Number to Words Converter (Indian & International)

How to use the Number to Words

1. 1

   Type the number or amount. Commas, spaces and the ₹ sign are ignored, and you can add up to two decimal places for paise.

2. 2

   Read the cheque line at the top, for example "Rupees Twelve Lakh Thirty-Four Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-Seven and Fifty Paise Only".

3. 3

   Choose Title Case, Sentence case, UPPERCASE or lowercase, and switch hyphens on or off to match how you want it written.

4. 4

   Copy whichever version you need: cheque line, Indian words, international words or Hindi.

Lakh and crore vs million and billion

India counts large numbers differently from most of the world. After the first thousand, the Indian system groups digits in twos (lakh, then crore), while the international system keeps grouping in threes (million, then billion). That is why the same number gets its commas in different places: 12,34,567 in India and 1,234,567 elsewhere. The converter shows both, along with the words for each.

Arab and kharab exist but almost nobody uses them in writing. Newspapers, the Union Budget and banks say "1,000 crore" or "1 lakh crore" instead, and that is what this tool does as well. Very large amounts are written like "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Crore", which is how a bank officer would read them.

How to write the amount on a cheque in India

A cheque has two places for the amount: words on the line after "Rupees", and figures in the box next to the ₹ sign. Both must match exactly. A few habits will keep your cheque from being returned and make it very hard for anyone to alter.

• Start writing right after the printed word "Rupees" with no gap, so nobody can add a word in front.
• Use the Indian system: lakh and crore, not million.
• End with the word "Only" and draw a line through any empty space left on the line.
• If there are paise, write them as "and Fifty Paise Only". If there are none, simply end with "Only".
• In the figure box, write the number close to the ₹ sign with Indian commas, and end with "/-", for example ₹12,34,567/-. With paise, write ₹12,34,567.50.
• Do not overwrite or cut and correct. Under the CTS-2010 cheque standard, banks do not accept changes to the amount or payee name. Cancel the leaf and write a fresh one.

What if the words and figures do not match? Under Section 18 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, the amount in words is the one that counts. In practice, though, most banks will return the cheque rather than pay, which costs you a bounce charge and a delay. Copy the words from this tool and check them against the figure before you sign.

Worked examples you can check

Here is how a few common amounts come out. They are also good test cases if you are building an invoice template in Excel or Tally and want to make sure it is right.

The converter writes "One Hundred One" rather than "One Hundred and One". Both are correct English, but leaving out the extra "and" keeps the only "and" in the cheque line between rupees and paise, which avoids confusion.

Writing numbers in Hindi

Hindi numbers are harder to write in words than English ones because every number from 1 to 99 has its own form. In English you can build "thirty-four" from "thirty" and "four", but in Hindi 34 is चौंतीस, which you simply have to know. The tool uses a complete table of all 99, so 12,34,567 comes out as बारह लाख चौंतीस हज़ार पाँच सौ सड़सठ, and the rupee version ends with रुपये मात्र.

A few numbers have more than one accepted spelling, such as इक्यानबे and इक्यानवे for 91, or तिरेपन and तिरपन for 53. Banks accept any standard spelling. If your school or office follows a particular textbook, use its spelling for those few numbers.

Other places you need amounts in words

Cheques are the obvious use, but you will also need the amount in words on GST invoices (most accounting software prints a "total in words" line), rent agreements, demand drafts, salary slips, property sale deeds, court fee forms and school fee receipts. Legal documents usually write both: "₹5,00,000 (Rupees Five Lakh Only)".

For those documents, Title Case or UPPERCASE is the usual choice. Sentence case suits letters and emails. The hyphen option lets you match older formats, since many bank forms and government templates write "Thirty Four" without a hyphen. Either style is accepted.