How rich is Harry Potter?

a video mocking how Harry had a fortune that he didn't share with the Weasley

WHY • THESE • CRETINS • DO • NOT • READ • THE • FUCKING • BOOKS

Harry looked away. He would willingly have split all the money in his Gringotts vault with the Weasleys, but he knew they would never take it. — GOF 10 "Mayhem at the Ministry"

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“Look, take it, or I’ll hex you. I know some good ones now.” — GOF 37 "The Beginning"

Anyway. Post-books it has been explained that his grand-grandfather was a prominent Wizangamot member and his grandfather Fleamont invented the Sleekeazy's Potion (yes the mixture Hermione used for the Yule Ball), whose success quadrupled the family gold. When James was born, he sold the company making even more money and retired.

Considering

• that Fleamont and Euphemia died of dragonpox shortly before Harry's birth;
• that James fought Voldemort and lived in secrecy for his all life after graduating from Hogwarts;
• that that gold remained untouched from 1981 to 1991, when Harry reopened vault 687;
• that Sirius left him all his possessions;
• and that both of Harry's most expensive possessions, the Nimbus 2000 and the Firebolt, were gifted to him;

I'd say he's rich.

I think the Firebolt purchase isn’t so much about Harry not be able to afford it, but being wise enough to understand that today it’s a Firebolt, tomorrow it’s this and that, and he could be broke eventually. And then wanting to make it through Hogwarts is kind of the same thing, he knows he should be out of school with a career before he goes too far spending his money.

In that sense I think Harry has probably inherited the equivalent of a million maybe up to like ten million. If you can imagine someone who inherited a million or so dollars, they might be very well set up to get through school and get started in life with a really nice advantage, but they would also run out of they money very early in life if they impulsively spent it on expensive new cars, fancy clothes, and that kind of stuff.

I think the Firebolt example is really there to illustrate that Harry has money, but he hasn’t been raised with money so he’s still a little bit frugal. Then there’s other times we see him spend a lot without thinking and it’s almost always to help someone out because he’s very generous.

I can’t remember exactly where, but Harry says at one point he’d happily share all his money with the weasleys but they would never take it. As for how much he has at least pre black inheritance I assume it was enough to live comfortably if he was wise with it, probably a couple million, compared to the malfoys who are more like billionaires.

I don’t think he’s as rich as the Malfoys or the Lestranges, given the size of his vault compared to the size of the Lestrange vault. They don’t ever mention jewels or other trinkets in Harry’s vault like they do in the Lestrange vault. His just has coins

He’s rich rich. But he’s also a kid. Do you know many normal adults who would take money from an orphan rich child ? That’s quite unethical and the Weasley’s were good people.

Also he gave quite a large sum to the twins which is the only reason they could leave school, open their business and become self reliants. They were raised with their parents’ values and didn’t want the money, harry had to threaten them for them to take it. Later he married the only Weasley girl. We can’t say that he never shared with them.

What kind of self respecting adult takes money from a child? Mr and Mrs Weasley are adults. They're supposed to take care of their children financially and other ways. Back then it would be considered pathetic to take money from a child especially when Harry was suffering from his family's abuse. How does this look? Adults take money from a child who had suffered abuse all his life until the age of 11. Harry's parents meant for that money to go to their son.

There are several points that can be made about not giving money to the Weasleys.

First, we don’t know how much money the potters have. There are a lot of levels of “rich.” Harry was certainly very well off, but that doesn’t mean he could have comfortably supported the living expenses and lifestyle of an entire other family that consists of 9 people (7 if we discount Bill and Charlie). If I had to pick a number, I’d say the equivalent of a muggle having low 7 figures. Like 2 million. Enough for a safety net, house, and retirement, especially if the person was still earning an income. Not enough to be buying things left and right for a lot of other people. If the money was terribly mismanaged then I think it would have dried up pretty quickly.

Second, I think offering money would be an incredibly uncomfortable conversation for everyone. It can be humiliating to ask a close family member for money in an emergency. I can’t even imagine how a child would offer money to their friend’s parents.

Third, which ties into the second point, I can’t imagine that the Weasleys would accept even if Harry offered. Molly and Arthur would probably be horrified and I can’t imagine them accepting.

