What is zakat?
Zakat is the yearly charity every Muslim with enough wealth has to give, and it’s one of the five pillars of Islam. If your zakatable wealth stays above the nisab for a full lunar year, you give 2.5% of it to the groups of people the Qur’an names. The word itself means purification and growth.[1][2]
Who has to pay zakat
Any Muslim adult (past puberty) of sound mind whose zakatable wealth has stayed at or above the nisab for a lunar year. What about children’s money? The Hanafi school says no zakat is due on it. The Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools say it is.[3]
Nisab: the minimum wealth
If your wealth is below the nisab, you don’t pay zakat. AAOIFI, a standards body for Islamic finance, puts the nisab at the value of 85 grams of gold or 595 grams of silver.[2] The UK’s National Zakat Foundation (NZF) uses 87.48 g and 612.36 g. If your wealth is a mix of things and not just gold, NZF suggests the silver nisab, which is lower.[4] For scale: gold closed at $142.49 a gram on 31 August 2026, which made the gold nisab about $12,112. Metal prices change every day, so the calculator fills in today’s price for you.
Hawl: one lunar year
Your wealth has to stay above the nisab for one full lunar year before zakat is due. That year is called the hawl. Most people pick a zakat date and add up what they own on that day every year. Using the Gregorian calendar? It’s about 11 days longer, so AAOIFI raises the rate to 2.577%.[2]
What is zakatable?
- Cash, bank balances, savings and cash ISAs
- Gold and silver in any form
- Stocks, funds and stocks and shares ISAs
- Pensions, depending on the type and the view you follow
- Business cash, stock for sale and money customers owe
- Money owed to you that you expect to get back
You don’t pay zakat on your home, car, furniture, clothes or business equipment, or on defined-benefit (final salary) pensions.[2][6] From the total you can take off debts due within 12 months, up to 12 months of payments on longer debts, and any arrears (payments you’ve missed).[3]
Zakat on gold
NZF and the Hanafi school count gold and silver in any form: jewellery, coins or bars.[5] The Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools leave out jewellery you wear regularly. To value your gold, weigh it, work out how much is pure gold from the karat (22k is 22/24 pure), and multiply by today’s price. Or just ask a jeweller what they’d pay.
weight × (karat ÷ 24) × price per gram = value
For example, 50 g of 22k jewellery is 50 × 22 ÷ 24 = 45.83 g of pure gold. At $142.49 a gram (31 August 2026) it’s worth $6,531. If your total wealth is above the nisab, the zakat on it comes to $163.27.
Zakat on stocks and funds
If you trade shares to sell them soon, you pay 2.5% of their full market value. If you hold for the long term, you pay only on your share of each company’s zakatable assets: its cash, money owed to it and stock for sale. When you can’t find that figure, NZF suggests using 25% of the market value.[7] Our guide on how much zakat to pay on stocks walks through both methods. You can also open the calculator with stocks first.
Who receives zakat: the eight categories
The Qur’an (9:60) names eight groups of people who can receive zakat.[1]
- The poor (al-fuqara'): people with little or nothing to live on.
- The needy (al-masakin): people who can't meet their basic needs.
- Zakat workers (al-'amilin 'alayha): those who collect and distribute it.
- Those whose hearts are to be reconciled (al-mu'allafati qulubuhum): including new Muslims.
- Freeing captives (fi al-riqab): people in slavery or bondage.
- Those in debt (al-gharimin): people who can't repay what they owe.
- In the cause of Allah (fi sabilillah)
- The stranded traveller (ibn al-sabil): someone cut off from their money on a journey.
How to calculate zakat
- Pick your zakat date and add up what you own on that day.
- Take off debts and bills due now.
- Check the balance against the nisab.
- If it’s at or above the nisab, pay 2.5% of it (2.577% on a Gregorian year).
(what you own − debts due now) × 2.5% = zakat