Short answer: 1 lakh is 100,000 and 1 crore is 10,000,000. So 10 lakh make 1 million, 1 crore is 10 million, and 100 crore make 1 billion.
If you read Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Nepali news alongside international reports, you switch between two counting systems all the time. A property listed at ₹2.5 crore, a funding round of $40 million, a budget of ₹48 lakh crore: they are all easy to compare once you know how the units line up. This guide gives you the full conversion table, a few rules you can do in your head, and the comma conventions for each system.
How the two systems group digits
The international system groups digits in threes: thousand, million, billion, trillion. Each new name is 1,000 times the previous one.
The Indian system (used across South Asia) groups the first three digits from the right, then every two digits after that: thousand, lakh, crore. Each step after the thousands is 100 times the previous one. That is why the commas land in different places:
| Value | International | Indian |
|---|---|---|
| One hundred thousand | 100,000 | 1,00,000 (1 lakh) |
| One million | 1,000,000 | 10,00,000 (10 lakh) |
| Ten million | 10,000,000 | 1,00,00,000 (1 crore) |
| One billion | 1,000,000,000 | 1,00,00,00,000 (100 crore) |
Lakh, crore, million and billion conversion table
Bookmark this table. The digits are the same in both columns; only the names and comma positions change.
| Indian | International | In digits |
|---|---|---|
| 1 lakh | 100 thousand (0.1 million) | 100,000 |
| 5 lakh | 500 thousand (0.5 million) | 500,000 |
| 10 lakh | 1 million | 1,000,000 |
| 50 lakh | 5 million | 5,000,000 |
| 1 crore | 10 million | 10,000,000 |
| 10 crore | 100 million | 100,000,000 |
| 100 crore | 1 billion | 1,000,000,000 |
| 1,000 crore | 10 billion | 10,000,000,000 |
| 10,000 crore | 100 billion | 100,000,000,000 |
| 1 lakh crore | 1 trillion | 1,000,000,000,000 |
Quick rules for converting in your head
You rarely need a table once these rules stick. Each one is a single multiplication or division by 10 or 100:
- Crore to million: multiply by 10. ₹4 crore = 40 million rupees.
- Million to crore: divide by 10. 25 million = 2.5 crore.
- Lakh to million: divide by 10. 75 lakh = 7.5 million.
- Million to lakh: multiply by 10. 3 million = 30 lakh.
- Crore to billion: divide by 100. 5,000 crore = 50 billion.
- Billion to crore: multiply by 100. 1.2 billion = 120 crore.
- Lakh crore to trillion: the number stays the same. 3 lakh crore = 3 trillion.
Worked examples
A property price
A flat is listed at ₹2.75 crore. Crore to million means multiplying by 10, so that is ₹27.5 million, or 27,500,000 rupees.
A funding round
A startup announces it raised $15 million. Million to crore means dividing by 10, so that is $1.5 crore. To express it in rupees, convert the currency as a separate step: multiply 15,000,000 by the day's exchange rate, then convert the result to lakh or crore.
A national budget
A budget of ₹48 lakh crore is ₹48 trillion. Written out in full, that is 48,000,000,000,000 in the international format, or 48,00,00,00,00,00,000 in the Indian one.
A population figure
A population of 1.4 billion is 140 crore (billion to crore: multiply by 100).
Working out a loan instead? Our guide on how to calculate EMI uses lakh-based examples throughout.
Tip: when a figure mixes a currency conversion and a unit conversion, do them one at a time. Converting "₹500 crore in dollars" in one mental step is where most mistakes happen. First make it ₹5 billion, then divide by the exchange rate.
How to read and write the commas
The same number reads differently depending on where the commas sit:
- Indian format: 1,23,45,678 is read as "one crore, twenty-three lakh, forty-five thousand, six hundred seventy-eight".
- International format: 12,345,678 is read as "twelve million, three hundred forty-five thousand, six hundred seventy-eight".
A quick way to switch: count the digits. An 8-digit number is always in the crores (1 crore has 8 digits) and in the tens of millions. A 10-digit number is in the hundreds of crores and in the billions.
Software can do the formatting for you. On Windows, choosing the English (India) region, or the 12,34,56,789 digit grouping option under Region > Additional settings, makes Excel and other apps group digits the Indian way. In JavaScript, (12345678).toLocaleString('en-IN') returns 1,23,45,678.
Arab, kharab and larger Indian units
Beyond crore, the traditional Indian system continues in steps of 100: 1 arab = 100 crore (1 billion) and 1 kharab = 100 arab (100 billion). You will still hear these words, but newspapers and official documents almost always say "lakh crore" or "thousand crore" instead. For example, "₹1 lakh crore" is far more common than "₹10 kharab".
Short scale and long scale: why "billion" once meant something else
In the short scale, used today by almost every English-speaking country, a billion is a thousand million (109). In the older long scale, a billion was a million million (1012). British usage followed the long scale until the 1970s, and many European languages still use it: the French milliard and German Milliarde mean 109, while their billion and Billion mean 1012. When you translate a figure from a European source, check which scale it uses before converting to crore.
Convert any number instantly
For long or awkward numbers, use our Millions, Billions and Trillions Converter. Type the full number (for example 275000000) and it shows the value in thousands, millions, billions, trillions, lakh and crore at the same time, and spells it out in words. It runs entirely in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
How many lakhs are in 1 million?
10 lakh make 1 million (10 × 100,000 = 1,000,000).
How many crores are in 1 billion?
100 crore make 1 billion (100 × 10,000,000 = 1,000,000,000).
Is 1 crore equal to 10 million?
Yes. 1 crore = 10,000,000 = 10 million.
How much is 1 lakh crore?
1 lakh crore is 1 trillion: 100,000 × 10,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000.
How do you write 1 crore in numbers?
1,00,00,000 in the Indian format, or 10,000,000 in the international format. Both have seven zeros.