Forth, and imo this is the most important point, Harry has absolutely no obligation to take care of any character besides Hedwig. He is a child. Molly and Arthur are adults who have chosen their lives. They have a legal and moral responsibility to care for their children. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have as much disposable income as they’d like to. And if they can’t provide basic necessities (it seems like they mostly did provide what they needed to) then they have failed as parents.

Harry is more financially responsible than I am , because I don’t have nearly as much money as him and I still went to see Taylor swift 🤦🏻‍♂️

The weasleys had pride. I think Harry offered his fortune to the weasleys but they refused it.

He's quite wealthy. In post-series writings, Rowling affirms that an ancestor quadrupled the family money. She uses the term "family gold." In literature, when "family money" is used as a term, it's usually meant to imply wealth.

As other's have stated, he did, in fact, have a desire to share his money with the Weasley's, but knew they would never accept. Even Ron is embarrassed and initially refuses when Harry buys him omnioculars at the Quidditch World Cup, and Harry saves him the embarrassment by saying they are a Christmas present. He doesn't make a similar offer to Hermione (despite also buying her a pair), though she offers to buy the programs. This exchange demonstrates that offering the Weasley's money would be a huge insult. They aren't poor in the sense that they're struggling. They just don't have any expendable income.

As for the Firebolt, Harry had a perfectly fine broom that he'd been using for two years, and he had the common sense to know that the Firebolt would simply be a vanity purchase. When his broom is destroyed, he was more distraught over the loss of his favorite item. Also, it's not like he could just run out and buy a new one, and he only takes a limited amount of money with him to school. He grew up without having any money and watching his cousin get spoiled, so he learned about what impulse buying gets you.

I'd say overall a couple million in muggle terms. 

His father was an only child to older parents. He was able to purchase a home at like 20. He and Lily would have been decently skilled wizards working wherever bringing in wages that would have built up savings before they went into hiding. 

So basically Harry inherited any remaining family fortune, plus his grandparents retirement plus his parents probably never needed to touch the savings. 

A couple million would be enough for a person to live modestly for life without needing a job, but Harry is the kind of person who'd want to work. 

Then Harry became the sole heir to the House of Black. So probably greatly increased his wealth. 

The big question is really his wealth remained his after Voldemort took over. Would the goblins have allowed the Ministry or Death Eaters to seize the contents of his vaults?

Having money isn't just about being able to buy what you want. It's knowing you could buy it, but wise enough knowing the difference between needing it and wanting it.

For the Weasleys, if he offered they wouldn't accept. They knew that money was left to him by his parents. Also, think of how hard it was for Harry to convince Fred and George to take the Tri-Wizard winnings.

For the Malfoys, for actual "money in the bank" the Malfoys had more (pretty sure they had a vault similar to Bellatrix's vault). However, While they may have had more they also may have had more debt/things to manage. Think of it today as people who have all the new/cool stuff. Sure they have it, but they're in debt up to their eyeballs.

Harry had money, but other than buying his school supplies he didn't have anything he had to pay for.

Only criminals take money from a child!

What kind of asshole adult would take money from a literal orphan child?

The vast difference between those who have a healthy amount of money to have a solid and strong foundation, versus those who have GENERATIONAL wealth in the form of mansions and the ability to sponsor governmental policy, are VASTLY different financial places. A person who has 2 million dollars versus a billionaire with a private jet... 2 million dollars is 0.002 of 1 billion dollars.

The Potters living in a two-story house in a seemingly middle to upper-middle class neighborhood (based on information about working professionals in the neighborhood like the Potters, Bathilda Bagshot and the Dumbledore's living in the same neighborhood) are massively different than a family living in a huge mansion with dungeons, servants, house elves and the ability to have a standing 'top box' seat, handing bags of Galleons to prime ministers in back rooms to influence governmental policy.

We're talking the difference between a middle-class income versus a Duke in the British aristocracy who owns a mansion estate with numerous holdings.

Let's just say for fun that the Potter parents die with 40,000 Galleons in Gringotts (approximately £200,000, given that 1 Galleon = 5 pounds based on some of Rowling's interviews), an impressive amount to have in savings in 1981. 

