Chinese groups large numbers every four digits using the units 万 and 亿, the myriad system shared with Japanese and Korean. This tool converts a number into both the mixed digit form and full Simplified Chinese characters, handling the tricky 零 (líng) insertion correctly.
Why the myriad system feels different
Western number systems advance every three digits: thousand (10³), million (10⁶), billion (10⁹). Chinese advances every four digits: 万 (wàn, 10⁴) and 亿 (yì, 10⁸). There is no single-word equivalent for “million” in Standard Chinese — one million is 一百万 (one hundred wan), and ten million is 一千万 (one thousand wan). This means a number that looks like a clean “million” in English needs rephrasing entirely in Chinese.
This matters in business contexts: when a contract, financial report, or news headline cites a figure, the grouping and unit choice determines how a native Chinese reader parses it at a glance.
How it works
The number is split into 4-digit groups from the right, and each non-zero group is tagged with its unit:
万 = 10,000 (10^4)
亿 = 100,000,000 (10^8)
兆 = 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12, less common in everyday use)Within each group the digits use 千 百 十 and the numerals 一-九. A single 零 is
inserted to mark an internal zero gap, so 1,002 reads 一千零二 and 100,020,000
reads 一亿零二万. So 123456789 becomes 1亿2345万6789 and
一亿二千三百四十五万六千七百八十九.
Worked examples
| Input | Mixed digit form | Full character form |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 1万 | 一万 |
| 100,000,000 | 1亿 | 一亿 |
| 123,456,789 | 1亿2345万6789 | 一亿二千三百四十五万六千七百八十九 |
| 1,002 | 1002 | 一千零二 |
| 100,020,000 | 1亿零2万 | 一亿零二万 |
The 零 between 亿 and 万 in the last example is the nuance most converters get wrong: it appears when a myriad group is skipped entirely (the 千/百/十 positions in the 万 group are all zero), but only once, never twice.
The 一十 rule
At the very start of a number, when ten appears without a leading one, the 一 is dropped: 15 reads 十五, not 一十五. This applies only at the outermost position — within any other group, the full 一十 form is kept. For example, 115 reads 一百一十五.
When you would use this
- Finance and reporting: Chinese financial media routinely combines digits with 万/亿 markers (the mixed form). If you are preparing a localised document, this gives you both the compact notation and the fully spelled-out character form.
- Translation verification: check that a translated figure preserves the correct myriad grouping, not just the digit string.
- Language learning: see how any number maps to its spoken Chinese form, complete with 零 placement.
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