Feet to Meters Calculator - Convert ft and in to m

About the Feet to Meters Calculator

Feet are the everyday unit for heights, rooms, ceilings, buildings, altitudes and distances in the United States, and still common in Britain for personal height and aviation. Metres are the standard nearly everywhere else, and in science, sport and construction worldwide. Converting between the two comes up when reading property listings, planning renovations with imported materials, filling in forms, or following a hiking guide that gives climbs in feet.

This feet to meters calculator converts feet, or feet and inches, to metres. It shows the result as metres and centimetres, in centimetres, millimetres and kilometres, and in yards.

How to Use the Feet to Meters Calculator

Enter the number of feet. Decimals such as 6.5 are fine.

If you have a length in feet and inches, enter the inches as well.

The metres appear at once, with the other metric units and yards.

The Formula

  feet (with inches) = feet + inches ÷ 12
  metres             = feet × 0.3048
  yards              = feet ÷ 3

A foot is exactly 0.3048 metres. This follows from the international inch of exactly 2.54 cm: 12 × 2.54 = 30.48 cm.

Step-by-Step Example

6 feet to metres.

  6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 m

So 6 feet is 1.8288 metres, or 1 m 82.88 cm, which is also exactly 2 yards.

5 ft 9 in.

  Feet:     5 + 9 ÷ 12 = 5.75 ft
  Metres:   5.75 × 0.3048 = 1.7526 m

One mile, 5,280 feet, is 5,280 × 0.3048 = 1,609.344 m, or 1.609344 km.

Quick Reference

  1 ft    = 0.3048 m        10 ft    = 3.048 m
  3 ft    = 0.9144 m        100 ft   = 30.48 m
  5 ft    = 1.524 m         1,000 ft = 304.8 m
  6 ft    = 1.8288 m        5,280 ft = 1,609.344 m

For a quick estimate, divide feet by 3.3, or multiply by 0.3. Ten feet is roughly 3 metres; a 30,000-foot cruising altitude is roughly 9,000 metres (exactly 9,144).

Rooms and Buildings

Floor plans in the US give room sizes in feet, often as feet and inches such as 12' 6" × 15' 0". To work in metric, convert each side: 12 ft 6 in is 3.81 m, and 15 ft is 4.572 m. Multiply the converted sides for the area in square metres, about 17.42 m². Do not convert an area in square feet with the length factor; square feet need the factor squared, 0.09290304.

Ceiling heights of 8 feet, common in American homes, are about 2.44 m, and 9 or 10 feet are about 2.74 m and 3.05 m. A storey in a typical building is about 10 feet, 3 metres, so a 30-storey tower is very roughly 100 metres tall.

Altitude and Aviation

Aviation uses feet for altitude almost everywhere in the world, even in metric countries, while mountains and maps outside the US usually use metres. Mount Everest is 8,849 metres, about 29,032 feet; an airliner cruising at 35,000 feet is at about 10,668 metres. Hikers comparing climbs in guidebooks from different countries need the conversion too: a 3,000-foot ascent is about 914 metres of climbing.

Sport

Sport is full of lengths fixed long ago in feet and yards that are now also quoted in metres.

Many sports measurements mix the systems. A basketball hoop is 10 feet, 3.048 m, high. A cricket pitch is 22 yards, 66 feet, or 20.12 m. Olympic events use metres, so a high jump of 2.45 m, the long-standing men's record, is just over 8 feet.

Timber, Pipes and Materials

Building materials often straddle the two systems. In the US, timber is sold in lengths of 8, 10, 12 and 16 feet — about 2.44, 3.05, 3.66 and 4.88 metres — while in metric countries lengths such as 2.4, 3.0, 3.6 and 4.8 metres are common. The metric lengths are slightly shorter than their imperial cousins: a 2.4 m board is about 4 centimetres short of 8 feet. When a plan drawn in feet is built with metric materials, or the other way round, convert the plan first and check that standard lengths still cover each span without an awkward joint.

Heights and Records

For personal height, many metric countries record metres to two decimal places, such as 1.75 m, while others use centimetres, 175 cm. Converting 5 ft 9 in gives 1.7526 m, which rounds to 1.75 m. Keep more decimals only when the original was measured precisely; a height measured to the nearest inch is only good to about 2.5 cm, so extra decimal places in metres add no real accuracy.

Understanding Your Result

The headline is the length in metres.

The metres and centimetres line splits the result, as heights are often written, or gives kilometres for long distances.

The other metric units line gives centimetres, millimetres and kilometres.

The yards line shows the length in yards, exactly a third of the feet.

When Should You Use This Calculator?

Use it for heights in feet and inches on metric forms.

Use it for room sizes, ceiling heights and building dimensions.

Use it for altitudes, climbs and aviation figures.

Use it for sports measurements and school exercises.

Common Mistakes

Treating inches as decimals of a foot. 5 ft 9 in is 5.75 ft, not 5.9 ft.

Dividing by 0.3048. From feet to metres, multiply.

Converting square feet with the length factor. Areas need 0.3048².

Rounding 0.3048 to 0.3. It is about 1.6 percent low.

Mixing feet with metres in one sum. Convert every length to the same unit first, then add.

Forgetting the inches. A height of 6 ft 2 in is not 6 ft; enter both parts.