Zakat calculator
Every asset class, live nisab, a hawl reminder and saved records.
Fetching today's gold and silver prices…
Nisab standard
The silver nisab is much lower, so more people owe zakat under it. Both are held by recognised positions - Sahn does not choose for you.
What you own
In grams
In grams
Schools differ on debts unlikely to be repaid.
Treatment differs for long-term holdings versus trading stock.
Widely treated as a currency or trade asset, but not settled.
Zakatable if held for sale; not if held to live in or let.
Schools differ on pensions you cannot yet access.
What you owe
This is a calculator, not a fatwa. Where schools differ on an asset the difference is noted rather than decided, and anything unusual in your circumstances should go to a qualified scholar.
How zakat is calculated
What the nisab is
Zakat is owed only once your wealth passes a threshold called the nisab. Classically that threshold is 87.48 grams of gold or 612.36 grams of silver, and it is expressed in metal because currencies did not hold their value in any stable way.
The two give very different answers today. Silver has fallen against gold over the centuries, so the silver nisab is far lower, which means more people owe zakat under it. Many scholars prefer silver for exactly that reason: it brings more wealth into the obligation and benefits more recipients. Others hold that gold better reflects what the threshold was originally worth. Both positions are held by serious people, and the calculator lets you choose which to apply rather than deciding for you.
The hawl, and why the date matters
Zakat falls due when wealth above the nisab has been held for one lunar year, called the hawl. The year runs on the Hijri calendar, which is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian one, so the date drifts earlier each year against a Western calendar.
What matters is that the wealth stayed above the nisab across the whole year, not that it never moved. Money coming in and going out does not restart the clock; dropping below the threshold does. The calculator records the date you worked it out and shows when the next hawl falls, because the most common mistake here is not miscalculating the amount but losing track of the date.
What is counted, and what is not
Zakat is owed on wealth that grows or could grow: cash wherever it sits, gold and silver, money owed to you that you expect to receive, business stock held for sale, and investments held to trade.
It is not owed on what you use. Your home, your car, your furniture, the tools of your trade and the clothes you wear are outside it however much they are worth. The principle is the distinction between wealth held and wealth used, not between rich and poor.
Debts you owe are deducted before the threshold is tested, which is why the calculator subtracts them first rather than afterwards. A long-term mortgage is the contested case: some deduct only the instalments falling due within the year, others the whole outstanding balance, and the two give very different answers. The calculator flags that choice rather than quietly making it.
The rate, and what this page does not do
The rate is 2.5% of the whole amount once the nisab is met, not 2.5% of the excess above it. That catches people out: someone just over the threshold owes zakat on everything they hold, not on the few pounds by which they cleared it.
This page applies published rules to figures you enter. It is not a ruling on your situation, and it cannot be: whether a particular asset is zakatable, how to treat a pension you cannot access, what to do about a business part-owned with someone else - these are questions for someone qualified who can hear the details. What the calculator can do is the arithmetic, transparently, and show you which rule it applied.
Common questions
- Is zakat due on gold jewellery you wear?
- The schools differ. The Hanafi position is that gold and silver are zakatable whatever they are used for, including jewellery in regular use. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali positions generally exempt jewellery worn as adornment, while taxing gold held as a store of value. The calculator includes gold you enter and does not ask what it is for, so apply whichever position you follow when deciding what to enter.
- Which nisab should you use, gold or silver?
- Neither is wrong. Silver gives a much lower threshold today, so more people owe and more is distributed; many contemporary scholars prefer it for that reason. Gold gives a higher threshold closer to what the original measure was worth in practice. If you follow a particular scholar or school, use their position. If you have no view, the silver basis is the more cautious of the two in the sense that it errs towards paying.
- Do you deduct a mortgage?
- This is the most contested deduction in ordinary practice. One position deducts only the instalments due within the coming year, on the reasoning that the rest is not yet payable. Another deducts the entire outstanding balance as a debt genuinely owed. The difference can decide whether you owe anything at all, which is why the calculator marks it as contested rather than choosing for you.