Zakat calculator

How do you calculate zakat?

The calculation has four steps:

1. Add up zakatable wealth: cash and bank balances, gold and silver, shares, crypto and money owed to you that you expect to get back.
2. Take off deductible debts, if the view you follow deducts them.
3. Compare the total with the nisab, the value of 85 grams of gold or 595 grams of silver on the day.
4. If the total reaches the nisab and a lunar year has passed, zakat is 2.5% of the total. Dividing by 40 gives the same answer.

The rate and the two nisab weights come from the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority of Saudi Arabia (ZATCA) in its published Guidelines on the Zakat Jurisprudence of Individuals, read on 13 November 2026, which state the nisab as twenty mithqals or 85 grams of pure gold and two hundred dirhams or 595 grams of pure silver. The General Authority of Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat in the UAE gives the same rate and the same 85 grams of gold in its services guide.

The calculator values gold and silver at the price per gram you type in. It holds no live prices, so the answer is only as current as the prices you enter.

Which nisab to use: gold or silver?

Guidance differs, and the calculator lets you choose. The UAE authority's services guide says the nisab for cash is the value of 85 grams of gold. The ZATCA guideline says the nisab for banknotes is the lower of the gold and silver values, and notes that silver is usually the lower one. Because silver is far cheaper per gram, the choice can decide whether zakat is due at all.

At example prices of $100 a gram for pure gold and $1.50 a gram for silver (illustrations, not market prices), the two thresholds compare like this:

Someone with $5,000 in savings and nothing else pays nothing on the gold basis, because $5,000 is below $8,500, but pays $125 on the silver basis. The second chart under the calculator puts your total beside both thresholds whenever you enter both prices. Some bodies use slightly different weights: the Fatwa Committee of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), for example, refers to a nisab of 86 grams of gold.

Worked example in dollars

Take $8,000 in the bank and 50 grams of 22 karat gold, with pure gold at an example $100 a gram and silver at $1.50. The gold is 50 x 22 / 24 x 100 = $4,583.33, so zakatable wealth is $12,583.33.

• On the gold basis the nisab is 85 x $100 = $8,500. The total is above it, so zakat is $12,583.33 x 2.5% = $314.58.
• On the silver basis the nisab is 595 x $1.50 = $892.50. The total is above that too, so zakat is the same $314.58.

The basis only changes the answer when your wealth sits between the two thresholds. Once you are above both, zakat is simply 2.5% of the total, whichever metal you chose.

Worked examples in pounds and dirhams

In pounds. A saver in the UK has £3,000 in cash and 40 grams of 18 karat gold, with example prices of £80 a gram for pure gold and £1.10 for silver. The gold is 40 x 18 / 24 x 80 = £2,400, so the total is £5,400. The gold nisab is 85 x £80 = £6,800, so on that basis nothing is due. The silver nisab is 595 x £1.10 = £654.50, so on that basis zakat is £5,400 x 2.5% = £135.

In dirhams. A resident of the UAE holds AED 20,000 in cash and shares with a market value of AED 30,000, and owes AED 5,000 that is due now. With pure gold at an example AED 400 a gram, the gold nisab is AED 34,000.

• Deducting the debt, as the Kuwait Zakat House view allows for debt due now, leaves AED 45,000, and zakat is AED 1,125.
• Not deducting it, as the ZATCA guideline says, leaves AED 50,000, and zakat is AED 1,250.

Both totals are above the nisab, so the AED 125 difference comes entirely from how the debt is treated.

Zakat on gold, silver and jewelry

Gold and silver are valued at the price per gram on the day zakat is due. For gold that is not pure, the ZATCA guideline multiplies the weight by the karat and divides by 24, which is how the calculator values gold entered in grams: 50 grams of 21 karat gold counts as 43.75 grams of pure gold. If you know only what your gold or silver is worth, enter it as a value instead.

