Reference · Indian numbering
The Indian Number System — Lakh, Crore and How to Read Any Big Number
Why ₹1,60,000 is “one lakh sixty thousand” and not “one hundred sixty thousand” — the complete guide to reading Indian numbers, with every conversion in one place.
Read it aloud
The same six numbers, three ways.
If you can read these, you can read any Indian figure. The pattern never changes — only how many pairs sit in front of the last three digits.
The one rule
Three digits, then pairs.
This single rule is the entire difference between the two systems. Everything else follows from it.
Indian system
The first comma sits after the last three digits. Every comma after that sits after two. So the groups read 1 · 60 · 000, and the leading group names the largest scale — lakh.
International system
Every comma sits after three digits, all the way up. The groups read 160 · 000. Identical value, different punctuation, different name — which is exactly why the two get mixed up.
The same rule scales. ₹16000000 becomes 1,60,00,000 in India — one crore sixty lakh — and 16,000,000 internationally, sixteen million. Neither is more correct; Indian banking, tax and accounting forms simply expect the Indian one, and writing a cheque the international way is a common reason forms get returned.
Chart
Indian place-value chart
Every place from one to lakh crore, with how it is written and how many zeros it carries.
| Place | Written as | Zeros |
|---|---|---|
| One | 1 | 0 |
| Ten | 10 | 1 |
| Hundred | 100 | 2 |
| Thousand | 1,000 | 3 |
| Ten Thousand | 10,000 | 4 |
| Lakh | 1,00,000 | 5 |
| Ten Lakh | 10,00,000 | 6 |
| Crore | 1,00,00,000 | 7 |
| Ten Crore | 10,00,00,000 | 8 |
| Hundred Crore (Arab) | 1,00,00,00,000 | 9 |
| Lakh Crore | 10,00,00,00,00,000 | 12 |
Conversion
Lakh and crore, in millions and billions
The table people actually come looking for: what a crore is in millions, what a billion is in crore, and every step between.
| Indian | Indian digits | International digits | International |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Thousand | 1,000 | 1,000 | One Thousand |
| 1 Lakh | 1,00,000 | 100,000 | One Hundred Thousand |
| 10 Lakh | 10,00,000 | 1,000,000 | One Million |
| 1 Crore | 1,00,00,000 | 10,000,000 | Ten Million |
| 10 Crore | 10,00,00,000 | 100,000,000 | One Hundred Million |
| 100 Crore (1 Arab) | 1,00,00,00,000 | 1,000,000,000 | One Billion |
| 1 Lakh Crore | 10,00,00,00,00,000 | 1,000,000,000,000 | One Trillion |
The two conversions worth memorising: 1 crore = 10 million, and 1 billion = 100 crore. Everything else is a shift of the decimal point from there.
Quick answer
How many zeros?
In practice
Where you meet these numbers
Lakh and crore are not academic. They are the default unit for almost every large rupee figure an Indian adult encounters.
Beyond crore
Arab, kharab and the older ladder
The Indian system does continue past crore with its own names. In modern usage almost nobody does.
| Name | Power | Written as |
|---|---|---|
| Lakh | 10⁵ | 1,00,000 |
| Crore | 10⁷ | 1,00,00,000 |
| Arab | 10⁹ | 1,00,00,00,000 |
| Kharab | 10¹¹ | 1,00,00,00,00,000 |
| Neel | 10¹³ | 1,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
| Padma | 10¹⁵ | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
| Shankh | 10¹⁷ | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
Read the Union Budget, a bank's annual report or any business newspaper and you will find crore doing all the work, with multipliers stacked on top: 100 crore, 1,000 crore, 1 lakh crore. The arab–kharab–neel ladder survives in traditional, religious and some legal registers, and in Hindi and Nepali speech, but a figure written as “₹2 kharab” in a financial document would read as an affectation. Our converter defaults to the modern reading and keeps the Vedic names one toggle away.
Getting it right
Lakh or lac, crore or crores
Lakh is the standard modern spelling — it is what the Reserve Bank of India uses, and what appears on government forms. Lac is an older transliteration that still turns up in legal drafting and older contracts. Both mean 1,00,000; if you have a choice, write lakh.
Neither word takes a plural s after a number. Write ₹500 crore and ₹5 lakh — not “crores” or “lakhs”. The plural is fine when the word stands alone (“he made lakhs from it”), but after a figure, formal and financial writing keeps it singular. The same goes for the shorthand: 12 LPA means twelve lakh per annum, or ₹12,00,000 a year.
One more convention worth knowing: on a cheque or any legal instrument, the amount in words is what counts. If the figures and the words disagree, Indian banks pay the words. That is why the words line ends in “Only” with a line struck through the remaining space — and why it is worth getting right. We wrote a short guide to writing the amount in words on a cheque that covers the exact format banks accept.
Questions
Frequently asked
How many zeros are in 1 crore?
1 crore is equal to how many millions?
How many lakhs make a million?
How much is 1 billion in crore?
Why does India use lakh and crore instead of million?
Is it spelled lakh or lac?
Is crore ever written as crores?
What comes after crore?
Where do the commas go in Indian numbers?
What does 12 LPA mean?
Stop counting zeros by hand.
Our free converter turns any figure into words the Indian way — cheque format, Hindi, crore ↔ million, whole columns at once, and words back into numbers. It runs entirely in your browser, so nothing you type ever leaves your device.