How Many Zeros in a Ank?
An ank has 21 zeros in the Indian numbering system: 1021 — equal to one sextillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) in the international system. One ank equals 100 mahashankh and represents the final, largest unit in the classical extended Indian numbering scale. The word "ank" means "digit" or "figure" in Sanskrit and Hindi, reflecting its role as an endpoint in a counting system developed for astronomical and cosmological calculations in ancient India. Learn more about zeros in a padma.
A ank has
21
zeros
- Written Form
- 1 followed by 21 zeros
- Scientific
- 10²¹
- Western
- 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
How Many Zeros Are in an Ank?
An ank has exactly 21 zeros: 1021. It sits two zeros above mahashankh (1019) and matches the international unit sextillion in value. The Indian extended numbering scale adds two zeros at each step from lakh (105) upward, and ank is where that classical scale ends.
| Unit | Zeros | International equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Mahashankh | 19 | 10 quintillion |
| Ank | 21 | 1 sextillion |
Interestingly, 1021 is also the value of one zettabyte in digital storage — a coincidence in scale between an ancient Indian counting tradition and a modern data measurement standard. Learn more about zeros in a crore.
What Does Ank Equal in the International System?
One ank equals one sextillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in the international short-scale system. To put this in perspective: 1 ank = 1,000 quintillion = 1,000,000 quadrillion = 1,000,000,000 trillion. The ank exceeds the range of any quantity encountered in everyday life or modern economics — it belongs to the realm of cosmological physics and mathematical theory. Learn more about how many zeros does a lakh have.
Where Does Ank Sit in the Full Indian Scale?
The complete classical Indian numbering scale, from the most familiar unit to ank, follows a 100× progression above crore:
- Lakh (105) — 100 thousand
- Crore (107) — 10 million
- Arab (109) — 1 billion
- Kharab (1011) — 100 billion
- Neel (1013) — 10 trillion
- Padma (1015) — 1 quadrillion
- Shankh (1017) — 100 quadrillion
- Mahashankh (1019) — 10 quintillion
- Ank (1021) — 1 sextillion
Above ank, the classical Sanskrit system does not provide further standardized names. Ancient texts sometimes referenced still larger values using compound descriptive phrases rather than single coined terms — a practice that mirrors how modern mathematicians use powers-of-ten notation for quantities too large for named units.