Zodiac Compatibility
Tradition: Western astrology. A tradition, not a forecast. Astrologers read it this way; the evidence does not.
By Suraj Giri · Reviewer for this method: not yet appointed (see our editorial policy)
Cancer and Leo: takes adjustment
Cancer and Leo are a match that takes adjustment in Western astrology: water and fire, semisextile, and 2 of 8 points on our scoring.
A tradition, not a forecast. Astrologers read it this way; the evidence does not.
Zodiac compatibility rates two sun signs by element (fire, earth, air, water), modality and the aspect between the signs; same-element and trine pairs are read as the easiest matches in Western astrology.
What is zodiac compatibility?
Zodiac compatibility is the way Western astrology reads how easily two people get on from their sun signs alone. A sun sign is the sign the Sun was in on the day you were born, and comparing two of them is one Tradition route to love compatibility.
Before the detail, the short version: the whole grid of pairs is on the zodiac compatibility chart. A sun sign is one placement out of many in a chart, and the full set is what birth chart compatibility reads.
How do you check the compatibility of two zodiac signs?
To check your compatibility, pick your sign and their sign in the selector above, and the verdict appears at once. The check takes four steps:
- Pick your sign.
- Pick their sign.
- Read the verdict, which gives a rating word, the two elements and the aspect between the signs.
- Open the pair page for the full reading of those two signs.
The zodiac compatibility calculator above is free. The order of the two signs changes nothing, because the rating is the same in both directions.
How does zodiac compatibility work?
Zodiac compatibility works by comparing three things about two sun signs: their elements, their modalities and the aspect between them, which is how far apart they sit on the wheel of twelve signs. Western astrology reads each of the three as easier or harder, and the verdict adds them up.
The four elements
Each of the twelve signs belongs to one of four elements:
- Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
- Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
- Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
- Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
The tradition reads two signs of the same element as the easiest match, and fire with air and earth with water as friendly.
Modalities and aspects
Each sign is also cardinal (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), fixed (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) or mutable (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces). Two signs of the same modality are read as more of a contest. The aspect is named by the distance between the two signs:
- Same sign: conjunction
- One sign apart: semisextile
- Two signs apart: sextile
- Three signs apart: square
- Four signs apart: trine
- Five signs apart: quincunx
- Opposite signs: opposition
Trines and sextiles are read as easy, squares and oppositions as tension. The rating runs from strong match to challenging. The points behind it are this site's own scoring of those traditional readings, published on the methodology page.
What does the zodiac compatibility grid show?
The zodiac compatibility grid shows the rating for every combination of the twelve signs at once. Find your sign down the side and theirs along the top.
- strong match: 7 to 8 points
- good match: 5 to 6 points
- mixed: 3 to 4 points
- takes adjustment: 2 points
- challenging: 0 to 1 points
| Sign | Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Taurus | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 |
| Gemini | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
| Cancer | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| Leo | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Virgo | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Libra | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| Scorpio | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Sagittarius | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Capricorn | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Aquarius | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Pisces | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
Each cell is that pair's score out of 8 points. The grid reads the same in either direction, so a pair appears twice.
The grid is symmetric, so Aries with Leo reads the same as Leo with Aries. The full zodiac compatibility chart, with a rating and a score out of 8 for each pair, is its own page.
Which signs is your zodiac sign compatible with?
The signs your zodiac sign is compatible with depend on your sign. Each of the twelve signs has its own page that ranks all twelve possible partners. Pick your sign from the list:
- Aries
- Taurus
- Gemini
- Cancer
- Leo
- Virgo
- Libra
- Scorpio
- Sagittarius
- Capricorn
- Aquarius
- Pisces
Each of those pages leads to the twelve pair pages for that sign.
How many zodiac sign pairs are there?
There are 78. Twelve signs make 66 pairs of two different signs, plus 12 same-sign pairs. The order of the signs never matters, so each pair has one page, listed under whichever sign comes first on the wheel. Each pair page gives a verdict and rates the pair for love, friendship, marriage, intimacy and communication.
