Number to words converter

Number Commas and spaces are ignored. A leading minus works.

Numbering system The Indian system groups in twos after the thousand.

Currency Currency mode rounds to the minor unit and ends "only".

Capitalisation

In words

Type a number above.

Two systems, not one

The same digits are grouped differently depending on where you are. Internationally, 1,234,567 is one million two hundred and thirty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-seven. In the Indian system the same number is written 12,34,567 and read as twelve lakh thirty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-seven.

The difference is not just naming. After the thousand, the Indian system groups digits in twos rather than threes, which is why 100000 is one lakh and not one hundred thousand. A converter that simply swaps the words for million and lakh gets this wrong, and gets it wrong silently.

Writing an amount on a cheque

Choose a currency and the output changes shape: it names the major and minor units, agrees them with the amount — one rupee, two rupees, one paisa, fifty paise — and closes with the word only, which is what stops a figure being added to afterwards.

Currency mode also rounds to the minor unit rather than reading out a third decimal place. There is no half a paisa to write on a cheque, so 1234.567 becomes one thousand two hundred and thirty-four rupees and fifty-seven paise only.

What it accepts

Thousands separators and spaces, because these are usually pasted rather than typed.
A decimal part, read digit by digit — three point one four, not three point fourteen. That is how it is said aloud, and it avoids implying .45 and .450 are different quantities.
A leading minus, which comes back as minus.
Up to fifteen digits. Beyond that a browser cannot hold consecutive whole numbers exactly, so the tool refuses rather than returning a number that is quietly wrong.

The word "and"

British and Indian usage puts an and before a trailing remainder under a hundred: one thousand and five. It does not add one before a larger remainder: one thousand two hundred and thirty-four, where the and already sits inside the hundreds. Both are handled.