What is the difference between short scale and long scale?

In the short scale, each new name is a thousand times the previous one, so a billion is 10^9. In the long scale, each new name is a million times the previous one, so a billion (milliard) is 10^9 but a long-scale billion is 10^12. English uses the short scale; much of continental Europe uses the long scale.

How many zeros does a trillion have?

In the short scale a trillion is 10^12, written with 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000). In the long scale a trillion is 10^18. The table shows both so you can avoid the common mismatch.

A googol is 10^100 — a 1 followed by 100 zeros. It is not part of the standard naming series but is included for reference, as is the googolplex (10 to the power of a googol).

Why do countries disagree on billion?

Historically France and Britain used the long scale, while the United States used the short scale. The UK officially switched to the short scale in 1974, so English now uses 10^9 for a billion almost everywhere, but many European languages keep the long scale.

Is this data sent anywhere?

No. The table and search run entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, logged or stored.

What is the Large Number Names Reference?

Reference table of large number names from million to centillion, showing the power of ten and the differing values in the short-scale and long-scale naming systems. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Large Number Names Reference

Name: Large Number Names Reference
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Naming the large numbers

Large numbers have standard names, but two competing systems — the short scale and the long scale — assign different values to the same word past a million. This reference lists the names from million to centillion with the power of ten each represents in both systems, plus a search.

The two systems side by side

In the short scale, used across English-speaking countries, each successive name is 1,000 times larger than the last: million 10^6, billion 10^9, trillion 10^12, and so on. In the long scale, used in much of continental Europe, each named step is 1,000,000 times larger, so the long-scale billion is 10^12 and a milliard fills the 10^9 slot. The table shows both powers side by side, and the search matches on name or exponent.

Name	Short scale	Long scale	Long scale intermediate
Million	10^6	10^6	—
Milliard / Billion (US)	10^9	—	10^9 (milliard)
Billion (US) / Billion (EU)	10^9	10^12	—
Trillion	10^12	10^18	10^15 (billiard)
Quadrillion	10^15	10^24	—

The word “billion” is the classic point of confusion: it means 10^9 in American English but was long used to mean 10^12 in French and German (and in British English before 1974). News from continental Europe and scientific texts in some European languages may still use the long-scale sense, though international scientific writing now generally follows SI prefixes (giga = 10^9, tera = 10^12) rather than -illion names.

How the naming series is constructed

Both scales derive their names from Latin number prefixes — bi (2), tri (3), quadri (4), and so on:

Short scale: a billion = 10^(3×2+3) = 10^9; a trillion = 10^(3×3+3) = 10^12. The exponent is 3n + 3 where n is the Latin prefix value.
Long scale: a billion = 10^(6×2) = 10^12; a trillion = 10^(6×3) = 10^18. The exponent is 6n where n is the Latin prefix value. Intermediate names (milliard, billiard, trilliard) sit at 6n + 3.

This is why the long-scale names are “doubly” large — the prefix counts millions of the previous level, not thousands.

Beyond trillion: names you rarely encounter

Past trillion, the names become largely academic outside financial reporting, astronomy, and informatics:

Quadrillion (10^15 short): sometimes appears in discussions of bytes (petabyte = 10^15 bytes by SI prefix).
Quintillion (10^18 short): total number of grains of sand on Earth is estimated in this range.
Sextillion (10^21 short), Septillion (10^24 short): occasionally used in chemistry and physics.
Centillion (10^303 short, 10^600 long): the largest named number in most dictionaries.
Googol (10^100): outside the standard series but widely known; Google’s name was an intentional misspelling.

Practical impact for reading numbers in context

When reading a number with -illion in context:

If the source is American English (US media, US financial reports): assume short scale.
If the source is a historical British text before roughly 1975: may use long scale.
If the source is continental European (French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc.): long scale is standard in each language’s own writing.
If the source is scientific literature: check whether SI prefixes are used instead (they are unambiguous).

When exact magnitude matters — in financial modelling, scientific calculations, or legal documents — write out the full number with commas or use scientific notation to eliminate ambiguity entirely.