Feet to Meters Converter
Convert feet and inches to meters and centimeters instantly. Includes height, ceiling height, and construction reference conversions.
Feet to Meters Converter
Calculator
Adjust values & calculateEnter your values below. Every result is computed in your browser — no data is sent to any server.
Formula: Meters = (Feet + Inches/12) × 0.3048
Worked example — 1.8288 m
Formula
Meters = (Feet + Inches/12) × 0.3048
1 foot = 0.3048 meters exactly, the international standard fixed since the 1959 international yard and pound agreement. Inches are first converted to a fractional number of feet by dividing by 12, added to the whole-feet value, then the total is multiplied by 0.3048 to reach meters.
Worked Examples
Example 1: 6 feet
Problem:Convert 6 feet to meters
Solution:6 × 0.3048 = 1.8288 m
Result:1.8288 m
Example 2: 5 feet 10 inches
Problem:Convert 5'10" to meters
Solution:(5 + 10/12) × 0.3048 = 1.778 m
Result:1.778 m
Example 3: Standard Ceiling Height
Problem:Convert a standard US 8-foot ceiling height to meters and centimeters for an international building spec.
Solution:Meters = 8 × 0.3048 = 2.4384 m Centimeters = 2.4384 × 100 = 243.84 cm Rounded for specification: approximately 2.4 m
Result:8 ft = 2.4384 m (243.84 cm)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many meters in a foot?
Exactly 0.3048 meters. This is an international standard defined since 1959.
What are some common feet-to-meters conversions I should know?
Some useful benchmarks: 1 ft = 0.305 m, 3 ft (1 yard) = 0.914 m, 5 ft = 1.524 m, 6 ft = 1.829 m, 10 ft = 3.048 m, 100 ft = 30.48 m. Average human height of 5'10" equals 1.778 meters.
Why do the US and UK still use feet instead of meters?
The United States chose not to formally adopt the metric system, though it is used in science and industry. The UK officially uses meters but feet remain common in everyday speech for heights and distances. Most other countries switched to metric in the 19th–20th centuries.
Why is human height so often written as feet-and-inches instead of a single decimal number?
Height in feet-and-inches (like 5'10") persists in the US and UK largely for readability and cultural familiarity rather than precision — saying 'five ten' is faster to say and easier to compare mentally than '70 inches' or '1.778 meters'. Most of the rest of the world records height purely in centimeters (178 cm rather than 5'10"), which is why international medical charts, sports federations, and passports typically list height in centimeters even in countries where feet and inches remain common in daily conversation.
How do construction and real estate use feet-to-meters conversion?
US building codes, lumber dimensions, and property listings are specified in feet and inches, while international construction standards, imported materials, and multinational engineering projects use meters. A contractor sourcing materials from a metric-standard supplier, or an architect collaborating across countries, must convert ceiling heights, room dimensions, and structural spans between the two systems accurately, since even small rounding errors compound significantly across a large structure. Standard US ceiling height (8 feet) converts to 2.438 meters, a figure often rounded to 2.4 m in international specifications.
What is the difference between the international foot and the US survey foot?
The international foot, used by this converter, is exactly 0.3048 meters. The US survey foot was defined as 1200/3937 meters, or about 0.30480061 m, and survived in American land surveying and State Plane Coordinate systems long after 1959. The two differ by roughly two parts per million, which is invisible on a room measurement but amounts to about an eighth of an inch per mile and several feet across a statewide coordinate grid. US surveying practice has moved to the international foot, so legacy survey data should be checked for which definition it used.
How do I convert meters back to feet and inches?
Divide meters by 0.3048 to get a decimal number of feet, then split it: the whole number is the feet, and the fractional part multiplied by 12 gives the inches. For example, 1.75 m / 0.3048 = 5.7415 ft, and 0.7415 x 12 = 8.9 inches, so 1.75 m is about 5 feet 9 inches. Dividing by 0.3048 is the same as multiplying by 3.28084, the reciprocal of the foot definition.
Why is the foot defined in terms of the meter rather than the other way round?
Since the 1959 international yard and pound agreement, the yard has been fixed at exactly 0.9144 meters, which makes the foot exactly 0.3048 m by dividing by three. The meter itself is the primary standard, defined since 1983 by the distance light travels in vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Imperial length units therefore have no independent physical artifact behind them any more: they are defined as exact decimal fractions of the SI meter, which is why the 0.3048 factor never needs rounding.
How much error do I introduce by using 0.3 instead of 0.3048?
Rounding the factor to 0.3 understates the result by about 1.57 percent, since 0.0048/0.3048 = 0.0157. On a 6-foot height that is roughly 29 mm, small enough to ignore in conversation but not on a drawing. Across a 100-foot building frontage the same shortcut loses about 1.5 feet, and on a 1,000-foot site run it loses 15 feet. Use the full 0.3048 factor whenever the number will be built, cut, or filed, and reserve the mental shortcut for rough estimates only.
What do I do with fractional inches such as 3/8 or 5/16?
Turn the fraction into a decimal inch first, then follow the normal route. Three eighths is 0.375 in and five sixteenths is 0.3125 in. A dimension of 4 ft 7 3/8 in becomes 7.375 inches, which is 0.6146 ft, giving 4.6146 ft in total and 1.4065 m after multiplying by 0.3048. Carpentry and machining drawings still use binary fractions down to sixty-fourths, so converting the fraction before the units keeps the arithmetic in one step.
References
Background & Theory
1 foot = 0.3048 metres exactly, and 1 metre = 3.28083990 feet. The exactness runs one way only: the international foot is defined as 0.3048 m, so the reverse factor is an unending decimal that has to be rounded.
Conversion reference table
| Conversion | Equivalent | Exact or rounded? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 foot | 0.3048 metres | Exact by definition |
| 1 metre | 3.28083990 feet | Derived, rounded |
| 1 foot | 12 inches = 30.48 centimetres | Exact |
| 1 yard | 3 feet = 0.9144 metres | Exact |
| 1 mile | 5,280 feet = 1,609.344 metres | Exact |
| 1 US survey foot (retired) | 1200/3937 m = 0.30480061 metres | Exact fraction, superseded |
The two-part-per-million gap between the international foot and the old US survey foot is invisible over a room but reaches about 3.2 metres across a 1,600 km state, which is why American geodetic datums kept the survey foot until NIST and NOAA retired it on 31 December 2022. Aviation keeps feet for altitude worldwide by ICAO convention even in otherwise fully metric airspace, so a flight level of 350 means 35,000 ft, or 10,668 m exactly.
Reviewed for accuracy by Manoj Kumar, Mathematics Educator · Editorial policy
Related Calculators
🧮Square Feet to Square Meters Converter
Convert between square feet, square meters, square yards, and square inches.
🧮Cubic Yards to Cubic Feet Converter (yd³ to ft³)
Convert between cubic yards, cubic feet, cubic meters, and cubic inches.
🧮Acres to Hectares Converter
Convert land area between acres, hectares, square feet, and square meters.
🧮CFM to CMH Converter
Convert airflow between cubic feet per minute and cubic meters per hour.
🧮Square Meter to Square Feet Converter
Calculate square meter to square feet converter with inputs, formulas, and instant results.
🧮Yards to Meters Fabric Converter
Convert between yards and meters for fabric and textile purchases.