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bigdecimal.js
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    bigdecimal.js

    BigDecimal.js

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    BigInt based BigDecimal implementation for Node.js 10.4 and above, and for browsers that support native BigInt (Chrome 67+, Firefox 68+, Safari 14+). This implementation is inspired from java BigDecimal class. This implementation is faster than popular big decimal libraries for most operations. See benchmarks results part below for comparison of each operation.

    srknzl.github.io/bigdecimal.js — full docs with guides, a cookbook, migration guides, an API reference, and a live in-browser Playground where you can run the library with no install.

    • Faster than other BigDecimal libraries because of native BigInt
    • Simple API that is almost same with Java's BigDecimal
    • No dependencies
    • Well tested
    • Includes type definition file
    • This library's minified version is about 5 times larger than big.js's minified version. So the library is not small.
    npm install bigdecimal.js
    • The example usage is given below:
    // Single unified constructor for multiple values
    const { Big } = require('bigdecimal.js');

    // Construct from a string and clone it
    const x = Big('1.1111111111111111111111');
    const y = new Big(x); // you can also use 'new'

    const z = x.add(y);
    console.log(z.toString()); // 2.2222222222222222222222

    // You can also construct from a number or BigInt:
    const u = Big(1.1);
    const v = Big(2n);

    console.log(u.toString()); // 1.1
    console.log(v.toString()); // 2

    You can use MathContext to set precision and rounding mode for a specific operation:

    const { Big, MC, RoundingMode } = require('bigdecimal.js');

    const x = Big('1');
    const y = Big('3');

    // MC is MathContext constructor that can be used with or without `new`
    const res1 = x.divideWithMathContext(y, MC(3)); 
    console.log(res1.toString()); // 0.333

    const res2 = x.divideWithMathContext(y, new MC(3, RoundingMode.UP));
    console.log(res2.toString()); // 0.334

    try {
        x.divide(y);
        // throws since full precision is requested but it is not possible
    } catch (e) {
        console.log(e); // RangeError: Non-terminating decimal expansion; no exact representable decimal result.
    }

    Besides the Java-style toString / toEngineeringString / toPlainString, there are JS-convention formatting methods. All rounding defaults to RoundingMode.HALF_UP and takes an optional RoundingMode argument:

    const { Big } = require('bigdecimal.js');
    const x = Big('1234.56789');

    x.toFixed(2);        // "1234.57"   — exactly N decimals, never exponential
    x.toExponential(2);  // "1.23e+3"   — JS exponential notation
    x.toPrecision(3);    // "1.23e+3"   — N significant digits (fixed or exponential)

    // Locale-aware formatting via the built-in Intl.NumberFormat (no dependency):
    x.toFormat('en-US');                                        // "1,234.56789"
    x.toFormat('de-DE');                                        // "1.234,56789"
    Big('1234.5').toFormat('en-US', { style: 'currency', currency: 'USD' }); // "$1,234.50"

    // Value coercion (Symbol.toPrimitive): string contexts are exact, numeric ones are lossy
    `${x}`;   // "1234.56789"  (exact — same as toString())
    +x;       // 1234.56789    (lossy numberValue(), like other JS number coercion)

    toFormat passes the value to Intl.NumberFormat as a string, so integer precision is preserved; full-precision string formatting needs Node ≥ 20 or a current browser (older engines fall back to double precision past 15–17 significant digits). By default it shows every decimal the value has (Intl otherwise caps at 3), except for currency/percent styles where Intl's own rules apply. Anything you pass in options overrides these defaults.

