Convert Feet to Meters

Feet to metres in one step

Enter a length in feet and see it in metres straight away, along with centimetres, millimetres, kilometres, yards, inches and miles. If you type a decimal such as 5.75 ft, the converter also shows it as feet and inches to the nearest sixteenth (5 ft 9 in) so you can check you have entered heights and room sizes correctly. Use the swap button for metres to feet.

One foot is exactly 0.3048 metres, so the result is exact apart from the decimal places you choose to keep.

The formula

metres = feet × 0.3048

metres = feet ÷ 3.2808

feet = metres × 3.28084

With inches: metres = (feet + inches ÷ 12) × 0.3048. Example: 5 ft 10 in = 5.8333 ft × 0.3048 = 1.778 m.

Worked examples

• 6 ft person = 1.8288 m (183 cm).
• 10 ft ceiling = 3.048 m.
• A 12 × 15 ft room = 3.66 × 4.57 m = 16.7 m².
• A 40 ft shipping container = 12.19 m long.
• Mount Everest, 29,032 ft = 8,849 m.
• Cruising altitude, 35,000 ft = 10,668 m.
• A 100 ft yacht = 30.48 m.

Feet to metres chart (1–50 ft)

Larger distances and altitudes

Square feet and square metres

Room and property sizes in the US, UK and India are often given in square feet. Because area is length × length, the factor is squared: 1 ft² = 0.09290304 m², and 1 m² = 10.7639 ft². A 1,000 sq ft flat is 92.9 m². Do not multiply square feet by 0.3048 – that is the most common mistake in property listings. Use the area converter for acres, hectares, square yards and Indian land units.

Quick mental estimate

Divide feet by 3.3 for metres (or multiply by 0.3). 100 ft ÷ 3.3 ≈ 30 m (exact: 30.48 m). For the reverse, metres × 3.3 ≈ feet: 2 m ≈ 6.6 ft (exact 6.56 ft). A storey of a building is roughly 10 ft or 3 m.

Where you meet feet

History of the foot

Units based on the human foot were used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and their lengths varied from about 25 to 33 cm. The English foot of 12 inches was standardised in medieval times and spread with the British Empire. In 1959 the international foot was defined as exactly 0.3048 m. The United States also used a slightly longer 'US survey foot' (1200/3937 m) for land surveying until it was officially retired at the end of 2022; the difference is about 3 mm per kilometre.

Accuracy and rounding

For heights, round to the nearest centimetre. For building plans, keep millimetres. For altitudes, round to the nearest metre. The converter keeps up to eight significant figures internally, and the TXT download lists the value in every length unit so you can paste it into a spreadsheet or report.

Feet and inches to metres: height table

Using metres and feet in building and DIY

In the US, timber, plasterboard and plywood are sold in feet (8 ft and 10 ft lengths, 4 × 8 ft sheets = 1.22 × 2.44 m), and architectural drawings are dimensioned in feet and inches. In the UK and most of the world, plans are drawn in millimetres. When converting a plan, convert each dimension separately rather than converting an area – then round to the nearest millimetre and check that totals still add up. A metric sheet of plywood (1220 × 2440 mm) is actually a converted imperial size, which is why metric sheet sizes look slightly odd.

For stairs, a common rule in imperial plans is a rise of about 7 in (178 mm) and a going of 11 in (279 mm). For doors, 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) is the standard US height, while 2.04 m and 1.98 m are common in Europe and the UK.

Feet in aviation and mountaineering

Altitude in aviation is measured in feet almost everywhere except a few countries (such as China and Russia historically) that used metres. Flight levels are written in hundreds of feet: FL100 is 10,000 ft (3,048 m), FL350 is 35,000 ft (10,668 m). Pilots crossing into airspace that uses metres convert with tables rather than mental arithmetic because a rounding error of 100 ft equals about 30 m of vertical separation. Mountain heights are given in metres in most of the world and in feet in the US: Everest is 8,849 m (29,032 ft), Kilimanjaro 5,895 m (19,341 ft), Mont Blanc 4,806 m (15,768 ft).

Common mistakes

• Multiplying square feet by 0.3048 instead of 0.0929.
• Writing 5.10 ft for 5 ft 10 in – 5.10 ft is actually 5 ft 1.2 in. Use 5.833 ft.
• Confusing the foot symbol (′) with the inch symbol (″): 6′2″ is 6 ft 2 in = 1.88 m.
• Rounding 0.3048 to 0.3 for long distances – the error grows to 1.6%, or 16 m per kilometre.

Yards, feet and metres

Sports fields mix the units: an American football field is 100 yards (91.44 m) between goal lines, a cricket pitch is 22 yards (20.12 m), and a running track is 400 m (1,312 ft).

Feet to metres in a spreadsheet

In Excel or Google Sheets use =A2*0.3048, or =CONVERT(A2,"ft","m"). For feet in A2 and inches in B2, use =(A2+B2/12)*0.3048. Format to two or three decimals depending on whether you need centimetres or millimetres.

Privacy

The converter runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server, your values are not tracked, and once the page has loaded it keeps working offline – useful in a workshop, a kitchen, a gym or on a plane.

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