The money sits there unspent from October 31, 1981 (when Lily and James are murdered) until Harry starts school at Hogwarts on September 1, 1991. So, the money would have been accruing interest for about 10 years.

The books don't talk about the average interest rates in the Wizarding world or at Gringotts, but let's assume a reasonable interest rate for a magical bank, and for simplicity's sake we'll calculate on the HIGH side using a 5% annual interest rate, compounded annually (which would be absurdly high compared to a typical Muggle bank interest rate is 0.45% APY in the US in 2024).

If it earned 5% interest annually, by 1991 it would grow like this: 

40,000 * 1.05 (Year 1) = 42,000; 42,000 * 1.05 (Year 2) = 44,100. Repeat for 10 years...

By 1991, it would be about 65,156 Galleons, or approximately £325,780. This is an amount of money that is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not an amount of money that qualifies for comparing to someone who lives essentially like wizarding aristocracy. 

I read Harry's hesitance to buying a Firebolt as A. him not knowing anything about money because he's never had any (which that amount of money would be mind-blowing and 'a fortune' to anyone who has never had any), and B. him recognizing that while he has "lots of money," his money does have limits, and he wants to be cautious, making sure he has enough to last through school. 

Based solely on the descriptions of their lifestyle, the Malfoys come from an amount of resources so old and vast the concept of 'not having enough to last' isn't even within their realm of a possibility for them to consider. An amount of money where the most powerful dark lord of all time would take over your mansion as their home base. 

I believe comparing Harry and Malfoy's wealth is rather ludicrous. 

I think he was quite rich as in, wouldn’t have to worry about money for at least a few years after Hogwarts if he didn’t spent it on stupid things but nowhere near the level of Malfoy. And yeah, Weasleys would never accept his money, he had a hard enough time to get Fred and George to accept his tournament winnings.

Well, Harry's grandfather, James' father, invented the Sleeky hair potion and sold it's patent for a ridiculous sum, so much so that not only did he and his wife live extremely comfortably for many years, James and Lily also like never had to worry about money, every. Infact, it's mentioned somewhere that James was so rich, that he helped help out Lupin, who lived in poverty as he couldn't hold a respectable and decent job due to him being a warewolf, by giving him money equal to a high paying job every month until Voldy made James go mouldy. Also, (have to re-read Philosopher's Stone to recheck this) but when Hadrig took Harry to his vault for the first time, it was described as a "small mountain of gold" and iirc, silver and bronze was way more then the gold present so yeah, Harry's definitely a multimillionaire, like easily £50 million or above.

And gold isn't just a flimsy thing, Molly paid for the Weasley kids' entire year's supply for 1 gold coin (well, it was second hand, but still, supplies for 5 kids ain't cheap). Also, we've not seen Harry frequent Gringotts much often, and only seen him withdrawing money with some years gap. Like, first he slightly filled his pouch in Philosopher's Stone, then he withdrew in CoS, then it was somewhere in like GoF or something and the last time was when Bill withdrew Harry's money for him in HBP. So, form this we can say that Harry a pouch of gold lasts Harry a couple of months, so there's that. Even if he withdrew money every year when he visited Daigon Alley for school supplies, that still means that a single pouch lasts him an entire year, so even if I'm mistaken about my previous point, it's still a lot.

After Sirius' death, there's even more gold added to his account, and we all know that the Black's were very, very rich. Like, Sirius buys Harry a Firebolt and still doesn't have to care about money, like ever. Besides gold, Harry also got a property in London, and even with Mundungus stealing the antiques, it's still a million plus house. So yeah, after inheritance, Harry and his assets are worth like £100 million something. So, Harry's basically rich af.

