Simple Gematria Calculator

What simple gematria is

Simple gematria gives each English letter its position in the alphabet — A = 1, B = 2, and so on to Z = 26 — and adds them. That is the whole method.

The name is Gematrix’s. Its calculator shows three columns for every word: “Jewish Gematria” (Agrippa’s Latin values), “English Gematria” (ordinal × 6) and “Simple Gematria” (ordinal)^{[1] Source: Gematria calculator}. Because Gematrix has been the most-visited calculator for years, “simple gematria” became a search term in its own right. Every other source calls the same table English Ordinal^{[2] Source: Gematrinator calculator[3] Source: Letters & Numbers}. This site uses English Ordinal as the row label and treats “simple gematria” as its everyday name.

The table

Doing it by hand

Simple gematria is meant to be done without a calculator, and it is worth doing once so the numbers stop being magic.

1. Write the word with a space under each letter.
2. Under each letter write its position. Count from the nearest anchor: E is 5, J is 10, O is 15, T is 20, so R is 18 (two before T) and M is 13 (three after J).
3. Add the numbers. For a long phrase, add each word first, then the words.
4. Optionally reduce: add the digits of the total until one digit is left (74 → 11 → 2).

The breakdown panel above lays out exactly this: the word in chips, each letter’s number beneath it, then the total and the reduced digit. Select a longer phrase and the panel also lists each word’s subtotal.

Common values

A few values recur in discussions of simple gematria because so many familiar words land on them. Live from the engine: God = 26 · love = 54 · Jesus = 74 · truth = 87 · light = 56 · peace = 30 · simple = 74 · alphabet = 65.

26 attracts attention because God = 26 is also the number of letters in the alphabet and the standard Hebrew value of יהוה. 74 collects Jesus, cross, Messiah and gematria itself. The reason such clusters exist is arithmetic: with letters worth 1–26 and most words four to eight letters long, totals crowd between roughly 40 and 120, and a common total is shared by hundreds of English words. The accuracy page works through the counting.

When simple is not enough

Simple gematria answers one question: what is this word’s ordinal total? Two other questions need other tools. If you want to know how the same word scores in the reduced, reverse or ×6 tables, or in Agrippa’s Latin cipher, use the English gematria calculator or the decoder, which show every cipher on one screen. If you want the gematria of Hebrew or Greek — where the letters historically were numerals — use the Hebrew or Greek calculators. Simple gematria is a modern convenience with no ancient pedigree, and no worse for that; just do not mistake it for the practice the Talmud describes.