How many feet are in a metre?

Exactly 1 ÷ 0.3048, which is 3.280839895 feet. The reciprocal is easier to remember the other way: a foot is exactly 0.3048 metres by definition.

Is an inch exactly 2.54 cm?

Yes, exactly — that has been the international definition since 1959. It is a definition rather than a measurement, so there is no rounding error involved.

Length Converter

Convert between millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres, inches, feet, yards and miles.

Draft — figures checked, awaiting an editorial read. Not indexed.

Result—

Formula: Result = amount × (factor of source unit ÷ factor of target unit), where every factor is relative to the metre.

What this calculates

This converts a length between any two of the eight units in everyday use, across both the metric and US customary systems. The factors are exact rather than rounded, which matters more than it sounds: since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, an inch has been defined as exactly 25.4 millimetres, a foot as exactly 0.3048 metres, and a mile as exactly 1609.344 metres. Those are definitions, not measurements, so a conversion between them is exact and the only error in the answer comes from rounding the display.

How it works

Each unit has a factor expressing it in metres — the base unit. To convert, the amount is multiplied by the source unit's factor to reach metres, then divided by the target unit's factor to reach the destination. This two-step approach through a common base is why one table of eight numbers can handle all fifty-six possible conversions between them, rather than needing a lookup for each pair. It also means adding a new unit takes one number, not fifty-six.

Worked example

Converting 12 feet to metres: 12 × 0.3048 = 3.6576 metres. Going the other way, 100 metres to feet: 100 × 1 ÷ 0.3048 = 328.084 feet. A slightly harder one — 5 miles to kilometres: 5 × 1609.344 = 8046.72 metres, then ÷ 1000 = 8.04672 kilometres. That is why a 5 km race and a 5 mile race are noticeably different distances despite sounding similar.

Common mistakes

Confusing the US survey foot with the international foot. They differ by about two parts per million, which is invisible over a room and amounts to roughly a foot over thirty miles — it matters in land surveying and nowhere else. This converter uses the international foot, which was made the sole US standard in 2023. The other common slip is treating a mile as exactly 1600 metres; it is 1609.344, a 0.6% difference that compounds over distance.

Common questions

How many feet are in a metre?: Exactly 1 ÷ 0.3048, which is 3.280839895 feet. The reciprocal is easier to remember the other way: a foot is exactly 0.3048 metres by definition.
Is an inch exactly 2.54 cm?: Yes, exactly — that has been the international definition since 1959. It is a definition rather than a measurement, so there is no rounding error involved.