Chinese Zodiac Calculator

Find your Chinese zodiac animal based on your birth year.

The Chinese zodiac assigns one of twelve animals to each year in a repeating cycle, a tradition with roots going back over two thousand years in Chinese culture, tied to a broader lunisolar calendar system that also governs when Chinese New Year falls each year — which, unlike the Western zodiac's fixed calendar-year boundaries, actually shifts the exact start of each zodiac year by several weeks depending on the lunar cycle.

That shifting start date is the one genuine complication worth knowing about: someone born in early January or February technically might belong to the previous zodiac year rather than the one matching the calendar year they were born in, since Chinese New Year sometimes falls as late as early February, and anyone born before that date in a given calendar year is still considered part of the prior zodiac cycle.

This tool uses a simplified calendar-year mapping for quick reference, which is accurate for most of the year but can be off by one for people born in that narrow January–February window. For most birth years, entering the calendar year alone gives the correct animal; for a birth date that falls right around Chinese New Year, checking the exact lunar calendar date is worth doing for full precision.

1. Enter your birth year.
2. Press Find animal.
3. See your Chinese zodiac animal.