- Aquarius and Aquarius
- Aquarius and Pisces
- Aries and Aquarius
- Aries and Aries
- Aries and Cancer
- Aries and Capricorn
- Aries and Gemini
- Aries and Leo
- Aries and Libra
- Aries and Pisces
- Aries and Sagittarius
- Aries and Scorpio
- Aries and Taurus
- Aries and Virgo
- Cancer and Aquarius
- Cancer and Cancer
- Cancer and Capricorn
- Cancer and Leo
- Cancer and Libra
- Cancer and Pisces
- Cancer and Sagittarius
- Cancer and Scorpio
- Cancer and Virgo
- Capricorn and Aquarius
- Capricorn and Capricorn
- Capricorn and Pisces
- Gemini and Aquarius
- Gemini and Cancer
- Gemini and Capricorn
- Gemini and Gemini
- Gemini and Leo
- Gemini and Libra
- Gemini and Pisces
- Gemini and Sagittarius
- Gemini and Scorpio
- Gemini and Virgo
- Leo and Aquarius
- Leo and Capricorn
- Leo and Leo
- Leo and Libra
- Leo and Pisces
- Leo and Sagittarius
- Leo and Scorpio
- Leo and Virgo
- Libra and Aquarius
- Libra and Capricorn
- Libra and Libra
- Libra and Pisces
- Libra and Sagittarius
- Libra and Scorpio
- Pisces and Pisces
- Sagittarius and Aquarius
- Sagittarius and Capricorn
- Sagittarius and Pisces
- Sagittarius and Sagittarius
- Scorpio and Aquarius
- Scorpio and Capricorn
- Scorpio and Pisces
- Scorpio and Sagittarius
- Scorpio and Scorpio
- Taurus and Aquarius
- Taurus and Cancer
- Taurus and Capricorn
- Taurus and Gemini
- Taurus and Leo
- Taurus and Libra
- Taurus and Pisces
- Taurus and Sagittarius
- Taurus and Scorpio
- Taurus and Taurus
- Taurus and Virgo
- Virgo and Aquarius
- Virgo and Capricorn
- Virgo and Libra
- Virgo and Pisces
- Virgo and Sagittarius
- Virgo and Scorpio
- Virgo and Virgo
Every pair page reads one pairing in depth, and the pages below read the whole zodiac by theme.
Go deeper: best matches, friendship, marriage, elements, intimacy
Five pages read the whole zodiac by theme, one theme each.
Is astrology compatibility the same as zodiac compatibility?
Not quite. Zodiac compatibility compares two sun signs. Astrology compatibility is the wider term, and it can mean the whole birth chart. People search for the same sun-sign reading as zodiac sign compatibility, horoscope compatibility, star sign compatibility, a zodiac love match or a zodiac compatibility test, and the selector on this page answers all of them. Sun sign compatibility and birth sign compatibility are two more names for the same check of compatible signs.
Beyond the sun sign
Beyond the sun sign, astrologers compare the placements that a birth date alone cannot give:
- The Moon sign: emotional needs, in the tradition's reading
- Venus and Mars: affection and desire, in the tradition's reading
- The rising sign, or ascendant: how each person comes across, in the tradition's reading
Those placements need a birth time and a birth place, and the birth chart compatibility tool on this site is where they are read.
Is zodiac compatibility the same as Chinese zodiac compatibility or kundli matching?
No. All three compare two people, and they are three different systems. The Chinese system goes by birth year and twelve animals, not by the month you were born. It has its own page under Chinese zodiac compatibility. The Vedic method used before marriage scores eight factors out of 36. It's explained under kundli matching, which is what "horoscope matching" usually means in India.
Zodiac questions with a longer answer
The ranked lists people ask for, the best matches and the hardest ones, are on the Best Matches page listed under "Go deeper" above. The short answer to each question is here.
What zodiac sign goes well together?
In Western astrology, signs of the same element are read as going together most easily: fire with fire, earth with earth, air with air and water with water.
Which astrological signs go well together?
After same-element pairs, the tradition reads fire with air and earth with water as the friendly combinations.
Which zodiac sign is a perfect match couple?
No pair is called perfect in the tradition, and the pairs rated highest here are the twelve trines, two signs of the same element four signs apart.
Which two zodiac signs are soulmates?
Astrology names no single soulmate pair, and the closest idea in the tradition is the trine.
What two zodiacs are soulmates?
The tradition picks no one pair of soulmates and reads same-element signs as the most natural fit.
Which two signs are not compatible?
No two signs are ruled out, and the tradition reads squares, signs three apart, as the pairs with the most friction.
Who is the fakest zodiac?
No sign is the fakest: Western astrology ranks no sign by honesty, and "fakest" is a social media label, not part of the tradition.
How we calculate it
- The distance between the two signs on the wheel gives the aspect: the same sign, one sign apart, and so on to opposite signs. A trine scores 5, a conjunction, sextile or opposition 3, anything else 1.
- The elements are compared. The same element adds 2. Fire with air, or earth with water, adds 1.
- The modalities are compared. Different modalities add 1.
- The total, out of 8, sets the band. The points table is our proposal and is waiting for an astrologer's review.
The full rule, in plain words and in pseudocode, is on the methodology page.
Sources
- Astrology.com, Zodiac Signs: Element and modality of each sign
- Cafe Astrology, Aspects in Astrology: How each aspect is traditionally read
- Wikipedia, Astrological aspect: Degrees, major and minor aspects