Abstract: The Følner function of a group is defined on positive integers n as the smallest size of a Følner set, the boundary of which is at most 1/n times the size of the set. Its values are then finite if and only if the group is amenable. It can be thought of as encoding “how amenable a group is”. We will give an overview of how our understanding of Følner functions has progressed. We will mostly talk about two major types of development. The first one concerns proving, for a given type of function, the existence of a group that has a Følner function of that type. The other one is connections between the asymptotics of Følner functions and those of the growth function.