Why convert numbers?
Large amounts are rarely written in full. News articles say 3.2 billion, investors write $450M, Indian newspapers quote 1,200 crore and a job offer may say 12 lakh. Each of these is just a way to scale a number, and switching between them is a common source of mistakes, especially between the international and the Indian systems or between English and European languages.
How to use this converter
Type an amount in any field and every other scale updates as you type. Enter 250 in the crore field to see 2,500 million or 2.5 billion, or enter 7.5 in the million field to see 75 lakh. Each common pair below has its own page with the formula, an example and a chart.
Key equivalents
- 1 million = 1,000 thousand = 10 lakh
- 1 crore = 100 lakh = 10 million
- 1 billion = 1,000 million = 100 crore
- 1 trillion = 1,000 billion = 1 lakh crore
- 1 lakh = 100 thousand
The Indian numbering system
India and its neighbors name numbers in a different rhythm. After the thousand, each new word covers a factor of 100 instead of 1,000: a lakh is a hundred thousand and a crore is a hundred lakh. Digits are grouped accordingly, so ten million is written 1,00,00,000. Very large amounts combine the words, as in lakh crore, which is a trillion.
Short and long scales
English once had two meanings for billion. The short scale, used in the US, multiplies by 1,000 at each new name: million, billion, trillion. The long scale, still used in most of continental Europe and Latin America, multiplies by a million, with an intermediate milliard for 10⁹. When you read a translated text or a European report, check which convention applies: a French billion is an English trillion.
Large numbers units compared
| Unit | Symbol | In thousands |
|---|---|---|
| Hundred | hundred | 0.1 |
| Thousand | k | 1 |
| Lakh | lakh | 100 |
| Million | M | 1,000 |
| Crore | crore | 10,000 |
| Billion | bn | 1,000,000 |
| Trillion | tn | 1,000,000,000 |
The units in detail
What is a hundred?
A hundred is 100, or 10². It is the first round number with its own word in most languages and the basis of percentages, which count parts per hundred.
What is a thousand?
A thousand is 1,000, or 10³. Finance and tech write it with a k or K: a salary of $85k is $85,000. In accounting and energy trading, M from the Latin mille can also mean a thousand and MM a million, as in MMBtu.
What is a lakh?
A lakh is 100,000 in the Indian numbering system, used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It is written 1,00,000, with digits grouped by two after the first thousand. Salaries and house prices in India are often quoted in lakhs.
What is a million?
A million is 1,000,000, or 10⁶: a thousand thousands. Its meaning is the same in every major language, unlike billion. In finance it is often written M or MM, so $2.5M means $2,500,000.
What is a crore?
A crore is 10,000,000, or 100 lakh, in the Indian numbering system. It is written 1,00,00,000. Company revenues, film box-office figures and government budgets in India are usually reported in crores, often shortened to Cr.
What is a billion?
A billion is 1,000,000,000, or 10⁹, a thousand millions. This short-scale meaning is used in the US and, since 1974, in UK official usage. In French, German, Spanish and many other languages the same number is a milliard, and their billion means 10¹².
What is a trillion?
A trillion is 1,000,000,000,000, or 10¹², a thousand billions. National debts and GDP of large economies are measured in trillions: US GDP passed 25 trillion dollars in 2022. Several European languages call this number a billion.