NumbersLakh, crore, million, billion: conversion table
News in India mixes two ways of naming large numbers. A cricket auction is in crores, a company's value is in billions of dollars, and a phone's storage is in millions of bytes. This page puts both systems in one table so you can move between them at a glance.
| In figures | Indian name | International name | Zeros |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 1 thousand | 1 thousand | 3 |
| 10,000 | 10 thousand | 10 thousand | 4 |
| 1,00,000 | 1 lakh | 100 thousand | 5 |
| 10,00,000 | 10 lakh | 1 million | 6 |
| 1,00,00,000 | 1 crore | 10 million | 7 |
| 10,00,00,000 | 10 crore | 100 million | 8 |
| 1,00,00,00,000 | 100 crore | 1 billion | 9 |
| 10,00,00,00,000 | 1,000 crore | 10 billion | 10 |
| 1,00,00,00,00,000 | 10,000 crore | 100 billion | 11 |
| 10,00,00,00,00,000 | 1 lakh crore | 1 trillion | 12 |
The three facts to remember
- 1 million = 10 lakh. To change millions to lakhs, multiply by 10.
- 1 crore = 10 million. To change millions to crores, divide by 10.
- 1 billion = 100 crore. To change billions to crores, multiply by 100.
Everything else follows. One trillion is a thousand billion, so it is 1,00,000 crore: one lakh crore.
Worked conversions
- 3.5 million = 35 lakh = 35,00,000 (multiply the millions by 10 to get lakhs).
- 40 million = 4 crore = 4,00,00,000 (divide the millions by 10 to get crores).
- 2 billion = 200 crore = 2,00,00,00,000 (multiply the billions by 100 to get crores).
- 75 lakh = 7.5 million = 75,00,000 (divide the lakhs by 10 to get millions).
- 12 crore = 120 million = 12,00,00,000 (multiply the crores by 10 to get millions).
- 650 crore = 6.5 billion = 6,50,00,00,000 (divide the crores by 100 to get billions).
How many zeros?
A quick way to remember: lakh has 5 zeros and crore has 7. Million has 6 and billion has 9. So a million sits between a lakh and a crore, and a billion is two zeros past a crore.
Why the two systems do not line up neatly
The international system makes a new name every three places. The Indian system makes one every two places after the first thousand. Three and two rarely fall on the same place, so the names coincide only now and then: at a thousand, and again at very large values such as one lakh crore, which is one trillion.
Reading money amounts in the news
"₹2.5 lakh crore" means 2.5 × 1,00,000 crore, which is 2.5 trillion rupees. "$3 billion" is 300 crore dollars. To turn that into rupees you would also need the exchange rate of the day, which changes daily, so this site does not quote one.
Short forms you will see: L or lac for lakh, Cr for crore, K for thousand, M or mn for million, B or bn for billion, T or tn for trillion.
Each amount has its own page
For any of the round numbers below you can open a page that shows it in figures, in words in English and Hindi, and in every other unit.
- 1 Lakh 100 thousand
- 1 Million 10 lakh
- 1 Crore 10 million
- 10 Crore 100 million
- 1 Billion 100 crore
- 10 Billion 1,000 crore
- 100 Billion 10,000 crore
- 1 Trillion 1 lakh crore
Other amounts open in the converter: 2 lakh, 5 lakh, 25 lakh, 50 lakh, 5 crore, 50 crore, 5 billion. Or type any number on the home page.