Zodiac Sign Calculator

Find your zodiac sign, element, modality and ruling planet from your date of birth. Free, private and no sign-up.

What is a free zodiac sign calculator online?

A free zodiac sign calculator online is a tool that maps your date of birth to one of the twelve signs of the Western zodiac. Each sign spans roughly one month and represents a slice of the sky along the ecliptic — the apparent path of the Sun across the year. Your sun sign (also called your star sign) is the most well-known part of your astrological profile, but it is only one piece of a much larger picture that includes the moon, rising sign and planetary placements.

This zodiac sign calculator online uses the standard Western tropical date ranges to determine your sun sign, then adds context: the sign's element, modality, ruling planet, birth date range, key traits and your Chinese zodiac animal. Everything runs locally in your browser — your birth data never leaves your device.

How to use this free zodiac sign calculator

1. Enter your date of birth in the field above.
2. The calculator instantly shows your sun sign with a colored thumbnail, name, element, modality and ruling planet.
3. If your birthday is within two days of a sign boundary, a cusp note appears.
4. Scroll down to see your Chinese zodiac animal and the full table of all 12 signs.
5. Click any sign in the grid to jump to its details.

The 12 zodiac signs and their dates

The Western zodiac is made up of twelve signs, each covering roughly 30 degrees of the 360-degree ecliptic. The dates below are the standard tropical ranges used by most modern sun sign calculators.

What are the four zodiac elements?

Each zodiac sign belongs to one of four elements, and the element describes how the sign expresses energy.

• Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) — passionate, energetic, action-oriented, spontaneous.
• Earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) — practical, grounded, reliable, focused on tangible results.
• Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) — intellectual, communicative, social, idea-driven.
• Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) — emotional, intuitive, empathetic, deeply sensitive.

What are the three modalities in astrology?

Modality (also called quadruplicity) describes how each sign moves through time and change.

• Cardinal (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) — initiators. They start new seasons and new cycles.
• Fixed (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) — stabilizers. They sustain what has been started.
• Mutable (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) — adaptors. They shift, adjust and prepare for change.

Cusp births explained

A cusp birth is when your birthday falls on or near the boundary between two zodiac signs — usually within one or two days. People born on a cusp are often said to blend traits of both signs. This calculator flags those cases so you know your birthday sits on a boundary.

In traditional astrology, your sun sign is determined by the exact moment the Sun entered a sign, so a person born at 11:50 PM on the last day of a sign has a different sign from someone born at 12:10 AM the next day. This calculator uses the standard daily ranges, which are accurate to about 99% of dates — the remaining 1% fall on the specific dates when the Sun actually crosses the boundary.

Sun sign, moon sign and rising sign — what's the difference?

• Sun sign — where the Sun was when you were born. Represents your core identity and ego. This is what most people mean by "zodiac sign."
• Moon sign — where the Moon was. Represents your emotional world and inner life.
• Rising sign (Ascendant) — the sign rising on the eastern horizon at your exact birth time and place. Represents how you appear to others.

Calculating moon and rising signs requires your exact birth time and birth location. This sun sign calculator does not compute them, but knowing your sun sign is the natural first step.

Chinese zodiac — your animal by birth year

The Chinese zodiac runs on a 12-year cycle, with each year tied to an animal. Unlike the Western zodiac, which is month-based, the Chinese zodiac is year-based and follows the lunar calendar (Chinese New Year in late January or February). If your birthday falls in January or early February, you may belong to the previous year's animal.

The 12 animals in order are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

Zodiac compatibility at a glance

Traditional astrology groups signs into compatible elements. Fire signs often pair well with Air and other Fire signs. Earth signs pair well with Water and other Earth signs. But compatibility depends on the whole birth chart, not just sun signs — treat these as inspiration, not destiny.

Frequently asked questions