Number to words
Numbers in words: US, UK and Australian, and Indian styles
Type a number and pick a style. The example writes 2,505 in words.
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- US style
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- UK and Australian style
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- Indian style
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How numbers become words
The whole number is split into groups from the right. In US and UK style the groups are three digits each: ones, thousands, millions, billions and so on. Each group is named as a number up to nine hundred ninety-nine, followed by its scale word. In Indian style the first group is three digits and the rest are two: thousand, lakh and crore. Digits after a decimal point are read one at a time: 3.14 is three point one four.
Worked example
2,505 splits into 2 and 505. That is two thousand, then five hundred five, so US style gives two thousand five hundred five. UK and Australian style adds "and": two thousand five hundred and five. In Indian style, 12,34,567 is twelve lakh thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-seven. The three styles are always shown side by side under the answer.
Limits
US and UK styles go up to 999 decillion, a 36-digit number. Indian style goes up to just under one crore crore, a 14-digit number.
Names for large numbers
The short scale: 1 billion is a thousand million, in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and India alike.
| Number | US and UK name | Indian style |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | thousand | 1 thousand |
| 1,000,000 | million | 10 lakh |
| 1,000,000,000 | billion | 100 crore |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | trillion | 1 lakh crore |
| 1015 | quadrillion | Too big for Indian style here |
| 1018 | quintillion | |
| 1021 | sextillion | |
| 1024 | septillion | |
| 1027 | octillion | |
| 1030 | nonillion | |
| 1033 | decillion |
Lakh and crore
| Indian grouping | International grouping | Said as |
|---|---|---|
| 1,00,000 | 100,000 | 1 lakh |
| 10,00,000 | 1,000,000 | 10 lakh (1 million) |
| 1,00,00,000 | 10,000,000 | 1 crore |
| 10,00,00,000 | 100,000,000 | 10 crore |
| 1,00,00,00,000 | 1,000,000,000 | 100 crore (1 billion) |
Rules and sources
- UK and Australian style puts "and" before the tens and ones: one hundred and twenty-five. US style leaves it out: one hundred twenty-five. Numbers from 21 to 99 take a hyphen: twenty-one. (Wikipedia, "English numerals", section "Cardinal numbers", read 15 Nov 2026.)
- Short scale: billion = 109, trillion = 1012, and so on up to decillion = 1033. British English uses the short scale too (same article, "Very large numbers"). The largest number this page writes is one less than 1036.
- Indian numbering: 1 lakh = 1,00,000 and 1 crore = 1,00,00,000. Digits are grouped in three from the right, then in twos (Wikipedia, "Indian numbering system", read 15 Nov 2026). Above 99 crore the number of crores is itself written in lakhs and thousands, as in "one lakh crore" for 1012. The older words arab (100 crore) and kharab are not used. Indian style here writes no "and" inside the number and goes up to just under one crore crore (1014).
Found a mistake?
Email [email protected] with the page, what you typed and what you expected. Confirmed errors are fixed and added to the check.