20 trillion — 20,000,000,000,000

Counted in other units

• lakh200000000
• crore2000000
• million20000000
• billion20000
• man (万)2000000000
• eok (億)200000
• jo (兆)20

Only the Indian grouping is uneven

Only the last three digits are taken off; after that it goes in twos. That is because lakh (10⁵) and crore (10⁷) each step up by two digits. Ten million is therefore written 1,00,00,000 rather than 10,000,000. It looks like a misplaced comma at first, but it is the standard across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

East Asia counts in fours

After 만 comes 억, then 조, then 경 — a new name every four digits. But the commas printed on screens are usually in threes, so in Korea, Japan and China the separators and the words fall out of step. Reading 1,000,000,000 as 십억 means ignoring the commas and recounting in fours from the right.

Nearby multipliers

Same unit, other multipliers

Same multiplier, other units

Where conversions go wrong

Swapping names without counting digits slips by factors of ten. A crore is 1,000만, not 1억; a billion is 10억, not 1조. The safe move is to compare powers of ten rather than words — which is why every cell here carries its exponent.

How to read this

• Value = multiplier × a power of ten. Nothing here is stored data.
• The same number is shown cut three ways: by three, Indian style, and by four.
• Changing units only moves the decimal point, so nothing is rounded.
• Compare powers of ten, not names. A crore is 0.1억.