Feet to Meters Converter

How to convert feet to meters

The international foot is defined as exactly 0.3048 m, so multiplying by 0.3048 gives an exact result. Many people divide by 3.28 instead. That works as an estimate, but 3.28 is a rounded reciprocal (the true value is 3.280839…), so it adds a small error that grows with the number: over 10,000 ft it is off by about 0.8 m. For the reverse direction, meters to feet, the length converter divides by the same exact factor and also shows yards and miles.

If your length is in feet and inches, convert it to decimal feet first (inches ÷ 12) or to total inches and use the inches to cm converter.

Feet to meters comes up constantly in travel and property: a US listing with 9 ft ceilings, a flight at 38,000 ft, a 40 ft boat or a hiking trail that climbs 3,000 ft. In each case one multiplication gives the metric figure most of the world uses.

Step by step

1. Take the length in feet (turn any inches into decimal feet).
2. Multiply by 0.3048.
3. Round the meters to the precision you need; 2 decimals equals the nearest centimeter.

See it on a scale

What is the difference between the international foot and the US survey foot?

The US survey foot is 1200/3937 m, about 0.3048006 m, which makes it roughly 2 parts per million longer than the international foot of exactly 0.3048 m. The international foot covers everything everyday, while the survey foot was kept for land surveys and state plane coordinates. That gap is only about 3.2 mm per mile, but it matters over hundreds of miles of mapping.

NIST, NOAA and the National Geodetic Survey deprecated the survey foot from January 1, 2023. Older deeds and survey records may still use it, so if a surveyor’s figures do not match your conversion by a few millimeters, that is the likely reason. For every other purpose, use 0.3048.

How can you estimate feet in meters in your head?

Multiply the feet by 0.3: the result is 1.6% low, and the tricks below show how to add the missing part back.

• Multiply by 0.3, then add about 1.6%. 0.3048 is 0.3 × 1.016, so 50 ft ≈ 15 m, plus 0.24 m, gives 15.24 m exactly.
• Divide by 10, multiply by 3. The same × 0.3 idea for bigger numbers: 2,000 ft ≈ 600 m (exact: 609.6 m).
• Use anchors. 3.28 ft ≈ 1 m, 10 ft ≈ 3.05 m, 100 ft ≈ 30.5 m and a mile of 5,280 ft ≈ 1,609 m.

Feet and meters also turn up together in speed and pressure: altitude gains in aircraft are paired with airspeed in knots, covered by the knots to mph converter.

Where the foot comes from, and mistakes to avoid

The foot is one of the oldest length units and was originally based on the human foot. Different cities and countries kept their own feet, most between about 25 and 34 cm, until trade and engineering pushed them toward a single standard. The 1959 agreement settled the English-speaking world on 0.3048 m, and the metric system replaced local feet almost everywhere else.

Mistakes to avoid

• Writing 5.8 ft for 5′ 8″. 5′ 8″ is 5.667 ft. Using 5.8 adds about 4 cm to a height.
• Converting area or volume with 0.3048. One square foot is 0.09290304 m² and one cubic foot is about 0.0283 m³. Square the factor for area and cube it for volume.
• Mixing feet and meters in one calculation. Convert every length to the same unit before you add, subtract or multiply.
• Rounding 0.3048 to 0.3. That is 1.6% short: 1,000 ft becomes 300 m instead of 304.8 m.