How Many Zeros in a Vigintillion?
A vigintillion has 63 zeros in the short-scale system used in the United States and modern British English: 1063. The name comes from the Latin viginti (twenty) — it is the 20th "-illion" name after a million. Written out, it spans 64 digits in total. In the long-scale system used in parts of continental Europe, a vigintillion instead equals 10120, or 1 followed by 120 zeros. The short-scale vigintillion is also notable for appearing in many standard dictionaries as the largest formally named number — beyond it, naming continues with prefixes like un-, duo-, and tre- vigintillion, which are less commonly found in everyday reference books. Learn more about how many zeros does a quattuordecillion have.
A vigintillion has
63
zeros
- Written Form
- 1 followed by 63 zeros
- Scientific
- 10⁶³
What Does 1 Vigintillion Look Like?
One vigintillion written out in full is the digit 1 followed by exactly 63 zeros:
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Learn more about how many zeros in a decillion.
The full number spans 64 digits and contains 21 groups of three digits (counting the leading 1 as a group of one). To verify the zero count: 63 zeros ÷ 3 = 21 groups of zeros. In scientific notation, 1063 tells you directly that there are 63 zeros following the leading 1.
The general formula for any "-illion" zero count is 3n + 3, where n is its position in the sequence starting from million as position 1. For vigintillion at position 20: 3 × 20 + 3 = 63 zeros.
Is Vigintillion the Biggest Named Number?
Vigintillion is the largest "-illion" name that appears in most general-interest English dictionaries, but it is not the largest formally named number — not even close. The naming system continues with unvigintillion (1066), duovigintillion (1069), and so on up through centillion (10303), which itself is dwarfed by numbers like a googol (10100) and a googolplex (10googol). See also: Zeros in a quadrillion.
The reason vigintillion often appears as a boundary in dictionaries is practical: words like "septendecillion" and "octovigintillion" rarely appear in everyday writing, so many reference books stop at vigintillion as a convenient endpoint. Mathematicians and scientists who need larger named values either extend the Latin-prefix system or switch to scientific notation, which is unambiguous regardless of naming conventions.