Length converter
Metric and US or imperial lengths, from millimeters to miles
Type a length and pick two units. The example turns 1 meter into feet.
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The same amount in every unit
How lengths convert
All the lengths here are fixed multiples of the meter. Since 1959 the inch has been exactly 2.54 centimeters, which makes every US and imperial length exact in metric: 1 foot is 0.3048 m, 1 yard is 0.9144 m and 1 mile is 1609.344 m. The source is the 1959 international yard and pound agreement, as listed in NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C. A nautical mile is exactly 1852 m.
US survey feet
Older US land surveys use the US survey foot, defined as 1200/3937 m. It is longer than the ordinary foot by two parts in a million: about 3 mm in a mile. The US retired it on 1 January 2023, but it still appears in old deeds and state plane maps, so it is listed here, with the survey mile.
Quick checks
A meter is a little over 3 feet 3 inches. A kilometer is about 0.62 miles, and a mile about 1.6 km. An inch is 2.54 cm, so 10 cm is just under 4 inches. For one pair at a time with a chart, use cm to inches, meters to feet or km to miles.
Rounding
The answer is worked out from the exact definition, then shown to 4 decimal places (6 significant figures for numbers below 1). It says "exactly" only when nothing was rounded.