Hebrew gematria chart: the 22 letters and their values

Hebrew letters and their numerical values

Hebrew letters also serve as numbers. The oldest Hebrew inscriptions wrote numbers with separate signs, but by the first century CE letters were doing the job as well: Jewish coins from the revolt against Rome (66–70 CE) number their years with them. They are still used that way for Hebrew calendar dates, Bible chapter and verse numbers, and numbered lists. The 22 letters fall into three runs: aleph to tet count the units 1 to 9, yod to tsadi count the tens 10 to 90, and qof to tav count the hundreds 100 to 400.

The smaller letter beside kaf, mem, nun, pe and tsadi is its final form, used at the end of a word; see the five final forms. Hebrew is read right to left, so a word’s first letter is the one on the right. Order makes no difference to a total, but it matters when you write a number, because the largest value goes first.

Mispar hechrachi: the standard method

Mispar hechrachi (מספר הכרחי) is the name for the method in the chart: each letter is worth its fixed value, and a word is worth the plain sum of its letters. The phrase is usually translated “absolute” or “necessary” value, and English writers also call it the standard or normative value. When a Hebrew word’s gematria is quoted without a method named, this is almost always the one meant. The glossary entry for Hebrew gematria gives the short version.

What counts and what doesn’t

• Vowel points do not count. The dots and dashes written under and over the letters (nikkud), and the cantillation marks used for chanting, are not letters and add nothing.
• A pronunciation dot does not change the value. Bet and vet are both 2, kaf and khaf both 20, pe and fe both 80.
• Shin and sin are one letter. ש is 300 whichever side its dot is on.
• Final forms count as their ordinary letter in this method; the next section covers the exception.
• Spelling does matter. Vav and yod are often written as vowel letters, and when they are written, they count. The name David is spelled דוד through most of the Bible, Dalet 4 + Vav 6 + Dalet 4 = 14, and דויד in Chronicles, which adds a yod and comes to 24. Fix the spelling before you add anything up.

The five final forms (sofit)

Five letters take a different shape when they end a word: kaf, mem, nun, pe and tsadi. The final shape is called sofit, “final”, so ם is mem sofit. There are two conventions for what a final form is worth, and the chart below shows both.

In the standard method, a final form keeps the value of its ordinary letter: ם is 40, exactly like מ. In mispar gadol (“large number”), the five finals carry the count on past tav, in alphabetical order: final kaf 500, final mem 600, final nun 700, final pe 800 and final tsadi 900. That gives every hundred from 100 to 900 a letter of its own.

The difference only shows in a word that has a final letter. Shalom, שלום, ends in a final mem: Shin 300 + Lamed 30 + Vav 6 + Final mem 40 = 376 in the standard method, and 936 in mispar gadol, where the final mem counts 600.

A final nun and the number 666

A widely cited reading of the 666 in Revelation 13:18 takes it as the Hebrew spelling of “Nero Caesar”, נרון קסר: Nun 50 + Resh 200 + Vav 6 + Final nun 50 + Qof 100 + Samekh 60 + Resh 200 = 666. The final nun counts 50 there, as the standard method says it should; in mispar gadol the same letters come to 1316. Spell the name without its final nun, following the Latin form Nero rather than the Greek Neron, and the total is 616, the number some early manuscripts give instead. The 666 in gematria page looks at the number in more detail.

How numbers above 400 are written

Tav, 400, is the largest single letter. To write a bigger number, Hebrew stacks letters from the largest value down, so the hundreds from 500 to 900 are built from tav plus whatever is left:

The final forms can also stand for 500 to 900, but in written numbers that is rare. The tav spellings are the norm, and finals worth 500 to 900 turn up mostly in the mispar gadol method.

Thousands, and the two punctuation marks

Thousands reuse the units letters, marked with a geresh (׳), a mark like an apostrophe. The geresh and its double, the gershayim (״), also mark a number as a number rather than a word: a one-letter number takes a geresh after it, and a longer number takes a gershayim before its last letter, so 18 is written י״ח.

Put together, the Hebrew year 5787, which began at Rosh Hashanah in September 2026, is written ה׳תשפ״ז: ה׳ for 5,000, then Tav 400 + Shin 300 + Pe 80 + Zayin 7 = 787. Calendars usually leave the thousands off and print just תשפ״ז.

Why 15 and 16 are written tet-vav and tet-zayin

Follow the pattern and 15 should be yod-he, י״ה (10 + 5), and 16 should be yod-vav, י״ו (10 + 6). Neither is used. Both pairs spell forms of the divine name: יה, Yah, is the “-jah” at the end of hallelujah, and יו is the form the name takes at the start of names such as Yoel and Yonatan.

