Meters to Feet Converter

1. Leave Direction on Meters to feet and type your length in meters, for example 1.75 for a height or 3.5 for a room wall.
2. Choose how to round the inches. Pick 1/16 in to match a US tape measure, or 1/4 in for a quick height.
3. Read the decimal feet, then the feet and inches line, which is the form most people in the US use for heights and rooms.

The result panel shows six values:

One meter equals 3.280839895 feet, or 3 ft 3 3/8 in to the nearest sixteenth of an inch. That value comes from the exact definition of the foot as 0.3048 m.

The meter is the SI base unit of length. NIST explains that it is fixed by the speed of light in vacuum, 299,792,458 meters per second. It was once defined by two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, but today no physical object sets its length.

The foot is a US customary and imperial unit made of 12 inches. On July 1, 1959, the US and five other nations agreed on one yard of exactly 0.9144 m. A foot is one third of a yard, so the foot became exactly 0.3048 m.

You meet meters in science, sport and almost every product sheet made outside the US. You meet feet in US floor plans, heights, lumber and aircraft altitude. This page takes you from meters into feet. For the other direction, use the dedicated feet to meters converter, which also handles feet plus inches.

The converter divides your meters by 0.3048 to get feet. It then multiplies the feet by 12 to get inches and splits them into feet, whole inches and a fraction.

1. Divide by 0.3048. For 1.75 m that gives 5.741469816 ft. Dividing is exact; multiplying by 3.28084 is a rounded shortcut that is off by only 3 parts in 100 million.
2. Find total inches: 5.741469816 x 12 = 68.8976 in. You get the same number from 1.75 / 0.0254, because an inch is exactly 25.4 mm.
3. Take out whole feet: 68.8976 in contains 5 ft (60 in) with 8.8976 in left over.
4. Round the leftover to your fraction. At 1/16 in, 8.8976 in becomes 8 14/16, which reduces to 8 7/8 in. The answer is 5 ft 8 7/8 in, about 0.57 mm short of the true length.

NIST SP 811 lists the foot to meter factor as 3.048 E-01 and marks it exact. So the only rounding in this conversion is the rounding you choose for the final answer.

Height of 1.80 m. 1.80 / 0.3048 = 5.9055 ft. In inches that is 70.8661 in, which is 5 ft 10 7/8 in at 1/16 in, or 5 ft 10 3/4 in at 1/4 in.

Height of 1.65 m. 1.65 / 0.3048 = 5.4134 ft, or 64.9606 in. That is 5 ft 4 15/16 in, which most people round up to 5 ft 5 in.

Ceiling of 2.4 m. A common apartment ceiling of 2.4 m is 7.874 ft, or 7 ft 10 1/2 in. That is 1 1/2 in lower than a standard US 8 ft ceiling.

Room of 3.5 m by 4 m. The walls are 11 ft 5 13/16 in and 13 ft 1 1/2 in. The floor area is 14 square meters, which is 150.7 sq ft. Area must be converted with the squared factor, as the square meters to square feet converter does, not by 3.28.

Running track. A 400 m lap is 1,312.336 ft, and 100 m is 328.084 ft, which is 328 ft 1 in.

The meter to foot factor never changes. What changes your answer is the fraction you round to, the foot definition, and how you read decimal feet.

Fraction Size

Rounding to 1/16 in keeps you within 0.8 mm of the true length. Rounding to 1/4 in can move the answer by up to 3.2 mm, and 1/2 in by up to 6.35 mm. For 1.75 m, 1/16 in gives 5 ft 8 7/8 in, while 1/4 in gives 5 ft 9 in.

The US Survey Foot Note

The US survey foot is 1200/3937 m, about 0.3048006 m. NIST says December 31, 2022 was the last day it should be used. From January 1, 2023, the international foot of 0.3048 m applies to all work, except historic and legacy records. Meters read in survey feet come out 2 parts per million lower: 0.0066 ft less per 1,000 m, and 0.66 ft less per 100 km.

Decimal Feet on Drawings

Survey and civil drawings often give decimal feet, such as 11.48 ft. That is not 11 ft 48 in or 11 ft 4.8 in. It is 11 ft plus 0.48 x 12 = 5.76 in.

Measured Length

A tape read to the nearest centimeter already carries up to 5 mm of doubt. Converting it to 1/32 in does not add accuracy the tape never had.

Both forms describe the same length. