What this does
Converts feet to meters live: meters = feet × 0.3048, and that factor is exact — 1 ft = 0.3048 m by international agreement. The page opens with 1 foot entered, showing 0.3048 m. Type in either field and the other updates as you go; press ⇄ to flip the units (the number on the left stays put). Output is rounded to six decimal places, though because 0.3048 has only four, a feet value with two or fewer decimals converts with no rounding at all. Runs in your browser, no connection needed.
How do I enter feet and inches, like 5 ft 10 in?
Convert the inches to a fraction of a foot first: divide by 12. 5 ft 10 in is 5 + 10 ÷ 12 = 5.833333 ft. Type that and the tool shows 1.778 m — the raw product is 1.7779999, and the six-decimal rounding tidies it to 1.778. This is the rounding you'll see when you type a repeating decimal. For forms that want centimeters, shift the point two places: 1.778 m is 177.8 cm, which a European form will happily take as "178". Common heights: 5 ft 4 in = 1.6256 m, 5 ft 8 in = 1.7272 m, 6 ft 0 in = 1.8288 m, 6 ft 2 in = 1.8796 m.
Feet to meters at a glance
| Feet | Meters | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1.2192 | a 4 ft chain-link fence |
| 6 | 1.8288 | the "six-footer" benchmark |
| 8 | 2.4384 | standard US ceiling; a sheet of drywall |
| 9 | 2.7432 | the "nine-foot ceilings" in a listing |
| 12 | 3.6576 | a small bedroom wall |
| 40 | 12.192 | a standard shipping container |
| 1,000 | 304.8 | one step in aviation altitude |
| 14,000 | 4,267.2 | a Colorado "fourteener" |
Is there a mental shortcut for feet to meters?
Multiply by 3 and divide by 10: 40 ft → 12 m (real 12.19). That's a 1.6 percent underestimate, so for anything you'll cut or buy, round your answer up. Going the other way in your head — "how many feet is that?" — is harder, which is why the meters to feet page keeps a table of heights and altitudes.
When will I actually need feet in meters?
Filling in height on a visa application, medical form, or gym profile outside the US; giving room dimensions to a European furniture maker or contractor; reading US plans or lumber sizes on a metric job site; entering a pool or dive depth that's posted in feet; and matching US mountain elevations against a metric map. Freight is another one: a 40 ft container is 12.192 m long externally, and a 53 ft trailer is 16.1544 m.
Why is a foot exactly 0.3048 meters?
The 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement set the yard at 0.9144 m; a foot is one-third of a yard, so 0.3048 m. Before that the US and UK feet differed by about two parts per million — irrelevant for a ceiling, meaningful for a state boundary survey. The US kept a separate "survey foot" for land measurement until it was retired at the end of 2022. Every conversion on this page uses the international foot.
What other length units are on this page?
The category tabs are hidden but the dropdowns still list all nine length units — millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, inches, feet, yards, miles, and nautical miles — so you can go straight from feet to centimeters, or yards to meters, without leaving. Weight, temperature, volume, area, speed, data, and time live in the full unit converter.