Enter your cash, gold/silver, investments, and any short-term debts to see your net zakatable wealth, whether it clears the nisab threshold, and what's due.
Zakat is not simply 2.5% of what you own. Three things have to be true before any of it is payable, and the calculator checks them in this order:
That last distinction is where most estimates go wrong. Unlike an income tax band, crossing nisab makes your entire net wealth zakatable, not just the excess.
Nisab is fixed in weight, not in money: 87.48 grams of gold or 612.36 grams of silver. Because the two metals have drifted apart in price over centuries, the two thresholds are no longer close to each other.
At the prices this calculator opens with — $75 a gram for gold, $0.95 for silver — the gold nisab works out at about $6,561 and the silver nisab at about $582. The gold threshold is roughly 11 times higher. Someone holding $3,000 of net wealth owes $75 on a silver basis and nothing at all on a gold basis. Same wealth, same rate, opposite conclusion.
This is why the choice is offered rather than decided for you. Many scholars favour the silver nisab for cash and mixed wealth precisely because the lower threshold brings more wealth into the obligation; the gold basis is also long-established and widely followed. Enter current metal prices for both — the defaults are placeholders, not live quotes.
Zakat falls due once your wealth has stayed at or above nisab for one full lunar year, called the hawl. A lunar year is about 354 days, roughly eleven days shorter than a solar one.
That matters if you pay on a fixed Gregorian date — say every 1 April — for convenience. Doing so means each payment covers about 365 days rather than 354, so over a lifetime you would pay slightly fewer instalments than the lunar calendar requires. The usual correction is to apply 2.577% instead of 2.5% when using a solar year, which is the same total obligation spread over the longer interval. This calculator applies the standard 2.5%, so if you pay on a solar schedule, multiply the result by 1.031.
The hawl condition is a timing test you have to track yourself. The calculator gives a snapshot of what is owed on the wealth you enter; it cannot know how long you have held it.
Nisab is the minimum wealth threshold below which Zakat isn't obligatory. It's traditionally defined as the value of 87.48 grams of gold or 612.36 grams of silver. Because silver's price per gram is much lower than gold's, the silver-based nisab works out to a lower threshold — many scholars recommend using it for cash and mixed-asset wealth, since it means more eligible wealth in the community gets purified, though gold nisab is also a valid and commonly used standard. This calculator lets you choose either basis and enter current metal prices.
Generally: cash and bank balances, gold and silver (personal jewelry treatment varies by school of thought), stocks and investments, business inventory and receivables. Short-term debts and liabilities due are subtracted before applying the 2.5% rate. Fixed personal assets you use rather than hold as wealth — your primary home, your car, household furniture — are typically excluded entirely. This calculator covers the common categories; consult a knowledgeable scholar for asset types not listed here or for school-specific rulings.
Yes — the standard requirement is that your net qualifying wealth stays at or above nisab for one full lunar year (hawl) before Zakat becomes due on it. This calculator shows what would be owed on the wealth you enter as a snapshot; the hawl timing condition is a separate check you'll need to track yourself over the year.
Worked example: $5,000 cash + $2,000 gold/silver + $3,000 investments − $500 debts = $9,500 net zakatable wealth. Against a silver nisab (612.36g × $0.95/g ≈ $582), that's well above threshold, so Zakat due is 2.5% × $9,500 = $237.50.
Tracking the rest of your finances? See the Net Worth Calculator and Savings Calculator.