A dollar amount isn’t put on Harry’s fortune and I truly dint think we can infer anything based on his own mindset Regarding his finances For several reasons

first of all, Harry is a kid. Have you ever asked a kid how much something costs? Or how much their parents make ? Ever have a kid tell you that you have money because you have a debit card or credit card? Yeah.
Regular , not abused kids have a hard time gauging this kind of thing because they don’t understand concepts of quantity. not time, money, or anything else. Harry wasn’t given pocket change at home. He was given hand me down clothes so he wasn’t in the shops helping pick out his stuff. He was given a cast off ice cream for goodness sakes. He had less concept of what things were worth than most. I’m sure Dudley didn’t help this with the way that he broke and discarded things. The dursleys weren’t rich, but they were not poor. They didn’t discuss money but they spent on Dudley. It’s a weird environment For Harry to gain a sense of $ In. He never really does imo.
being treated the way Harry was,can do one of two things to you…it can make you spend crazy or a spend thrift. Harry erred towards the latter, but I wouldn’t say he was a penny pincher or even stingy. He always treated his friends when they were out..food, gifts whatever he was buying he bought for everyone. The books Lockhart gave him, he immediately gave to Ginny. He WANTED to help, and He did . The Weasleys would never take money from an orphaned kid And he knew it and felt awful about it.

Secondly, we don’t know how Much money Harry has in the vault. What is a mound of gold? Was it swimming around like Scrooge McDuck money? was it “a dug a hole in the garden and this is the dirt kinda mound“? we do know the malfoys had yen because of the break in and the piles of gold they had to navigate, but Harry did a reach around and scoop into his vault. It’s close to the bottom but not AT the bottom. Whatever the amount, it seems as if gringotts is old fashioned in the sense that they don’t keep bank balances. You just toss your stuff in the vault for safekeeping. Why the Weasley kept theirs inside the bank I do not pretend to understand. A sock would have been fine. As such, there is no monetary breakdown. Harry doesn’t know how long it’s supposed to last, or whether he has enough to stretch for x years through school. He just knows he doesn’t want to go broke and have to get hat in hand to the dursleys.

further. The firebolt had no price on it. Things that say “price on demand”= brokies need not ask. They are incredibly expensive for their category. Harry didn’t buy it and didn’t even inquire because he knew it would be an outrageously unnecessary purchase when he has a good broom already. Think 2023 bmw vs 2024 Mercedes. He’d be throwing money away.

Harry was incredibly generous with his money throughout the books. He gave Ron a truckload of sweets the first day he met him. They bought each other birthday and Christmas gifts. I didn’t do stuff like that as a kid. Later he gave away his prize money. Partially out of guilt yes, but also because he didn’t need it and really wanted to share with the Weasleys, he couldn’t give Ron the dress robes he needed any other way. He and Ron fought about Harry’s generosity towards him as he felt like Harry’s charity case.

Rich is relative. I’ve learned that over time. Rich to a kid is different to rich to an adult. Is 100k$ per year rich to you? It isn’t to me. It would be to a day laborer Maybe. it Might be to a wizard but we have no idea how far money spends in the ww. What is the cost of living? Do they have inflation?

at the end of the day, we still can’t know how much Harry has truly. I was recently trying to quantify the amount myself by trying to ascertain the exchange rate. Even with that, you can’t know without knowing exactly how many of each coin is in his vault. That mound of gold might translate into 5k£ for all we know

There is also a lot of speculation based on wording around the vaults is that Harry’s vault is like a trust fund and when he comes of age or finish’s school, he would get access to the Potter family vault. So he could be richer than what is in his vault.

Why do these people not read? Harry literally offers them money at some point and they refuse to take it.

I don't think harry knows just how much he actually has and doesnt want to blow his gold. He learned what can happen if you spoil someone living with the dursleys. Even in book 4 Ron was upset that harry didnt tell ron that the leprechaun gold he paid him back with for the omniochulars vanished. Ron and the weasleys dont want charity.

Until Fleamont the Potters where an old name but mostly a "middle class" group.

Hardwin was on the Wizengamot in the 1920s.

Charlus did marry a woman from the house of Black. So we can possibly say the Potters where on the rise socially until Fleamonts death from Dragon pox in 1980, and James murder the next year.

Harry is essentially a trust fund baby. Who didn't have to work, but realized if he didn't he'd burn through that wealth in his lifetime. Leaving nothing for his kids. Ginny's salary as a Quidditch player probably bolstered the family's wealth more than Harry's cop salary did 🤣.

It doesn't make sence, that the Weasleys are that poor to begin with. I suppose it is to create some tension in the story. Harry is rich but can't be blamed for the situation anyway, because the Weasleys are too proud to accept money from him.

However Harrys fortune can not be compared to the Malfoys'. Lucius Malfoy is just offensively rich. :D

I'd say he's probably moderately wealthy. Not Malfoy rich, but wealthier than the majority of his peers.

