Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese. Today speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems: the ubiquitous Indian (Arabic) system used world-wide and two indigenous systems.

The more familiar indigenous system are Chinese characters that correspond to numerals in the spoken language^{[disambiguation needed ]}. These are shared with other Sinospheric languages such as Japanese and Korean. Most people and institutions in China primarily use the Indian (Arabic) system for convenience, with traditional Chinese numerals used mainly in some formal or ceremonial occasions such as on printed money.^{[citation needed]}

The other indigenous system is the Suzhou numerals, or huama, a positional system. It is the only surviving form of the rod numerals. They were once used by Chinese mathematicians, and later in Chinese markets, such as those in Hong Kong before the 1990s, but has been gradually supplanted by the Arabic numerals.

The Chinese character numeral system consists of the Chinese characters used by the Chinese written language to write spoken numerals. Similar to spelling-out numbers in English (e.g., "one thousand nine hundred forty-five"), it is not an independent system per se. Since it reflects spoken language, it does not use the positional system as in Arabic numerals, in the same way that spelling out numbers in English does not.