Lakh and Crore to Million and Billion: The Conversion Explained

A funding round of “$50 million”, a budget line of “₹2,500 crore”, a company valued at “a billion dollars”: the same news story often mixes two ways of naming large numbers, and most readers quietly skip the conversion. The arithmetic is simple once you hold one fact: the Indian system and the international system group digits differently after the thousands. This guide gives the conversion both ways, a table you can keep, and the comma rules, with every number spelled out by our number-to-words converter.

Two systems, one difference

Both systems agree up to one thousand. From there:

• The international (short-scale) system adds a new name every three digits: thousand (1,000), million (1,000,000), billion (1,000,000,000), trillion (1,000,000,000,000).
• The Indian system adds a new name every two digits after the thousands: thousand (1,000), lakh (1,00,000), crore (1,00,00,000), arab (1,00,00,00,000), kharab (1,00,00,00,00,000).

That is why the commas look different. International grouping is 3-3-3; Indian grouping is 3-2-2-2. The digits are the same; only the names and the commas change.

The conversion table

Four lines to memorise:

1. 1 million = 10 lakh (1,000,000 = 10,00,000)
2. 10 million = 1 crore (10,000,000 = 1,00,00,000)
3. 1 billion = 100 crore (1,000,000,000 = 1,00,00,00,000), which is also “1 arab”
4. 1 trillion = 1 lakh crore (1,000,000,000,000 = 10,00,00,00,00,000), also “10 kharab”

Everything else follows by multiplying. 250 million is 25 crore; 2.5 billion is 250 crore; 1.2 lakh is 120,000. (The converter handles numbers up to 99 arab 99 crore; a trillion is beyond its range, which is why the fourth line is given as figures only.)

Common amounts, both ways

Notice the last row: ₹200 crore is ₹2 billion, and ₹2,000 crore is ₹20 billion. Headlines about “crore” and headlines about “billion” are usually talking about amounts two orders of magnitude apart, which is why the conversion matters.

Counting the zeros

If you forget the table, count zeros:

Million has six zeros, lakh five: so a million is ten lakh. Billion has nine, crore seven: so a billion is a hundred crore. Billion and arab both have nine zeros: they are the same number with different names.

How to convert without a calculator

Indian to international. Write the number in full with Indian commas, then regroup the digits in threes from the right. ₹12,50,000 → 1250000 → 1,250,000 → “1.25 million”. ₹2,500 crore → 2500 × 1,00,00,000 = 25,000,000,000 → “25 billion”.

International to Indian. Write it out and regroup 3-2-2-2 from the right. $50 million → 50,000,000 → 5,00,00,000 → “5 crore”. 1.5 billion → 1,500,000,000 → 1,50,00,00,000 → “150 crore”.

Quick rules. Million to lakh: multiply by 10. Million to crore: divide by 10. Billion to crore: multiply by 100. Crore to million: multiply by 10. Lakh to million: divide by 10.

Decimals: 1.5 crore, 2.3 million, 0.5 billion

Most real figures are not round, and decimals are where the two systems cause the most confusion. The method is the same: convert the unit, then multiply.

• 1.5 crore = 1.5 × 1,00,00,000 = 1,50,00,000 = 15 million. (Crore to million: multiply by 10.)
• 2.3 million = 2.3 × 10,00,000 = 23,00,000 = 23 lakh. (Million to lakh: multiply by 10.)
• 0.5 billion = 0.5 × 100 crore = 50 crore = 500 million.
• ₹1.2 lakh crore, a figure common in budget reporting, = 1.2 × 1,00,000 crore = 1,20,000 crore = 1.2 trillion.

A habit that prevents most errors: write the number out in full digits once, with no commas, and only then add commas in whichever system you need. 2.3 million → 2300000 → 23,00,000 (Indian) or 2,300,000 (international). The converter accepts the full-digit form and spells it out, so you can check that “twenty-three lakh” is what you meant.

Where each system is used

• Indian system is used in Indian banking, government budgets, company results filed in India, newspapers and everyday speech, and on cheques. The Reserve Bank, the Union Budget and stock exchanges report in lakh and crore. On a cheque or a legal document in India, write lakh and crore; our cheque guide covers the exact wording.
• International system is used in global business news, foreign remittances, US-dollar valuations, scientific writing and software that is not localised for India. Spreadsheets and most programming languages format numbers with 3-3-3 commas unless told otherwise.
• Both at once happen in Indian business reporting of foreign deals, where “$1.2 billion (about ₹10,000 crore)” is a common form; the rupee conversion depends on the exchange rate on that day, and this guide does not do currency conversion, only digit grouping.

Spelling and plurals

• Lakh or lac? Both appear in India; “lakh” is the standard dictionary spelling and what the converter uses. “Lac” survives on older forms and some bank software.
• Plurals. In Indian English the units usually stay singular after a number: “five lakh”, “ten crore”, not “five lakhs”. “Lakhs” and “crores” are used when there is no number: “crores of rupees”. Either is understood.
• Hindi. The same units with the same values: लाख and करोड़, then अरब and खरब. The converter gives Hindi words with one switch.
• Abbreviations. L for lakh and Cr for crore are common in Indian financial writing (₹12.5L, ₹2.5Cr); M and B (or bn) for million and billion in international writing. Do not mix them in one figure.

Mistakes to avoid

• Typing a lakh amount with international commas and misreading it. 1,000,000 looks like “one lakh” to an Indian eye at a glance and is actually ten lakh. When in doubt, count digits, not commas.
• “10 lakh = 1 million” written backwards as “1 lakh = 10 million”. It is the most common slip. One lakh is a tenth of a million.
• Dropping a zero between crore and billion. 100 crore is 1 billion. 10 crore is 100 million.
• Mixing a million figure with a crore figure in the same table. Convert everything to one system before comparing.
• Assuming “billion” means the same everywhere. Some European languages use the long scale, where a billion is a million million. English and Indian business usage both mean a thousand million; see the long-and-short-scales reference below.

Frequently asked questions

How many lakh is a million? Ten. 1,000,000 is 10,00,000, “ten lakh”.

How many crore is a billion? One hundred. 1,000,000,000 is 1,00,00,00,000, “one hundred crore”, also called one arab.

How many zeros does a crore have? Seven: 1,00,00,000. A lakh has five, an arab nine.

What is 1 trillion in crore? One lakh crore (1,00,000 crore), written 10,00,00,00,00,000 in Indian commas.

Does the converter give million and billion? It spells out numbers in the Indian system, in English or Hindi. For the international reading, use the rules on this page: regroup the digits in threes from the right.