Zakat Calculator 2026: Gold, Silver, Cash & Nisab (Free)
Zakat Calculator: Work Out What You Owe on Cash, Gold, Silver & Investments
Enter your assets below to calculate your zakat instantly — checked against the correct nisab threshold, with support for both the gold and silver standard. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.
Most zakat calculators online fall into one of two problems. Either they're built by a charity and quietly nudge you toward donating through them specifically, or they use a fixed dollar nisab figure that was accurate the day it was published and has been wrong ever since — because nisab is pegged to the price of gold and silver, and those prices move constantly.
This calculator does neither. You enter today's gold and silver price yourself, so the nisab threshold is always current, not whatever it happened to be when this page was last updated. It doesn't ask where you're planning to give your zakat, and it doesn't send your numbers anywhere — everything runs in your browser.
Zakat Calculator
Silver nisab is lower, so it qualifies more people and directs more zakat to those in need — most contemporary scholars recommend it as the default standard.
This assumes you've held this wealth for one full lunar year (hawl). If any of it is newer than that, hold off including it until its own hawl completes.
What is zakat, and who has to pay it?
Zakat is a mandatory annual contribution — 2.5% of qualifying wealth — that becomes obligatory once your assets exceed a minimum threshold called the nisab and you've held that wealth for a full lunar year (hawl). It's one of the five pillars of Islam, distinct from sadaqah (voluntary charity), which has no minimum, no fixed rate, and no obligation attached.
You owe zakat if your total zakatable wealth — cash, gold, silver, business assets, and qualifying investments, minus short-term debts — stays at or above the nisab threshold for a complete lunar year. If your wealth dips below nisab at any point during the year, the hawl resets once it rises above the threshold again.
Nisab: the two fixed thresholds
Nisab is defined by weight, not by a dollar figure — which is exactly why it needs today's metal prices to calculate, not last year's. The two standards, agreed on across schools of thought, are:
| Standard | Weight | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Gold nisab | 87.48 grams | Roughly 7.5 tola or 3 troy ounces |
| Silver nisab | 612.36 grams | Based on the hadith reference to "five awaq" of silver |
Because silver's price per gram is far lower than gold's, the silver nisab is a much smaller dollar threshold — which means more people qualify to pay, and more zakat reaches those who need it. Most contemporary scholars recommend the silver standard for this reason, though using the gold standard isn't wrong; it's simply a higher bar.
What counts as zakatable wealth
- Cash and bank balances — checking, savings, cash on hand, and money others owe you that you expect to collect.
- Gold and silver — coins, bullion, and (depending on your school of thought — see below) jewelry.
- Business inventory — goods held for resale, valued at current market price, not what you paid for them.
- Investments — the zakatable portion of stocks, mutual funds, and similar holdings. For actively traded stocks, most scholars zakat the full market value; for long-term holdings in a company's underlying assets, some scholars only zakat the portion tied to cash, inventory, and receivables rather than fixed assets like factories or equipment. If you're unsure which applies to your portfolio, a local scholar familiar with your specific holdings can advise.
What's excluded
- Your primary home and the car you actually drive
- Personal belongings, furniture, and clothing for your own use
- Tools and equipment used to run a business (not the inventory itself)
- Short-term debts you owe — these get subtracted from your total before calculating zakat
Gold jewelry: where the schools of thought disagree
Hanafi school
All jewelry zakatableAll gold and silver jewelry is zakatable, whether it's stored away or worn daily. There's no personal-use exemption — if it's above nisab, zakat is due on it every year, same as any other gold you own.
Maliki, Shafi'i & Hanbali schools
Worn jewelry exemptJewelry worn regularly for personal use is treated like clothing — consumed through use rather than held as wealth — and is exempt from zakat. Only jewelry that's stored, unused, or held as an investment is zakatable under this view.
This isn't a case of one school being wrong; it's a genuine, longstanding scholarly difference. The practical approach is to follow whichever school your family or community typically follows, and if you're not sure, ask a local scholar rather than guessing — the value at stake is often significant.
When zakat is due
Zakat is due on the date your wealth first reached nisab and completed one full lunar year above it — not automatically on a specific calendar date. Many people choose to pay during Ramadan, since reward for charity is believed to be multiplied during that month, but this is a preference, not a requirement. If you don't know your original hawl date, picking a consistent annual date — the first of Ramadan is a common choice — and paying on it every year going forward is a reasonable, widely used approach.
Frequently asked questions
No. Zakat is obligatory, fixed at 2.5% of qualifying wealth above nisab, and due once a year. Sadaqah is voluntary charity with no minimum, no fixed rate, and no set timing — you can give it whenever and however much you choose.
Views differ by scholar and by account type. Funds you can access freely are generally treated like any other investment. Funds locked until retirement, with penalties for early withdrawal, are a genuine point of scholarly disagreement — some say zakat is due annually regardless, others say it's only due once the funds become accessible. This is worth asking a knowledgeable scholar about directly.
The hawl (one-year holding period) resets each time your wealth drops below nisab. It only starts counting again once your wealth rises back above the threshold — so a full uninterrupted year above nisab is what triggers the obligation.
Most contemporary scholars say only debt due imminently — this month's bills, a payment due soon — should be deducted. Long-term debt like a mortgage balance due over decades generally isn't subtracted from this year's zakatable wealth, though views on this vary and it's worth confirming with a scholar for larger, more complex situations.
For deeper scholarly reading on how zakat is calculated and its role in Islamic practice, Yaqeen Institute's zakat research collection is a solid, independent starting point.
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