There are 100,000,000 satoshis (sats) in a bitcoin. Each satoshi represents 0.00000001 BTC, making it the smallest possible unit of bitcoin. The satoshi, often abbreviated as “sat,” is the smallest unit of Bitcoin. The satoshi is named in honor of Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. If you are dealing with smaller transactions or amounts, you’ll often see them measured in satoshis.
Just as one U.S. dollar is divided into multiple cents, one bitcoin can be divided into multiple satoshis. Each bitcoin is divisible down into eight decimal places. Since there are a total supply of 21 million bitcoin, there will only ever be 2.1 quadrillion satoshis in existence.
In the Bitcoin blockchain and the source code, all amounts of bitcoin are denominated in satoshis. These amounts are only converted from sats to Bitcoin for familiarity and readability. One satoshi equals 0.00000001 bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s Divisibility
The existence of satoshis gives Bitcoin great divisibility: while a single bitcoin is currently worth tens of thousands of U.S. dollars, a satoshi is worth fractions of a penny. This gives Bitcoin greater flexibility than traditional currencies, and allows individuals to make extremely small transactions called microtransactions.
Early in Bitcoin’s history, Bitcoin’s cheapness and low transaction fees allowed it to be used for high-frequency, small-value transactions. Several online gambling websites were quick to adopt Bitcoin.
With Bitcoin’s meteoric price appreciation over the last decade and the accompanying rise in transaction fees, such use cases have been largely abandoned. However, secondary layers such as the Lightning Network and the Liquid Network have also been built, enabling faster, cheaper Bitcoin transactions.
➤ Learn more about Bitcoin transaction fees.
Usage of Satoshis
Since the Bitcoin price is still below $1 million, a satoshi is still worth less than a cent. Therefore, many Bitcoin users have found it easier to denote prices of goods in Bitcoin. However, denominating prices in satoshis have gained popularity in recent years as the price of Bitcoin has increased.
With prices of goods and services often expressed in terms of satoshis rather than whole bitcoin, it becomes easier to conduct everyday transactions. For example, instead of saying something costs 0.0001410 BTC, you could simply say it costs 14,100 sats, which is much more manageable for users.
In a few instances, especially in the case of micropayments, satoshis are the standard unit of measurement. For example, almost all wallets and block explorers display transaction fee rates in terms of satoshis per vByte. As the price of Bitcoin continues to rise, satoshis may well become the standard unit for many or all Bitcoin prices.
List of Bitcoin Denominations
There are other denominations of bitcoin, but the satoshi is the most popular. Here is a list of other Bitcoin denominations and their corresponding values:
- kiloBitcoin (kBTC): 1,000 BTC
- decaBitcoin (daBTC) - 10 BTC
- deciBitcoin (dBTC) - 0.1 BTC or 10,000,000 sats
- centiBitcoin (cBTC) - 0.01 BTC or 1,000,000 sats
- milliBitcoin (mBTC) - 0.001 BTC or 100,000 sats
- microBitcoin (uBTC) - 0.000001 BTC or 100 sats
- finney - 0.000001 BTC or 10 sats
Key Takeaways
- One bitcoin is divisible into 100 million satoshis.
- Satoshis give Bitcoin great divisibility and flexibility.
- Layers on top of Bitcoin can further subdivide satoshis, giving Bitcoin potentially infinite divisibility.
