes all quantum and classical fluctuations. In contrast, for large k the effective average action is close to the "bare action". So, the effective average action interpolates between the "bare action" and the effective action.