A million is the named value 1,000,000, written as 1 followed by 6 zeros. It is 10^6 in power notation and 1 x 10^6 in scientific notation. This page explains the size, digit count, place value, and common comparisons without making you count every zero by hand.
| Number name | Million |
|---|---|
| Number text | one million |
| Power notation | 10^6 |
| Scientific notation | 1 x 10^6 |
| Number of zeros | 6 |
| Number of digits | 7 |
A million is the natural number 1,000,000. It comes after 999,999 and before 1,000,001. In the short-scale naming system used in modern English, the term means one thousand thousands. That makes it a useful bridge between everyday counting and larger named values such as billion and trillion.
The written form has a leading 1 followed by 6 zeros, so it contains 7 digits in total. In power notation, the same value is written as 10^6. The exponent 6 tells you exactly how many zeros follow the leading digit. Scientific notation writes it as 1 x 10^6, which is often easier to scan than the full numeral.
Place value explains why the commas are helpful. Reading from right to left, the first group covers ones, tens, and hundreds. The next group covers thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands. The leading 1 sits in the millions place. Grouping digits in threes makes the number easier to read and reduces mistakes when checking its size.
This scale appears often in money, population counts, data measurement, science, and public reporting. A city may have around 1,000,000 residents, a budget may be described in millions of dollars, and scientific examples may use this scale before switching to higher powers of ten. The named form is convenient for readers, while the notation keeps the exact quantity clear.
The value 10^6 is 1,000 times larger than 10^3, which is one thousand. It is also 1,000 times smaller than 10^9, which is one billion. This three-zero step is the basic pattern behind many short-scale names: thousand, million, billion, trillion, and so on. Comparing exponents is usually the fastest way to see how far apart two large quantities are.
The most common mistake is mixing up zeros and digits. The zero count is 6, but the digit count is 7 because the leading 1 is also a digit. Another mistake is trying to judge the size from an ungrouped string such as 1000000. Writing 1,000,000 or 10^6 makes the structure much clearer and helps prevent counting errors.
There are 6 zeros after the leading 1 in 1,000,000.
It has 7 digits in total: the leading 1 plus 6 zeros.
10^6 means 10 multiplied by itself 6 times, which equals 1,000,000.
Yes. 1 x 10^6 is the scientific notation form of 1,000,000.
It is 1,000 times larger than one thousand because 1,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000.