Number to Words Converter

How the Indian Number System Works

Indian and international numbers use the same digits. What changes is where the commas go and what the groups are called. The international system puts a comma after every three digits: 1,500,000. The Indian system puts the first comma after three digits and then after every two: 15,00,000. Read the Indian version from the left and the words fall out on their own: 15 lakh.

The reason is the units themselves. English counts in thousands, millions and billions, each a thousand times the last. Indian counting adds two extra stops, the lakh (one hundred thousand) and the crore (ten million), and those are only a hundred times apart. Grouping in twos after the thousands keeps the commas lined up with lakh and crore.

The same number, two ways

Where you meet each system: Indian newspapers, the Union Budget and company annual reports use lakh and crore (a budget line of 1.5 lakh crore is 1.5 trillion). Startup funding news, global markets and most software use million and billion. When a US headline says 2 billion dollars, that is 200 crore dollars, and the rupee figure depends on the exchange rate of the day.

Conversion table with the number of zeros

Arab and kharab are common in Hindi and Urdu speech but rare in English documents, which stop at crore and switch to lakh crore for larger amounts. Beyond kharab come neel (10¹³), padma (10¹⁵) and shankh (10¹⁷), which you will only meet in traditional texts.

Writing an Amount in Words on a Cheque

A cheque carries the amount twice: in figures in the box on the right and in words on the line below the payee name. The Cheque Writing Format card above gives you the words line ready to copy. A few conventions make the cheque hard to alter and easy for the bank to read:

• Start with Rupees and end with Only. Rupees One Lakh Fifty Thousand Only. The word Only stops anyone from adding to the amount, and it is the form banks expect.
• Write paise after the rupees. Rupees One Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty Paise Only, with 1,500.50 in the figures box. If there are no paise, write Only straight after the rupee words.
• Close the gaps. Draw a line through any blank space after Only, and write the figures close to the ₹ symbol with /- after them (1,50,000/-) so extra digits cannot be squeezed in.
• Figures and words must agree. Section 18 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 says that when they differ, the amount in words is the amount payable. In practice a mismatched cheque is usually returned unpaid, so read both once more before signing.
• No corrections. Under the RBI's CTS-2010 cheque standards, changes to the payee name or to the amount in figures or words are not accepted, even if you countersign them. Cancel the leaf and write a fresh one.
• Date it right. A cheque is valid for three months from the date written on it (an RBI instruction in force since 1 April 2012). Write the date in the DD/MM/YYYY boxes printed on the leaf.

Examples

Our guide on how to write a cheque in India walks through the whole leaf, including account payee crossing and where to sign.

Amounts in Words on Invoices and GST Bills

Most invoice formats print an Amount in Words line under the total, and accounting software fills it automatically. For Indian customers use the lakh and crore form that matches the figures on the bill: Rupees Twelve Lakh Thirty Four Thousand Only against ₹12,34,000. Export invoices are raised in the currency of the contract, so the words follow that currency and the international scale: US Dollars One Million Five Hundred Thousand Only. Keep one system per document; mixing 15 lakh in one line and 1.5 million in the next invites errors.

GST invoices are usually rounded to the nearest rupee (the CGST Act allows tax amounts to be rounded off to the nearest rupee), which means the words end with Only and there are no paise to spell out. Use the GST calculator to work out the CGST, SGST or IGST split before you write the total in words, and the cash counter when the payment arrives in notes.

Common Mistakes

• 1.5 lakh is not 15 lakh. 1.5 lakh is 1,50,000; 15 lakh is 15,00,000. Decimal shorthand is fine in conversation, but write the full figure on documents.
• Lakh, not lac. Both are understood, but lakh is the spelling in RBI and government usage and the one to put on official paperwork.
• 1.5 crore is 15 million, not 1.5 million. 1.5 million is only 15 lakh. Converting between the systems is where most reporting errors creep in, so check the zeros with the table above.
• Hundred and one, or hundred one? Both forms appear on Indian cheques and both are read the same way. This converter leaves out the and inside the rupee amount and reserves it for the paise, which keeps the words unambiguous.
• Lakh or lakhs? On the words line the singular is conventional (Fifteen Lakh Rupees), just as you would write Fifteen Thousand and not Fifteen Thousands.
• Forgetting Only. Without it, a blank space at the end of the line is an invitation to add words.

Indian Grouping in Excel and Google Sheets

Spreadsheets default to grouping in threes, and neither Excel nor Google Sheets has a built-in number to words function, which is why this page exists. For the commas, a custom number format switches a column to lakh and crore grouping:

[>=10000000]##\,##\,##\,##0;[>=100000]##\,##\,##0;##,##0

In Excel, select the cells, open Format Cells, pick Custom and paste the code. In Google Sheets, use Format, then Number, then Custom number format. The three sections handle crores, lakhs and smaller numbers in turn. Setting the Windows regional format to English (India) also makes Excel apply Indian grouping to its standard number formats.

Frequently Asked Questions