Approximate Number

Abbreviates numbers into a more human-friendly format, similar to ls's --human-readable flag (ls -lh) or Stack Overflow's reputation numbers. For example, 123456 becomes '123k'.

Works in Node.js and in browsers.

import { approximateNumber as approx } from 'approximate-number';
// to require() rather than import, use version 2.x

console.log(approx(1234));
//> 1.2k

console.log(approx(12345));
//> 12k

console.log(approx(1234, {decimal: false}));
//> 1k

console.log(approx(1234, {decimal: ','}));
//> 1,2k

console.log('My Stack Overflow reputation is %s.', approx(3671, {
  min10k: true
}));
//> My Stack Overflow reputation is 3,671.

console.log('The US national debt is %s.', approx(19939034457936, {
  prefix: '$', 
  capital: true, 
  round: true
}));
// > The US national debt is $20T.

// Truncates/floors numbers by default
approx(9999);
// > '9.9k'

// Set `round: true` to round instead of floor.
approx(9999,{round: true});
// > '10k'

Getting Started

Node.js

Install node module with: npm install --save approximate-number

import approximateNumber from 'approximate-number';
approximateNumber(123456); // 123k

For CommonJS projects, use version 2.x: run npm install --save approximate-number@2 to install and then do const approximateNumber = require("approximate-number"); to load the module.

Browser usage without a package manager

Grab the latest approximate-number.js and copy it onto your site.

Options

• separator {String|Boolean} Default = ','. Thousands separator - set to a string (e.g. '.') to use that string or false to not use any separator.
• decimal {String|Boolean} Default = '.'. Decimal - set to a string (e.g. ',') to use that or set to false to avoid outputting values with a decimal.
• round {Boolean} Default = false. Round numbers off rather than flooring/truncating. When true, 105000 would become '11m', when false it becomes '10m'.
• min10k {Boolean} Default = false. Do not abbreviate numbers below 10000. E.g. 9999 would become '9,999' rather than '9k'. (Stack Overflow-style).
• prefix {String} Default = ''. Optional string to prepend to the value, e.g. '$'.
• suffix {String} Default = ''. Optional string to append to the value, e.g. '%'.
• capital {Boolean} Default = false. Set to true to use capital letters, e.g. 3.9M instead of 3.9m
• precision {Number} Default = undefined. Number of significant digits. Must be greater than 0. Use of this option forces rounding.

V3 Changes

• Converted library from CommonJS to ESM

V2.1 Changes

• Added precision

V2 Changes

• Added optional configuration object
• Changed default from rounding to truncation. Override with options.round=true.
• Started abbreviating numbers between 1000 and 9999 by default. Override with options.min10k=true.
• Added trillions support.
• Dropped cli support.

License

Copyright (c) 2014-2026 Nathan Friedly
Licensed under the MIT license.