As for Book 3...that's actually a surprisingly mature decision for a rich thirteen-year-old kid.

In real-world terms, it'd be like if he saw a Jaguar XJ220 in a dealership lot and spent his spare time going back to the dealership and looking at it, but decided it's a better idea not to blow wads of cash on a car when he's got more important things to worry about buying.

I'm certainly not gonna hold it against him.

Harry doesn’t actually know how much a firebolt is, he never asks in the book, but just assumes it is too much.

Harry is pretty dang rich but growing up with the dursleys I think he understood the stupidity of buying something for it to potentially go to waste because like by next week something cooler will be around.

Meaning: Dudley had an entire room dedicated to broken (some probably expensive) toys he no longer wanted. Harry probably didn't want to buy expensive things that would end up snapped in half collecting dust in another room because he decided something else was cooler.

So Harry is just smart with his money

I honestly think Harry underestimates how rich he is. He downplays it as a small fortune when really it’s probably much more.

“Doesn’t want to run out of money while living with the dursleys” always seemed like something that would never happen but was an unjustified fear keeping him from doing stupid buys.

Harry is rich but he's not wealthy.

A rl example would be something akin to: Harry is probably as rich as a well paid footballer wheras the Malfoys are like the billionaire owner of the club.

Also at the time Harry was considering the Firebolt be was 13 and a long way away from actually earning money himself.

To add even further to this, we're not told how much is added to his vault each year from the sales of Sleakeazy - it could be a little or a lot but considering Harrys vault has likely not been touched in 11 or 12 years it's likely not a huge amount each year.

Edit: After The OoTP and Harry inherits the black estate he is likely to have been much nearer to the Malfoys level of wealth.

Oh, he's quite rich. But having money in the bank is one thing. Harry isn't shown to often go to the bank and the magical world doesn't use cards. So he would have to carry around heavy gold pieces all the time. No idea, if Hogsmead even had a bank, lol.

On the other hand, his first impressions of the magical world was with the Weasley's and therefor with a family that doesn't require or even strive to have much money in order to be happy.

His money is due to his parents job and their subsequent death. Maybe he felt guilty wanting to buy a broom with it.

There are some podcast episodes on the Quibbler that go in to detail on the economic and financial state of the Harry Potter world. It’s definitely worth a listen

TBH, some criticisms of the series are about things that inevitably don’t age perfectly as society progresses (which is true of every series), but some of them are IMO misunderstandings of what the series actually says. Harry would’ve been happy to share with the Weasleys, they wouldn’t have taken any more than what he already gave Fred and George (and IIRC had to talk them into accepting.)

I think Harry may have even more money than what we see in the books and movies. The Potters made a huge fortune with the potions they invented, so maybe the Gringotts vault we see is for petty cash, and there's an even larger vault deeper underground. Not to mention how much he gets after inheriting the Black family's fortune after Sirius' death.

He is basically a trust fund kid

Harry's grandfather or great-grandfather did wonderful things in the world of potions and set up a generational wealth for the Potters. Of the potions he created and then sold, I would like to think he made a deal that while he sold the formula to the potions. The family retained royalty rights so that whenever the potions were sold, the family got a portion of the sales. So I won't say he's Bill Gates rich but rich enough that if he keeps his frugal ways, his kids won't need money. Harry respected the value of money, having come from being poor. Of course he splurged every once an awhile (quidditch world cup finals). So while he was rich I like to think he lived like upper middle class. He worked for the ministry after school so he valued hardwork over not working.

His room at gringots looked pretty well stocked.

I think about money like the Weasley family. When every single petty coin in your account matters financial planning is a must. Every time we see the Weasley’s turn down money they’re basically saying “we got this kid, we’re gonna offer you the financial wisdom your auntie never bothered with though”

Harry got the fortune from two of the magic world's great house: Potter and Black. Of course he is rich. He want to share it with others (Weasley family as well), because he want to, like, give them something back from all the love he got. But, of course, the Weasly family refuse it, however, they accept the return from Harry in the other form: love and caring (Harry has saved Ginny, Mr Weasley and Ron).

