rsync has a --info option that can be used to not only output the current progress, but also the transfer rate and elapsed time:

--info=FLAGS            fine-grained informational verbosity

The explanation of how to use it comes under the -P option in the man page:

-P     The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress.  Its purpose is to
       make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer that
       may be interrupted.

       There is also a --info=progress2 option that outputs statistics based on
       the whole transfer, rather than individual files.  Use this flag
       without  out‐putting  a  filename  (e.g. avoid -v or specify --info=name0)
       if you want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen 
       with  a  lot  of names.   (You  don’t  need  to specify the --progress
       option in order to use --info=progress2.)

So the following:

rsync -r --info=progress2 --info=name0 "$src" "$dst"

Results in the following being output and continuously updated:

18,757,542,664 100%   65.70MB/s    0:04:32 (xfr#1389, to-chk=0/1510)

Note that when the transfer starts the total number of chunks, and therefore the current progress, can change when the recursive option is used as more files are discovered for syncing

You can use --progress and --stats parameters.

rsync -avzh --progress --stats root@server:/path/to/file output_name

root@server's password: 
receiving incremental file list
file
         98.19M  54%    8.99MB/s    0:00:08

How about this?

rsync_param="-av"
rsync "$rsync_param" a/ b |\
     pv -lep -s $(rsync "$rsync_param"n a/ b | awk 'NF' | wc -l)

• $rsync_param

  Avoids double input of parameters

• $(rsync "$rsync_param"n a/ b | awk 'NF' | wc -l)

  Determines the number of steps to complete.

• a/ b

  1. a/ is the source
  2. b is the target

If your version of rsync does not accept the --info=progress2 option, you can use tqdm:

To install:

pip install tqdm

To use:

$ rsync -av /source /dest | tqdm --unit_scale | wc -l
10.0Mit [00:02, 3.58Mit/s]

Yeah, do what Jon said: use the --info=progress2 option. But, what do I do if my version of rsync is too old and doesn't support this option? Answer: upgrade rsync!

Here's how to build rsync from source on Ubuntu

(tested on Ubuntu 16.04)

1. Download latest version of rsync: https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/src/. Ex: "rsync-3.1.3.tar.gz". Save it in a directory WITH NO SPACES AT ALL to ensure it builds right.

2. In your folder explorer, right-click it and go to "Extract Here".

3. Enter the extracted folder (ex: "rsync-3.1.3")

4. Right-click the screen in your folder manager and go to "Open in Terminal." Alternatively, do steps 2 through 4 manually on the command line. Ultimately you just need to be cded into this extracted directory containing the rsync source code.

5. Check current version of rsync. Make note of this so you can see later it actually got updated.

    rsync --version
   

6. Install necessary tools:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install yodl
   

7. Build:

    ./configure
    make
    sudo make install
   

8. Ensure it was updated:

    rsync --version
   

Sample output:

$ rsync --version

    rsync  version 3.1.3  protocol version 31
    Copyright (C) 1996-2018 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.
    Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/
    Capabilities:
        64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
        socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace,
        append, no ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes, prealloc

rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you

    are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  See the GNU
    General Public Licence for details.

1. Search the man pages for "progress2". You'll now have access to the --info=progress2 option:

    man rsync
   

...then press / key and type progress2; press Enter to search for it; press n for the 'n'ext match until you find the entry you're looking for:

There is also a --info=progress2 option that outputs statistics based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid -v or specify --info=name0) if you want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don’t need to specify the --progress option in order to use --info=progress2.)

Also see:

1. [my answer] "How to use rsync": https://superuser.com/questions/1271882/convert-ntfs-partition-to-ext4-how-to-copy-the-data/1464264#1464264

Partial References:

1. http://www.beginninglinux.com/home/backup/compile-rsync-from-source-on-ubuntu

This finally worked:

rsync "$rsync_param" -a --prune-empty-dirs --exclude "*.iso" rsync://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/indices/ /repo/ubuntu/indices | pv -lep -s $(rsync "$rsync_param"n rsync://archive.ubuntu.com/indices/ /repo/ubuntu/indices | awk 'NF' | wc -l)

Something I find useful is using a tqdm like this:

Like @ostrokach said, you can install it either by

pip install tqdm

or

sudo apt install python3-tqdm

Set the params:

SRC=a/
DST=b
PARAMS=-av

And invoke:

rsync ${PARAMS} ${SRC} ${DST} |  tqdm --null --unit-scale --total=$(rsync ${PARAMS}n ${SRC} ${DST} | wc -l)

This will show overall progress counting files (actually - counting lines).

If you want to see the files being copied, you can omit the --null option from tqdm.