The Valmiki Ramayana contains approximately 24,000 verses.
The traditional figure is usually stated as 24,000 shlokas, or verse units, making the Ramayana one of the major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. Because the number is approximate in modern descriptions, translations and editions may differ slightly in how they count verses, repetitions, interpolations, and textual variants.
The epic is traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki and is organized into seven kandas, or books: Balakanda, Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kishkindhakanda, Sundarakanda, Yuddhakanda, and Uttarakanda. It contains roughly 500 sargas, or chapters, in its commonly described extant form.
A frequent confusion is between verses and lines. A Sanskrit shloka is commonly presented as a couplet, so descriptions may refer to about 24,000 couplets rather than 24,000 single lines. The Mahabharata is substantially longer, with a traditional scale of about 100,000 verses.