Additionally, I bet Harry would like to spend all his money to get the family feeling, the protective, etc. like Ron have from his father, mother and brother/sister. But, hilariously, Ron is the one who also lowkey want to be rich (like Harry). I mean the lesson here from the author is we all want other's good things but we usually forget precious things we got in our hands (^_)

Bro. I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned how Harry would’ve shared his fortune with them. But the whole concept of the Weasley’s are that they make do with what they have and would never accept a handout. They’re comfortable with making their living their way and don’t want to be a burden to Harry because in their mind his life is hard enough because money isn’t important to them it’s family. Something Harry is sorely lacking of besides them.

Harry has what remains of his family fortune, which is certainly a healthy amount of money, but not enough to live on forever. It's enough to get him through school buying all the supplies, etc that he needs to do so likely with a bit leftover for when he leaves school and is trying to start out on his own. He says in his mind MANY times in the books that he would have helped the Weasleys if he could but they would never have taken it. First of all, it's Harry's money left to him by his parents and it has a purpose. As adults it would be incredibly irresponsibly not to mention inappropriate for Molly and Arthur to take money from their son's best friend.

The FireBolt was VERY expensive. We don't know exactly how much, but it would have been enough to put a good sized dent in Harry's inheritance. He even imagines having to go to the Dursleys to ask for money and how humiliating that would be.

So harry has money, but not THAT much. More than the Weasleys but even though he would gladly help them, for ethical reasons the adults decided on he should and did not. After the story ends and Harry is a grown adult with a well paying job who married into the Weasley family, I am quite sure he will do everything and anything for Arthur and Molly and the rest of his in laws for the rest of his life.

When I was reading the books, I thought that Harry had a fairly normal amount of money, but coming from his childhood and suddenly it all being his made him feel rich. Like a poor orphan who had never held more than $20, suddenly discovers he has a bank account with like $20k.

As i went through the books, the number in my head went up, but even at that amount, gifting half to a poor struggling family would really help them.

Eventually we learn that Harry is actually filthy rich and could live on his bank account and residual income from whatever product his ancestor created

very comfortable upper middle class

Per books and movies the only Potter property is the cottage in godric's hollow which the ministry snatched and did not pay 1 knut for to the potter estate

Just one vault......Not a trust vault and there is some main family vault he gets at 17. just the one vault per books and movies

No number is given in books about how many galleons but based off of the movie which JK gave the ok on....someone did the math and there is around 50,625 Galleons in the vault

Per JK 1G = 5 UK pounds and in 1991 conversion rate to U$ = $455,625 factor in inflation / spending power then vs now and it is like a teen getting a 1 million dollar bank account today vis a vis spending power then for $455k+

I don’t know if I watched the same video you did but I saw someone with this take and it just automatically discredited every other point the guy was trying to make. Clearly didn’t read or remember the books well. It’s annoying too because even if the Weasley would accept the money, it is not Harry’s job to support them! He’s a literal child.

Also annoying because the dude was trying to say hermione and Ron didn’t have any romantic chemistry before book 4 or something and it’s like oh maybe idk it’s because they were children?? Sure maybe jkr didn’t plan for it yet but what and why were you expecting 11 year olds to have romantic chemistry for? Like What

Harry is Richie Rich rich, the malfoys are Scrooge McDuck rich

Harry would give them everything he had, the Weasley would never take it.

rich as fuck.

Harry Potter himself is a capitalist icon

Surprised this hasn’t been said - he literally gave Fred and George a thousand galleons.

Harry was pretty rich already and then inherited the entire Black estate which are also an ancient wizard family. So yeah he’s probably fairly well off. There is something in Pottermore about his ancestors inventing the pepperup potion or something like that. He is nowhere near as rich as the Malfoys, idk how anyone would even think that.

Regarding the firebolt he says he’d gladly spend all the gold in his vault for one. But I doubt that it would actually be that expensive. Sirus was able to handily afford one, calling it 13 years worth of birthday presents. Judging from the amount of gold we see in his vault in the first movie I’d say Harry has a couple million and a firebolt might be the price of a sports car. As the first three books in the series are decidedly children’s books. So the empty his vault line can be taken as an exaggeration to show Harry’s childish wonder rather than a realistic assessment of its value.