So 15 is written ט״ו, tet-vav (9 + 6), and 16 is written ט״ז, tet-zayin (9 + 7). The rule carries into larger numbers too: 115 is קט״ו, never קי״ה. You can hear it in the calendar. Tu BiShvat, the new year for trees, is named for its date, ט״ו בשבט, the 15th of Shevat, with ט״ו read aloud as “tu”.

Some printers rearrange a few other numbers in the same spirit when the usual order spells something unpleasant: 270 can appear as ער rather than רע (ra, “evil”), and 304 as דש rather than שד (shed, “demon”). Those are customs, not fixed rules. The 15 and 16 convention is the one almost everyone follows.

Worked examples

These are some of the most quoted values in Hebrew gematria, each added up from the chart above. Letters are listed in reading order, first letter first.

What these examples are known for

• Chai, 18. Because חי means “life”, gifts and charitable donations are often given in multiples of 18.
• Echad and ahavah, 13. “One” and “love” share a value, and the pairing is often quoted in teaching on love and unity. A frequently quoted extension: 13 + 13 = 26, the value of the four-letter divine name יהוה (Yod 10 + He 5 + Vav 6 + He 5 = 26).
• Mashiach and nachash, 358. “Messiah” and “serpent” have the same total, a pairing discussed in later kabbalistic and Hasidic commentary.
• Yayin and sod, 70. The Talmud (Eruvin 65a) uses this one for a proverb: נכנס יין יצא סוד, “wine goes in, a secret comes out”. It holds only in the standard method. Yayin ends in a final nun, so in mispar gadol it is 720 while sod stays 70.

Traditional sources use matches like these as hooks for a teaching, not as proof of anything. Hebrew words are short, short words share totals often, and plenty of unrelated words match too. How to test whether a match means anything sets out the method: why anagrams always match, why short words keep colliding, and how to check a match against a control set. Its worked numbers belong to this site’s English cipher, but the method applies to any additive cipher, Hebrew or English.

Other counting methods

Mispar hechrachi is the default, not the only method. Traditional sources name several others, and the same word gives a different total under each. Here is emet, אמת, “truth”, under four of them:

Emet has no final letter, so mispar gadol leaves it at 441; shalom, as above, moves from 376 to 936. Beyond these four there are substitution methods such as atbash, which swaps aleph for tav, bet for shin and so on inward, and many more. A Hebrew value only means something next to the name of the method that produced it, exactly as an English one does.

Hebrew gematria and this site’s calculators

The calculators on Gematria.Today count only the English letters A–Z. The main calculator and the name calculator use one cipher, A = 6, B = 12 and so on up to Z = 156 (alphabet position times six). The multi-cipher calculator runs that cipher and six other English ones side by side. None of them counts Hebrew letters. Enter a Hebrew word in the main or name calculator and it tells you it counts English letters A–Z only, instead of showing a value; the multi-cipher calculator shows a total of 0, with 0 letters counted.

Typing a transliteration does not convert it either. CHAI in the main calculator is C 18 + H 48 + A 6 + I 54 = 126, the value of four English letters, not the 18 of חי. Neither number tells you anything about the other: a value belongs to the cipher that produced it.

One of the multi-cipher calculator’s ciphers, Jewish / Latin, borrows the Hebrew pattern of units, tens and hundreds for the Latin alphabet: A–I = 1–9, J–R = 10–90, S–Z = 100–800. It is still an English cipher run on English letters, and its totals are not Hebrew gematria values.

For why the site works in English at all, see why this site uses English gematria. To compare ciphers letter by letter, use the gematria cipher chart.

Quick answers

What is the numerical value of each Hebrew letter?

Aleph to tet are 1 to 9, yod to tsadi are 10 to 90 in tens, and qof to tav are 100 to 400 in hundreds. Aleph, the first letter, is 1 and tav, the last, is 400.

What is mispar hechrachi?

The standard method of Hebrew gematria. Each letter has its fixed value from 1 to 400, a final form counts the same as the ordinary letter, and a word is worth the sum of its letters. Chai, חי, is 8 + 10 = 18.

Do the final letters have their own values?

Not in the standard method, where a final form keeps the value of its ordinary letter: ם is 40, like מ. In mispar gadol the five finals count 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900, so shalom, שלום, is 376 in the standard method and 936 in mispar gadol.

Why is 15 written ט״ו and not י״ה?

Yod-he and yod-vav spell forms of the divine name, so 15 and 16 are written tet-vav (9 + 6) and tet-zayin (9 + 7) instead.

Do vowel points count?

No. Only the 22 letters and their final forms have values. Vowel points and cantillation marks add nothing, and a dot that changes how a letter is pronounced does not change what it is worth.

Can I calculate Hebrew gematria on this site?

No. This site’s calculators use English ciphers (the main one is A = 6 to Z = 156) and count only the letters A to Z. Hebrew letters are not counted, and a transliteration is counted as English letters: CHAI comes to 126 in the main calculator, not 18.