Big Number Calculator

Work with extremely large numbers. Display names, notations, and visual comparisons.

1 + 9 digits

Named Numbers

Standard

1,000,000,000

10 digits

Representations

Scientific

1.00000... × 10^9

Short Scale (US)

billion

Long Scale (EU)

milliard

Visual Comparison

Seconds

3.17e+1 years

Grains of sand

Less than all beaches on Earth

Dollars

Less than US national debt

Reference Table

NameZerosScientific
Thousand310³
Million610⁶
Billion910⁹
Trillion1210¹²
Quadrillion1510¹⁵
Quintillion1810¹⁸
Googol10010¹⁰⁰

Naming Scales

Two scales exist: short scale (US/UK) where billion = 10⁹, and long scale (continental Europe, Latin America) where billion = 10¹². This causes frequent confusion.

Really Big Numbers

A googol is 10¹⁰⁰ (1 followed by 100 zeros). A googolplex is 10^googol, so large it couldn't be written out even using the entire observable universe as paper.

Big Numbers in Reality

There are approximately 10⁸⁰ atoms in the observable universe. Global debt is on the order of 10¹³ dollars. The number of grains of sand on Earth is approximately 10²³.