    Migrating from decimal.js / bignumber.js / big.js

    The API mirrors Java's BigDecimal, so method names differ from other JS decimal libraries. Common equivalents:

    decimal.js / bignumber.js bigdecimal.js
    new Decimal('1.5') / BigNumber('1.5') Big('1.5') (with or without new)
    x.plus(y) / x.minus(y) x.add(y) / x.subtract(y)
    x.times(y) / x.div(y) x.multiply(y) / x.divide(y, scale?, roundingMode?)
    x.mod(y) / x.pow(n) x.remainder(y) / x.pow(n)
    x.abs() / x.neg() / x.sqrt() x.abs() / x.negate() / x.sqrt(mc)
    x.cmp(y) / x.eq(y) x.compareTo(y) / x.equals(y)
    x.gt(y) / x.gte(y) / x.lt(y) / x.lte(y) same names (gt/gte/lt/lte)
    x.isZero() / x.isNeg() / x.isPos() x.isZero() / x.isNegative() / x.isPositive()
    x.toNumber() x.numberValue()
    x.toFixed(n) / x.toExponential(n) / x.toPrecision(n) same names
    x.toFormat(...) (bignumber.js) x.toFormat(locales, options) (Intl-based)
    Decimal.ROUND_HALF_UP RoundingMode.HALF_UP

    Two differences to note: there is no global config — precision and rounding are set per operation via MathContext (MC) and RoundingMode — and divide throws a RangeError on a non-terminating result unless you pass a scale or a MathContext (use divideWithMathContext for the latter).

    JSON is the weak spot of every decimal library: JSON.parse rounds numbers to IEEE-754 doubles before your code runs, and JSON.stringify turns a BigDecimal into a string (via toJSON()), which changes the wire type for consumers expecting a JSON number (Java's Jackson serializes BigDecimal as a bare number by default, OpenAPI number schemas, etc.).

    Modern engines (Node.js ≥ 21, Chrome ≥ 114) fix both directions:

    const { Big, BigDecimal } = require('bigdecimal.js');

    // Parse losslessly: context.source is the exact number text from the input.
    const order = JSON.parse('{"price":0.1000000000000000000001}', (key, value, context) =>
        typeof value === 'number' && context ? Big(context.source) : value);
    order.price.toString(); // '0.1000000000000000000001' — nothing rounded

    // Stringify as a bare JSON number with full precision. Must be a regular
    // function reading this[key]: JSON.stringify calls toJSON() *before* the
    // replacer, so `value` is already a string at this point.
    function decimalReplacer(key, value) {
        return this[key] instanceof BigDecimal ? JSON.rawJSON(this[key].toString()) : value;
    }
    JSON.stringify({ price: Big('0.10') }, decimalReplacer); // '{"price":0.10}'

    toString() output is always valid JSON number syntax, so the replacer is safe for every value. In real payloads, scope the reviver to known keys — the one above converts every number in the document. Feature-detect with typeof JSON.rawJSON === 'function'; on older engines the default behavior (serialize as a JSON string) still round-trips exactly, just as a string.

    The library is pure JavaScript with zero runtime dependencies and uses native BigInt, so it runs in the browser with no polyfills. The only requirement is a browser with BigInt support (Chrome 67+, Firefox 68+, Safari 14+).

    With a bundler (Vite, webpack, esbuild, Rollup) just import it as usual:

    import { Big } from 'bigdecimal.js';

    Without a bundler, import the ESM build straight from a CDN:

    <script type="module">
      import { Big } from 'https://esm.sh/bigdecimal.js';
      console.log(Big('0.1').add(Big('0.2')).toString()); // 0.3
    </script>

    Or use the minified UMD bundle, which exposes a global BigDecimalJS:

    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bigdecimal.js/lib/bigdecimal.umd.min.js"></script>
    <script>
      const { Big } = BigDecimalJS;
      console.log(Big('0.1').add(Big('0.2')).toString()); // 0.3
    </script>
    • Install dependencies: npm i
    • Compile: npm run compile
    • Run tests: npm test

    There is a benchmark suite that compares

    To run the benchmark run npm install and then npm run benchmark.

    Benchmarked against big.js, bigdecimal (GWT-based), bignumber.js and decimal.js.

    • Test Machine:

      • Apple M1
      • 8 GB Ram
      • macOS 26.3
      • Node.js 24

    • Update Date: July 13th 2026

    • Library versions used:

      • big.js 7.0.1
      • (this library) bigdecimal.js 1.6.1
      • bigdecimal 0.6.1
      • bignumber.js: 11.1.5
      • decimal.js: 10.6.0

    • Each operation is run with a fixed set of decimal numbers composed of both simple and complex numbers.

