You've probably heard of a billion. Maybe even a trillion if you follow national debt clocks or the net worth of tech moguls. But eventually, the names for big numbers start to sound like something a toddler made up while eating Cheerios. That brings us to the specific, mind-boggling question: what number has 1000 zeros?
It’s called a millinillion.
Honestly, the word itself sounds fake. It sounds like "million" got into a car accident with "billion." But in the system used by most English-speaking countries—the short scale—a millinillion is a real, defined mathematical term. It represents $10^{3003}$.
Wait. Why 3003 and not 1000?
This is where things get slightly annoying. In our standard naming system, we start with a thousand ($10^3$). Then we add zeros in groups of three. A million is $10^6$. A billion is $10^9$. Because the "nillion" naming convention starts after we've already established the base of a thousand, the exponent for a millinillion actually works out to 3003. However, if you are looking for the pure, raw power of $10^{1000}$—the literal digit 1 followed by exactly one thousand zeros—you are looking for something else entirely.
The Math Behind $10^{1000}$
Most people asking what number has 1000 zeros aren't actually looking for the linguistic name "millinillion." They want to know what that specific quantity is called in scientific notation. That’s ten to the one-thousandth power.
It is an incomprehensible amount.
To give you some perspective, physicists estimate there are only about $10^{80}$ atoms in the entire observable universe. Think about that for a second. If you took every single atom in every star, every galaxy, and every speck of dust in the cosmic void, you wouldn't even be 10% of the way to a number with 100 zeros (a googol), let alone 1000.
📖 Related: In Phase and Out of Phase Waves: Why Your Audio Sounds Thin (and How to Fix It)
A number with 1000 zeros is so large that if you tried to write it out by hand on a single strip of paper, using standard-sized font, you’d need a piece of paper longer than a football field. Actually, much longer. It’s a mathematical "monster" that exists almost exclusively in theoretical physics and high-level probability.
Short Scale vs. Long Scale: The Global Confusion
The reason you might get different answers when searching for what number has 1000 zeros is because of a massive divide in how the world counts.
In the United States, the UK, and most of the English-speaking world, we use the "short scale." Every new "illion" name represents a jump of a thousand.
- Million ($10^6$)
- Billion ($10^9$)
- Trillion ($10^{12}$)
But much of Europe and Latin America uses the "long scale." In that system, a billion is actually a million million ($10^{12}$). They use names like "milliard" for what we call a billion. Under the long scale, a millinillion is a staggering $10^{6000}$.
If you're in a math class in New York, a millinillion is $10^{3003}$. If you're in a lecture hall in Paris, you might be talking about a completely different beast. It’s a mess.
Is there a name for exactly $10^{1000}$?
Technically, no single-word name exists for $10^{1000}$ that is officially recognized by the International System of Units. You’d have to build the name using Latin prefixes. You could call it a trecentitrigintillion (based on the short scale logic of $3 \times 333 + 3$).
Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?
Why Do We Even Care About Numbers This Big?
You might think these numbers are just toys for mathematicians who have too much time on their hands. You'd be wrong. These scales are vital in fields like combinatorics and cryptography.
Modern encryption—the stuff that keeps your credit card safe when you buy stuff online—relies on the fact that some numbers are so huge that even the fastest supercomputers in the world can't "count" through them in the lifetime of the universe.
When you hear about 256-bit encryption, you’re dealing with numbers that have dozens of digits. While not 1000 zeros, the principles are the same. We rely on the "unthinkability" of these figures.
The Googol vs. The Millinillion
We can't talk about what number has 1000 zeros without mentioning the Googol.
📖 Related: Why Fox Sports API Center Is Still the Quiet Backbone of Modern Broadcasting
A googol is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. It was coined by a nine-year-old named Milton Sirotta in 1920. His uncle, mathematician Edward Kasner, wanted a name for a huge number to help explain the difference between "infinity" and "a really big number."
A millinillion is a googol multiplied by itself ten times ($10^{100} \times 10^{100} \dots$).
Actually, it's even bigger than that. It's a googol raised to the tenth power. It makes the "Googol" look like pocket change. And then there's the Googolplex, which is a 1 followed by a googol of zeros. If you tried to write a googolplex, you literally couldn't. There isn't enough space in the universe to hold the paper required, even if you wrote a zero on every single atom.
How to Visualize $10^{1000}$
You can't. Not really.
Human brains evolved to count berries and track maybe a few dozen rivals in a tribe. We are "hard-wired" to understand small quantities. When we hit "a million," our brains basically just flag it as "A Lot."
If a second is one unit, a million seconds is about 11 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,709 years.
A millinillion seconds? The universe would have ended, been reborn, and ended again trillion-trillion-trillion times over before you even got close. It's a number that describes a state of "forever" more than it describes a quantity of "things."
Common Misconceptions
People often confuse these names with "Infinity."
Infinity isn't a number; it's a direction. A millinillion, as massive as it is, is still closer to zero than it is to infinity. If you add 1 to a millinillion, it gets bigger. If you add 1 to infinity, it’s still just infinity.
Another mistake? Thinking these numbers are used in finance. Not even the world's total wealth, including every derivative and crypto coin in existence, comes close to a quadrillion ($10^{15}$), let alone a number with 1000 zeros. If we ever see a "millinillion" on a price tag, it means the economy has collapsed so hard that currency has become heat for a campfire.
Real-World Applications of Large Powers
While $10^{1000}$ is mostly theoretical, its "cousins" appear in:
- Cosmology: Calculating the probability of a "Boltzmann Brain" appearing in deep space due to random fluctuations.
- Quantum Mechanics: The number of possible states in a complex system.
- Computing: The total possible states of a high-end chess engine or Go-playing AI.
Practical Steps for Understanding Large Scales
If you want to master the world of "illions," stop trying to memorize the names. They get weird fast (duodecillion, septentrigintillion, etc.). Instead, focus on the exponent.
Scientific notation is the only way to keep your sanity. When you see what number has 1000 zeros, just think $10^{1000}$.
If you want to explore this further, I recommend looking into Knuth's Up-Arrow Notation. It’s a way to write numbers so large that even scientific notation fails to describe them. It makes the millinillion look like a rounding error.
Check out the works of Clifford Pickover or Googology Wiki if you really want to fall down the rabbit hole. These communities spend their time defining names for numbers that would make a supercomputer sweat.
👉 See also: Which Apple Watch Should I Buy: The Honest Choice for 2026
Basically, a millinillion is the boundary where math stops being about "things" and starts being about the sheer, terrifying scale of the abstract. It’s a 1 with 1,000 zeros, a name that varies by continent, and a quantity that doesn't exist in our physical reality. It only exists in the mind.
Actionable Next Steps
- Learn Scientific Notation: If you're dealing with anything over a trillion, use $10^x$. It prevents naming errors between short and long scales.
- Check the Scale: Before citing a "billion" or "trillion" in international business, verify if your partner uses the long scale ($10^{12}$) or short scale ($10^9$).
- Explore Googology: Visit specialized math wikis to see how mathematicians name numbers up to $10^{3,000,000}$ and beyond.
- Visualize with Time: Use the "seconds to years" conversion trick whenever you need to explain a large number to someone else; it's the only way to make it "feel" real.