Largest known prime number

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The largest known prime number is the biggest known integer which is a prime number. To date, it equals 282,569,933 − 1,[1] it would take 24,862,048 digits to write that entire number out. The number was found on December 21, 2018.

History[change | change source]

This table lists every number that was once the largest known prime number. The first known record was from 1456. The number 524,287 was the largest known prime number for 144 years.

Mn is short for 2n − 1, the Mersenne number with exponent n.

Prime number Number of digits Year found Notes
M13 8,191 4 1456 Finder not known
M17 131,071 6 1460 Finder not known
M19 524,287 6 1588 Found by Pietro Cataldi
(232+1)/641 6,700,417 7 1732 Found by Leonhard Euler
M31 2,147,483,647 10 1772 Found by Leonhard Euler
(264+1)/274177 67,280,421,310,721 14 1855 Found by Thomas Clausen
M127 170,141,183,460,469,231,731,687,303,715,884,105,727 39 1876 Found by Édouard Lucas
(2148+1)/17 20,988,936,657,440,586,486,151,264,256,610,222,593,863,921 44 1951 Found by Ferrier. The largest record not set by computer.
180×(M127)2+1 79 1951 Using Cambridge's EDSAC computer
M521 157 1952
M607 183 1952
M1279 386 1952
M2203 664 1952
M2281 687 1952
M3217 969 1957
M4423 1,332 1961
M9689 2,917 1963
M9941 2,993 1963
M11213 3,376 1963
M19937 6,002 1971
M21701 6,533 1978
M23209 6,987 1979
M44497 13,395 1979
M86243 25,962 1982
M132049 39,751 1983
M216091 65,050 1985
391581×2216193−1 65,087 1989
M756839 227,832 1992
M859433 258,716 1994
M1257787 378,632 1996
M1398269 420,921 1996
M2976221 895,932 1997
M3021377 909,526 1998
M6972593 2,098,960 1999
M13466917 4,053,946 2001
M20996011 6,320,430 2003
M24036583 7,235,733 2004
M25964951 7,816,230 2005
M30402457 9,152,052 2005
M32582657 9,808,358 2006
M43112609 12,978,189 2008
M57885161 17,425,170 2013
M74207281 22,338,618 2016
M77232917 23,249,425 2017
M82589933 24,862,048 2018

References[change | change source]

  1. "GIMPS project discovers largest known prime number, 282,589,933-1". Mersenne Research, Inc.

Other websites[change | change source]