📏 Feet to Meters Converter: Convert ft to m Instantly

What is the Feet to Meters Converter?

The foot and the meter belong to two different measuring systems. The foot is part of the imperial and US customary systems, still used every day in the United States for height, room dimensions, elevation, and construction, while the meter is the base unit of length in the metric system used almost everywhere else, including in science and engineering worldwide. Anyone comparing a US building height, a hiking trail elevation, or a person's height against a metric figure eventually needs to convert feet to meters, which is exactly what this calculator does.

The relationship was settled in 1959 by the international yard and pound agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meters. Since a foot is one third of a yard, that fixes one foot at exactly 0.3048 meters, with no rounding hidden inside the number. So converting feet to meters is simple multiplication: meters = feet x 0.3048. A 10 foot ceiling is 10 x 0.3048 = 3.048 meters, and a 328 foot stretch of road is 328 x 0.3048 = 99.9744 meters, just short of 100 meters.

Going the other way, from meters to feet, you divide by the same factor: feet = meters / 0.3048, which is the same as multiplying by roughly 3.28084. So 100 meters is 100 / 0.3048 = 328.084 feet. Because a meter is longer than a foot, a length in meters is always a smaller number than the same length in feet, which is a quick way to check you multiplied and divided the right way round when converting feet to meters back and forth.

Measurements are not always whole numbers of feet. Human height in the US is usually written as feet and inches together, such as 5 ft 9 in, and building plans, ladder lengths, and lumber sizes follow the same pattern. To convert feet and inches to meters, first turn the inches into a fraction of a foot by dividing by 12, add that to the whole feet, and then multiply the total by 0.3048. For 5 ft 9 in that is 5 + 9/12 = 5.75 feet, and 5.75 x 0.3048 = 1.7526 meters. This tool has a dedicated feet-and-inches input so you never have to do that division by hand, and it applies the same feet to meters formula to the combined total automatically.

When to use it

• Converting a person's height from feet and inches into meters for a passport, visa, medical form, or international sports registration.
• Checking a US building, ceiling, or door height given in feet against a metric floor plan or import specification.
• Converting hiking trail elevation, mountain height, or aircraft altitude from feet into meters for a metric map or report.
• Working out ladder, pole, fence, or lumber lengths sold in feet when a project or supplier uses metric measurements.
• Comparing a US property listing measured in feet against a home in a country that lists room and lot sizes in meters.
• Doing school, engineering, or science homework that requires a length given in feet to be expressed in meters.

How to use the Feet to Meters Converter

1. Type a value into the Feet box, or the Meters box if you already have a metric length.
2. Read the converted result instantly from the other box and the result line below it.
3. For a height or measurement like 5 ft 9 in, use the separate feet-and-inches fields further down the tool.
4. Press the Copy result button to copy the converted value, or edit either box again to run a new conversion.

Formula & method

Worked examples

Feet to meters conversion chart (exact, factor 0.3048)

Meters to feet chart (reverse, divide by 0.3048)

Common mistakes to avoid

• Rounding 0.3048 down to 0.3 too early. The exact factor for feet to meters is 0.3048, not 0.3. Using 0.3 introduces about a 1.6 percent error that grows with the length, so a 100 foot measurement comes out as 30 m instead of the correct 30.48 m. Keep the full factor until the final step.
• Treating feet and inches as a decimal directly. A height like 5 ft 9 in is not 5.9 feet. Nine inches is 9/12 = 0.75 of a foot, so the correct total is 5.75 feet, which converts to 1.7526 m. Reading "9 inches" as ".9 feet" gives a noticeably wrong answer.
• Confusing the multiply and divide direction. To go from feet to meters you multiply by 0.3048; to go from meters to feet you divide by 0.3048 (or multiply by 3.28084). Since a meter is longer than a foot, the meters figure should always be the smaller number for the same length.
• Ignoring the US survey foot for large-scale land data. Almost all everyday conversions use the international foot (exactly 0.3048 m), which is what this tool uses. Older US state plane coordinate and land survey data sometimes used the slightly different US survey foot (about 0.304800609601 m), and mixing the two can shift very large distances by a few parts per million, enough to matter in surveying but not in everyday use.

Glossary

Foot (ft)

A unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems, defined as exactly 0.3048 meters since 1959.

Meter (m)

The base unit of length in the metric system (SI), used as the reference unit for this feet to meters conversion.

International foot

The standard foot used worldwide today, fixed at exactly 0.3048 meters. This is the value used throughout this tool.

US survey foot

A very slightly different, older US foot (about 0.304800609601 meters) once used in land surveying. It differs from the international foot by less than one part in 500,000.

Conversion factor

The fixed multiplier used to change one unit into another. For feet to meters it is exactly 0.3048.

Feet and inches

A mixed measurement common for height and building dimensions in the US, where inches must first be divided by 12 to get a fraction of a foot before converting to meters.

Frequently asked questions