Feet to Meters Converter

How to convert feet to meters (the formula)

To convert feet to meters, multiply by 0.3048: meters = feet × 0.3048. The reverse, feet = meters ÷ 0.3048, is the same as multiplying by 3.28084. The factor is exact, so the only rounding is the one you apply to the final answer.

Two examples: a 10-foot ceiling is 10 × 0.3048 = 3.048 meters, and a 6-foot person is 6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 meters. Because a meter is longer than a foot, the meter value is always the smaller number, a quick way to catch a division mistake.

If your measurement is in feet and inches, first convert the whole thing to feet (or to inches, then use the inch factor 0.0254). A height of 5 foot 9 is 5.75 feet, so 5.75 × 0.3048 = 1.7526 meters. This page converts live in both directions, so you can flip between feet and meters without retyping.

Why one foot is exactly 0.3048 meters

The exact value 0.3048 comes from the same 1959 international yard-and-pound agreement that fixed the inch at 2.54 cm. The signatories defined the international yard as exactly 0.9144 meters. Because one yard is three feet, one foot is 0.9144 ÷ 3 = exactly 0.3048 meters. The agreement was circulated by the US National Bureau of Standards as Letter Circular 1033.

Before 1959 the US survey foot differed slightly from the British foot, which caused tiny discrepancies in land measurement and engineering drawings. The 1959 agreement replaced both with a single international foot. (The US survey foot lingered for land surveying until it was formally retired at the end of 2022, but everyday conversions have used 0.3048 since 1959.)

Because the foot is now defined in terms of the meter, not the other way around, every feet-to-meters conversion is a definition swap rather than a physical measurement. NIST SP 811 lists 1 ft = 0.3048 m as an exact factor, and the international SI Brochure from the BIPM defines the meter itself in terms of the speed of light.

Feet to meters conversion chart

Both directions for the most common values. The reverse column is rounded to four decimal places.

Handy anchors: 1 meter is a little over 3 feet, and 3 meters is a little under 10 feet. So a 30-meter pool is just under 100 feet long.

Worked examples: common feet to meters conversions

Four feet-to-meters conversions that come up often, worked with the exact factor.

• A 6-foot person: 6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 m. Metric forms usually want 1.83 m.
• A 10-foot room dimension: 10 × 0.3048 = 3.048 m.
• 5 foot 9 in height: convert to 69 inches, or 5.75 ft, then 5.75 × 0.3048 = 1.7526 m.
• A 100-foot lot line: 100 × 0.3048 = 30.48 m.

For feet-and-inches inputs, the cleanest route is to convert to total inches first (feet × 12 + inches), then multiply by 0.0254, the same answer, with only one factor to remember. Either method gives an identical result because 0.3048 ÷ 12 = 0.0254 exactly.

Feet to meters in construction, aviation and travel

Feet-to-meters shows up in three places for US users.

Construction and real estate. Building codes, ceiling heights and lot dimensions are often quoted in both units. A standard 8-foot US ceiling is 2.4384 m, while many metric-country apartments have 2.7 m (about 8 ft 10 in) ceilings. Knowing the conversion lets you compare listings across countries.

Aviation. Aircraft altitudes are flown in feet worldwide, even in metric countries, so pilots constantly convert. A cruising altitude of 35,000 feet is 10,668 meters. Runway lengths are usually given in both: a 9,000-foot runway is 2,743 meters.

Travel and sports. Scuba diving depths, hiking elevations and track-and-field distances are metric in most of the world but imperial in the US. A 100-foot dive is 30.48 meters, right at the edge of the recreational limit. Mountain elevations in feet convert the same way: 14,000 feet is 4,267 meters.

Common feet-to-meters mistakes to avoid

Most errors in feet-to-meters come from unit confusion rather than bad arithmetic.

• Using 0.3 as if it were exact. It is a fine mental shortcut, but 0.3 understates the meter value by about 1.6%, which is 16 cm over a 100-foot span.
• Mixing feet and inches. "5 foot 9" is 5.75 feet, not 5.9 feet. Convert the inches to a fraction of a foot first.
• Dividing instead of multiplying. Feet are shorter than meters, so a length in feet is always the bigger number. If your meters came out larger, you divided.
• Confusing meters with square meters. Linear feet convert to linear meters; square feet convert to square meters using a different factor (0.092903), not 0.3048.

A quick self-check: 1 foot is about 30 cm, so a 6-foot length should be about 1.8 meters. If your answer is nowhere near that, you flipped the operation.

Converting feet and inches together

Most real US measurements are not a clean number of feet, they are "5 foot 9", "6 foot 2", "8 foot 6". Converting those to meters takes one extra step before you multiply.

The rule: turn feet and inches into a single unit first, then convert. Either convert everything to inches (feet × 12 + inches) and multiply by 0.0254, or convert to decimal feet (feet + inches ÷ 12) and multiply by 0.3048. Both routes give the identical answer, because 0.3048 ÷ 12 = 0.0254 exactly.

• 5 ft 9 in = 69 in = 5.75 ft = 1.7526 m
• 6 ft 2 in = 74 in = 6.1667 ft = 1.8796 m
• 8 ft 6 in = 102 in = 8.5 ft = 2.5908 m

The most common mistake is treating "5 foot 9" as 5.9 feet. That is wrong by more than half an inch. Always divide the leftover inches by 12 before adding them to the feet. Doorway heights, ceiling heights and body heights are the measurements where this two-part conversion shows up most, and they are exactly the ones where a half-inch error is visible.

Where these conversion factors come from

The relationship between feet and meters is fixed by international agreement rather than by local convention. The values used on this page follow the NIST guide to the SI (US Department of Commerce) and the BIPM SI Brochure, the two documents that define the exact values used worldwide.

Because these factors are exact by definition rather than measured, converting a number and converting it back always returns the number you started with, there is no rounding drift to worry about.