Jewelry that is worn is where views part. The ZATCA guideline says zakat is not due on jewelry kept for personal use or lending, but is due on jewelry kept to trade, rent out or sell when needed. The MUIS Fatwa Committee, in a fatwa revised on 9 June 2011, treats worn gold jewelry as not zakatable unless it reaches the customary amount, which it sets at 860 grams, or is bought as an investment; once that amount is reached, it counts the whole weight, not only the grams above 860. The calculator leaves worn jewelry out unless you switch on Count the jewelry you wear; enter how many of your grams are in jewelry you wear, and decide which view you follow.

Zakat on shares and funds

The ZATCA guideline separates shares by why you hold them:

The same guideline treats investment funds and sukuk the same way: on market value when held to trade, and on their zakatable assets when held for income. Finding a company's zakatable assets per share takes its published accounts, or a zakat-per-share figure where a company or authority publishes one. For most listed companies the whole market value is the larger of the two figures, though not for every company.

Zakat on crypto

There is less settled guidance here, and views differ. The ZATCA guideline does not mention crypto at all. The Perlis State Fatwa Committee in Malaysia decided at its meeting of 14 and 15 July 2019 that Bitcoin is subject to zakat as trade goods once the nisab and a lunar year are met, and it values the holding at the lowest price of a coin during the year times the number of coins, plus trading profits over the year. Treating crypto like other trade goods would instead value it at the market price on the day zakat is due, as the ZATCA guideline does for goods held to trade.

The calculator takes one figure for crypto, so enter the value the view you follow uses. Prices can move a long way within a year, so the two methods can give very different totals for the same coins. Questions about whether a particular coin or token is permissible to hold at all are separate from zakat and are outside what this page covers.

Money owed to you, debts you owe, and the lunar year

Money owed to you. The ZATCA guideline counts a debt owed to you when the borrower can pay and does so when asked. A debt you do not expect to recover is not counted until you receive it. Enter only the first kind.

Debts you owe. The ZATCA guideline says the person paying zakat does not deduct their own debts: someone with 10,000 riyals who owes 2,000 pays on the full 10,000. The Kuwait Zakat House lists among the conditions for zakat that the wealth be free of debt that is due now. The calculator lets you choose between these two views, and it only ever deducts the short-term debt you enter, never a long-term loan.

The lunar year, or hawl. Zakat on money, gold, silver and trade goods falls due once a full lunar year has passed with the wealth at or above the nisab. The ZATCA guideline puts that year at 354 days. The UAE authority's guide adds that if the wealth falls below the nisab during the year, the count starts again when it returns above it. If the year has not passed, switch the last toggle off and the calculator shows nothing due yet.

What this zakat calculator leaves out

It covers personal wealth in money and money-like assets. It does not cover zakat on livestock, crops and fruit, business stock and receivables of a trading company, property held to sell, or zakat al-fitr. It also adds every holding into one total and compares it with the one nisab you chose; some guidance applies a separate nisab to gold and to silver held as metal, which can matter when you hold only a small amount of one of them.

Every figure depends on the prices and values you type in, and on the views you choose where guidance differs. For a ruling on your own circumstances, ask a scholar or your national zakat authority. This page computes on your inputs and states the rules it applies; it does not decide between scholars.

Common mistakes, zakat in Excel, and a glossary

• Using a stale price. The nisab moves with the metal price, so use the price on the day zakat is due.
• Counting gold at full purity. 18 karat gold is 75% gold; multiply the weight by 18 / 24.
• Counting money twice. A salary already sitting in your bank balance is part of your cash, not a separate holding.
• Forgetting money owed to you. A loan to a friend who will repay it on request counts on the ZATCA view.

In Excel or Google Sheets, with zakatable wealth in B1, the nisab in B2 and the lunar year met, the formula is =IF(B1>=B2,B1*2.5%,0). For the nisab, use =85*C1 with the price of pure gold in C1, or =595*C2 with the price of silver in C2.

Nisab: the least wealth on which zakat is due. Hawl: the lunar year the wealth must be held. Karat: parts of gold in 24. Trade goods: anything bought to sell for a profit. Zakatable assets: the part of a company's assets on which zakat falls, such as cash, receivables and stock for sale.

Frequently asked questions

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