    • Micro benchmark framework used is benchmark. Check out benchmarks folder for source code of benchmarks.

    • Numbers are operations per second (higher is better). In each row the fastest library is bold, and the Fastest column names the winner with how many times faster it is than the runner-up. A - means the library has no equivalent operation.

    Operation Bigdecimal.js Big.js BigNumber.js decimal.js GWTBased Fastest
    Constructor 93,597 43,772 49,823 47,780 3,526 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1.9×)
    Add 422,923 115,952 251,322 103,046 883 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1.7×)
    Subtract 403,424 104,563 239,163 105,191 856 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1.7×)
    Multiply 841,607 33,571 91,361 82,191 3,306 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (9.2×)
    Divide 39,710 1,110 12,713 15,201 815 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (2.6×)
    DivideToIntegralValue 16,468 - 24,236 48,454 1,652 🏆 decimal.js (2.0×)
    Remainder 15,748 7,420 18,998 31,008 2,259 🏆 decimal.js (1.6×)
    Positive pow 31,968 26 118 3,582 7 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (8.9×)
    Negative pow 10,185 22 114 2,037 337 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (5.0×)
    Sqrt 4,985 48 1,176 1,603 - 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (3.1×)
    Abs 3,987,856 1,798,871 984,938 365,152 17,388 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (2.2×)
    Negate 3,262,345 1,761,044 954,351 375,295 8,883 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1.9×)
    Round 188,862 664,154 - 189,601 5,297 🏆 Big.js (3.5×)
    SetScale 302,520 680,441 219,050 177,368 1,901 🏆 Big.js (2.2×)
    Compare 2,068,243 1,232,139 939,295 436,798 1,164,471 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1.7×)
    Equals 8,870,711 1,234,855 929,185 430,743 1,638,229 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (5.4×)
    Min 1,789,580 - 465,759 149,209 37,296 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (3.8×)
    Max 1,788,427 - 467,137 150,145 31,855 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (3.8×)
    MovePointLeft 2,565,941 - - - 2,159 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (1188.6×)
    MovePointRight 1,246,131 - - - 2,075 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (600.4×)
    ScaleByPowerOfTen 9,267,748 - 65,541 - 9,023 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (141.4×)
    StripTrailingZeros 496,237 - - - 7,485 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (66.3×)
    Ulp 10,759,974 - - - 54,584 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (197.1×)
    UnscaledValue 3,239,742 - - - 11,176 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (289.9×)
    ToString 10,731,726 118,488 254,231 257,082 1,244,155 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (8.6×)
    NumberValue 768,205 105,278 234,804 119,302 289,081 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (2.7×)
    ToBigInt 245,376 - - - 2,369 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (103.6×)

    bigdecimal.js is the fastest in 23 of 27 operations. It trails decimal.js on remainder/divideToIntegralValue, and big.js on round/setScale.

    The table above is measured on Node.js, i.e. V8. Because bigdecimal.js builds on native BigInt, relative results depend on the engine's BigInt implementation. Running the same suite on the same machine under Bun 1.3.14 (JavaScriptCore, the engine of Safari), bigdecimal.js is the fastest in 22 of 27 operations, and its absolute throughput is often higher than on V8 — for example ToString reaches 18.3M ops/sec (10.7M on V8), NumberValue 5.7M (760K on V8) and Divide 50K (40K on V8).

    Operations where the outcome differs on JavaScriptCore:

    Operation Node.js (V8) Bun (JavaScriptCore)
    Constructor 🏆 Bigdecimal.js (2.0×) 🏆 Big.js (1.0×) — JavaScriptCore parses decimal strings into BigInt more slowly than V8
    Round 🏆 Big.js (3.5×) 🏆 decimal.js (2.0×)
    SetScale 🏆 Big.js (2.2×) 🏆 decimal.js (1.1×), Bigdecimal.js a close second
    DivideToIntegralValue 🏆 decimal.js (2.0×) 🏆 decimal.js (1.4×)
    Remainder 🏆 decimal.js (1.6×) 🏆 decimal.js (1.2×)

    To reproduce, run the suite with Bun: bun benchmarks/index.js.

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