Amount in Words in Indian Rupees (and Cheque Writer)

By the MuftTools teamUpdated October 2026How we checkSources: RBI: CTS-2010 standard for cheque forms, RBI: FAQs on cheque clearing, RBI: cheque validity of three months (circular, 4 Nov 2011)

Write any amount in words, the Indian way

Cheques, invoices, receipts, salary slips, agreements and bank forms all ask for the amount "in words" as well as in figures. Words are harder to alter than digits, so the two together protect both sides. Writing them out is easy for ₹500, but ₹12,34,567.89 makes most of us stop and count the commas.

This converter writes the amount out as you type: in English with lakh and crore (the way Indian cheques and invoices use them), in Hindi (हिंदी), and in the international system with thousand, million and billion. It handles paise, rounds to whole rupees when you want, and gives each version a copy button. It's for anyone filling a cheque, accountants and shopkeepers writing bills, students learning the place-value system, and people who simply want to check how many zeros a crore has.

How to use it

1. Type the amount in figures. You can use commas or not: 125000, 1,25,000 and ₹1,25,000/- all work. Add a decimal point for paise.
2. Read the three versions on the right (below, on a phone). Each updates as you type.
3. Pick a style: Rupees … Only for cheques and receipts, … Rupees for running text, or Number only when it isn't money (decimals are then read digit by digit, like "point seven five").
4. Choose Title Case, CAPITALS or Sentence case, and turn paise off to round to whole rupees.
5. Press Copy next to the version you need and paste it into your document, Excel sheet or message.
6. Writing a cheque? Add the payee's name and the date under Cheque details to see how the filled cheque should look.

The Indian and international systems side by side

The Indian system groups the first three digits from the right, then every two digits: 1,00,000 is one lakh and 1,00,00,000 is one crore. The international system groups in threes: 100,000 is one hundred thousand and 10,000,000 is ten million.

Above 99 crore, English cheques normally keep counting in crore ("One Thousand Crore"), while Hindi moves on to अरब (100 crore) and खरब (100 अरब). The converter follows both conventions and accepts up to 15 digits before the decimal point.

How to fill a cheque correctly

Indian cheques follow the RBI's CTS-2010 standard (banks were told to issue only such cheques from 30 September 2012). It fixes where the main fields sit so that cheque images can be read in clearing. That's why every bank's cheque has the date boxes at the top right, the "Pay" line, the "Rupees" lines with the ₹ box beside them, the account number and the signature space in roughly the same places. The drawing above is a generic cheque in that layout, without any bank's name or logo, filled with your amount.

1. Date: one digit in each box, as DD MM YYYY. Banks don't pay a cheque presented more than three months after this date, as directed by the RBI from 1 April 2012.
2. Pay: the payee's name exactly as on their bank account. Draw a line from the end of the name to the end of the line.
3. Rupees: start right after the printed word, write the amount in words, and end with "Only". If it runs onto the second line, continue there, and strike out any empty space.
4. ₹ box: write the figures close to the ₹ sign, with Indian commas, and add /- after whole rupees.
5. A/c Payee: two parallel lines across the top left corner with "A/c Payee" between them mean the money should go only into the payee's bank account.
6. Signature: sign above "Please sign above", the same way as in your bank's records.

The RBI's FAQs on cheque clearing add two practical points. First, cheques with alterations are not accepted in the cheque truncation system: other than validating the date, nothing should be changed, so if you get the payee's name or the amount wrong, write a fresh cheque. Second, banks offer Positive Pay for cheques of ₹50,000 and above: you send your bank the date, payee name and amount before the cheque is presented, and the bank checks them against the cheque. Banks may make it mandatory for cheques of ₹5 lakh and above. The RBI also hasn't prescribed an ink colour, but asks customers to use permanent ink that scans clearly.

Common mistakes

• Mixing systems: "Twelve Lakh Thirty Four Thousand" and "One Million Two Hundred Thirty-Four Thousand" are both right, but don't mix lakh and million in one amount.
• Forgetting paise: if the figures show paise, the words must show them too, and the other way round.
• Leaving gaps: a gap between words, or before "Only", leaves room for someone to add a word.
• Typing errors in Excel: if you write amounts in words in a spreadsheet, check the figures once more here before you print or send it.

Need a receipt with the amount in words already filled in? Use the receipt maker. For rent receipts there is the rent receipt generator, and for bills the GST invoice generator; both write the amount in words for you.

More ways to write numbers

• Amount in words in Hindi