Zakat Calculator
Add what you own, subtract what is due now, compare against nisab. The 2.5% follows.
What you hold
Only loans and invoices you genuinely expect to be repaid. Leave bad debt out until the money actually arrives.
Metal prices today
Enter today's local prices — they set the nisab. Use one single currency for every field.
The lower of the two thresholds is used. Silver nisab is normally the lower one, so it brings more people into zakat — the common Hanafi practice and the cautious choice.
An estimate for planning. Rulings differ between schools of law — confirm with a scholar you trust before you pay.
How zakat is actually worked out
Zakat is not a tax on income. It is an annual 2.5% due on the wealth that has been sitting with you for a full lunar year, once that wealth clears a floor called the nisab. That distinction catches people out: a high earner who spends everything may owe nothing, while a modest saver with an untouched account owes every year. The calculation has three moving parts — what counts as zakatable wealth, what you may subtract, and where the nisab sits today.
A worked example
Say you are in the United States and your zakat date arrives. You hold 12,000 dollars in checking and savings, 5,000 dollars of stock in a brokerage account, no gold, no silver, no business inventory, and a credit card bill of 1,000 dollars that is due now. Gold is trading around 75 dollars per gram and silver around 0.95 dollars per gram.
Zakatable wealth is 12,000 + 5,000 − 1,000 = 16,000 dollars. The gold nisab is 85 x 75 = 6,375 dollars. The silver nisab is 595 x 0.95 = 565.25 dollars. The lower threshold applies, so 565.25 is the bar and 16,000 clears it comfortably. Zakat due is 16,000 x 0.025 = 400 dollars. Had your wealth been 500 dollars, the tool would report that you are below nisab and owe nothing — a result, not an error.
Why 85 grams and 595 grams
The classical thresholds are 20 mithqal of gold and 200 dirhams of silver. Converted into modern weights those come out at roughly 87.48 g and 612.36 g on the strictest reckoning, and 85 g and 595 g on the reckoning most contemporary zakat bodies use, including the UK's National Zakat Foundation and many US charities. This calculator uses 85 g and 595 g. The difference between the two conventions is small; the difference between choosing gold or silver as your metal is not, which is why both figures are printed side by side.
The lunar year, and picking your date
Hawl means a full lunar year of ownership, about 354 days — eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year. If you use a fixed Gregorian date instead, you will slowly fall behind, so scholars who permit it usually ask you to add roughly 0.03% to the rate (2.577% instead of 2.5%) to compensate. The simplest habit is to fix your zakat day in the Islamic calendar — 1 Ramadan is popular because it is easy to remember and charities are geared up for it — and to run this calculation on the same day each year.
What goes in, what stays out
In: cash in hand and in every account, gold and silver in any form including jewellery under the majority view, shares and funds held for growth or trading, cryptocurrency, money lent out that you expect back, rental income already received, and goods bought for resale valued at what you would sell them for today.
Out: your home, the car you drive, clothes, furniture, tools of your trade, and business fixtures such as shelving or machinery you use rather than sell. Personal-use items are not zakatable no matter how valuable, which is why a person with a paid-off house and an empty bank account can be below nisab.
Deductions are narrower than most people assume. You subtract debts that are due now — this month's rent, an overdue invoice, the current mortgage instalment, the credit card balance you are about to clear — not the outstanding capital on a long loan. If you subtracted a 25-year mortgage in full, almost no homeowner would ever pay zakat, which is not the intent of the rule.
Shares, pensions and business stock
For shares held long term, one widely used approach is to pay on the zakatable assets inside the company rather than the whole share price — often approximated at 25 to 30% of market value. For shares bought to trade, the full market value counts. For retirement accounts, the common view is to use the amount you could access today after penalties and tax. For a shop or an online store, count stock at resale value on your zakat date, add receivables you expect to collect, and leave out the fittings.
Because these judgements differ between schools and between scholars, treat the number this tool produces as a planning figure. Run it, write down the inputs you used, and take the same sheet to your local imam or a zakat helpline if any category is unclear. Paying a little more than the strict minimum, when in doubt, is the traditional way out of the ambiguity.
Sources & further reading
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the gold nisab or the silver nisab?
Most zakat councils and the Hanafi school use silver, because 595 g of silver is worth far less than 85 g of gold, so more people owe zakat and more of the poor receive it. Some scholars prefer gold, arguing silver has lost the purchasing power it had in the Prophet's time. This tool shows both values and applies the lower one, which is the cautious position.
What is hawl — does my money have to sit for a year?
Hawl is one lunar year, about 354 days, of continuous ownership. Your zakatable wealth must be above the nisab at the start and at the end of that year; dips in between do not reset the clock. Pick an anniversary date, such as 1 Ramadan, and pay on it every year. Assets picked up mid-year fall under the same anniversary rather than each starting a clock of its own.
Do I pay zakat on a 401(k), IRA or workplace pension?
Scholars differ here. The most common view is that you owe zakat on what you could actually access today — the vested balance minus early-withdrawal penalty and tax — because wealth you cannot reach is not fully in your possession. Others say pay on the full balance each year, and a minority defer until withdrawal. Enter whichever figure your own scholar supports in the investments field.
What about money people owe me, and money I owe?
A debt you expect back — a loan to a reliable friend, an invoice a solid client will settle — counts as your wealth, so enter it in the money-owed-to-you field. A debt unlikely to be repaid is left out until it actually arrives. On the other side, subtract only what is due now: this month's rent, an overdue bill, the current instalment of a mortgage, not the whole outstanding balance of a 25-year loan.