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Lakh, crore, million and billion converter (number to words)

Convert lakh and crore to million and billion, and write any number in words in the Indian and international systems, or turn words back into digits.

Updated Checked against 7 worked examples

Digits in any grouping (1,23,45,678 or 12,345,678), short forms (2.5 crore, 3.2 million) or words (one lakh twenty thousand)
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In words, Indian system
one crore twenty-three lakh forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight
In words, Indian system: one crore twenty-three lakh forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight
In words, international system
twelve million three hundred forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight
Indian grouping
1,23,45,678
International grouping
12,345,678
In lakh or crore
1.2345678 crore
In thousand, million, billion…
12.345678 million

1,23,45,678 (Indian) and 12,345,678 (international) are the same number: one crore twenty-three lakh forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight = twelve million three hundred forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight.

Place values: Indian above, international below

12345678unitsthousandlakhcroreunitsthousandmillion
How it's calculated S
  1. Indian grouping

    Group the last three digits, then every two: 1,23,45,678. The groups are read as thousand, lakh (10⁵) and crore (10⁷); a count of crores is itself read in lakh and crore, so 10¹² is “one lakh crore”.

  2. International grouping

    Group every three digits: 12,345,678. The groups are thousand, million (10⁶), billion (10⁹), trillion (10¹²) — the short scale used in English today.

  3. Conversions to remember

    10 lakh = 1 million; 1 crore = 10 million; 100 crore = 1 billion; 1 lakh crore = 1 trillion.

    Words are written without “and” (“one hundred five”); cheques in India often add it, which doesn't change the value.

About the lakh, crore, million and billion converter

The Indian and international systems name the same digits in different groups. The Indian system counts thousand (10³), lakh (10⁵) and crore (10⁷), with a comma after the hundreds and then after every two digits: 1,23,45,678. The international system counts thousand, million (10⁶) and billion (10⁹) in steps of three digits: 12,345,678. The converter reads digits, short forms such as 2.5 crore, or English words, and writes the number both ways.

People use it to turn figures quoted in lakh and crore into millions and billions, and to write an amount in words on a cheque or contract. The default, 1,23,45,678, reads as one crore twenty-three lakh forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight, which is about 12.35 million.

Beyond a crore, the number of crores is read with the same names, so 10¹² is one lakh crore. Words follow US style without “and”, and the international names use the short scale up to decillion (10³³).

Worked examples

1,23,45,678 in words

Number or words
12345678
In words, Indian system
one crore twenty-three lakh forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight
In words, international system
twelve million three hundred forty-five thousand six hundred seventy-eight
Indian grouping
1,23,45,678
International grouping
12,345,678
In lakh or crore
1.2345678 crore
In thousand, million, billion…
12.345678 million

Checked against: Independent Python implementation of both scales (lakh = 10⁵, crore = 10⁷, million = 10⁶); hand check 1×10⁷ + 23×10⁵ + 45×10³ + 678

2.5 crore in millions

Number or words
2.5 crore
In words, international system
twenty-five million
Indian grouping
2,50,00,000
In thousand, million, billion…
25 million

Checked against: 2.5 × 10⁷ = 25 × 10⁶

Words to digits: one lakh twenty thousand

Number or words
one lakh twenty thousand
International grouping
120,000
In lakh or crore
1.2 lakh
In words, international system
one hundred twenty thousand

Checked against: 10⁵ + 20 × 10³ = 120,000

Large: one lakh crore is one trillion

Number or words
1000000000000
In words, Indian system
one lakh crore
In words, international system
one trillion
Indian grouping
10,00,00,00,00,000

Checked against: 10⁵ × 10⁷ = 10¹² = one trillion (short scale); Indian grouping puts commas every two digits above the thousands

Questions

How many lakhs make a million?

Ten. A lakh is 100,000 (10⁵) and a million is 1,000,000 (10⁶), so 10 lakh = 1 million and 1 lakh = 0.1 million. Going the other way, 2.5 million is 25 lakh. In Indian grouping 10 lakh is written 10,00,000: the first comma comes three digits from the right, then one after every two digits.

How many crores are in a billion?

One hundred. A crore is 10,000,000 (10⁷) and a billion in the short scale used in English is 1,000,000,000 (10⁹), so 1 billion = 100 crore and 1 crore = 10 million. The old Indian name for 100 crore is arab, and 100 arab (10¹¹) is kharab. A trillion (10¹²) is 1 lakh crore.

How do you write 1 crore in numbers?

1,00,00,000 in Indian grouping, or 10,000,000 in international grouping: a 1 followed by seven zeros. Indian grouping puts a comma after the hundreds and then after every two digits, so the commas mark thousand, lakh and crore. 50 crore is written 50,00,00,000, which is 500 million.

Which amount counts on a cheque if the words and figures differ?

The words. Section 18 of India's Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 says that when an amount is stated differently in figures and in words, the amount stated in words is the amount to be paid; the US Uniform Commercial Code §3-114 has the same rule. Adding “and” or “only” to the words does not change the value.

Is a billion a thousand million or a million million?

A thousand million (10⁹) in current English, the short scale. The UK government adopted it in 1974, when Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Parliament that billion was used internationally to mean 1,000 million. French, German, Italian and Spanish still use the long scale, in which their word for billion means 10¹² and 10⁹ is called a milliard in French or Milliarde in German.

How accurate is the lakh, crore, million and billion converter?

Accuracy depends on your inputs and the method's assumptions. Decimal arithmetic uses 50 significant digits, but estimates, numerical methods and source data can be less precise; the displayed rounding does not remove those limits. It is checked against 7 worked examples whose answers come from independent sources; for example, “1,23,45,678 in words” is checked against Independent Python implementation of both scales (lakh = 10⁵, crore = 10⁷, million = 10⁶); hand check 1×10⁷ + 23×10⁵ + 45×10³ + 678.

Where does the method come from?

Wikipedia — Indian numbering system (lakh, crore, lakh crore); Wikipedia — Names of large numbers (short scale: million … decillion).

About this calculator

1 lakh=105=0.1 million1 crore=107=10 million100 crore=109=1 billion1 lakh crore=1012=1 trillion\begin{aligned} 1\ \text{lakh} &= 10^{5} = 0.1\ \text{million} \\ 1\ \text{crore} &= 10^{7} = 10\ \text{million} \\ 100\ \text{crore} &= 10^{9} = 1\ \text{billion} \\ 1\ \text{lakh crore} &= 10^{12} = 1\ \text{trillion} \end{aligned}

Sources

  1. Wikipedia — Indian numbering system (lakh, crore, lakh crore)
  2. Wikipedia — Names of large numbers (short scale: million … decillion)

Checked against references

7 worked examples with independently sourced answers ship with this calculator. They run in the test suite; you can run them here too.

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