a scroll-powered sense of scale
HOW MUCH IS A TRILLION?
Your brain is lying to you about big numbers.
Scroll, and it will stop.
first, a test
Tap where one billion belongs.
tap the line · or just keep scrolling
A billion sits 0.1% of the way from a million to a trillion. Most people put it near the middle. Keep scrolling to see why everyone gets this wrong.
dots on screen
1
× €1,000,000 each
This is one million euros.
One dot. In €100 notes it weighs 10 kg — it fits in a backpack.
Earning the median European salary, it takes about 25 years.
A million is big. You can picture it.
That's the last time on this page that your intuition works.
dots on screen
1
× €1,000,000 each
This is one billion.
One thousand dots of a million each.
Spending €1,000 a day, a billion lasts 2,740 years.
Earning the median salary, it takes 25,000 years of work.
dots on screen
1,000
× €1,000,000 each
This is one trillion.
One million dots. Every single dot is a million euros.
Find the billion. It's that golden speck —
a rounding error in the galaxy.
Still feels abstract?
Count it in seconds.
1,000,000 seconds ago
today
Now stack cents.
One 1-cent coin at a time. The stack never falls. Up we go.
altitude
0 m
0 coins
one last try
Spend €1,000 every day.
No days off.
€1,000,000
gone in 2.7 years
before your next phone dies
€1,000,000,000
lasts 2,740 years
start before the Great Wall of China, still spending today
€1,000,000,000,000
lasts 2.7 million years
longer than our species has existed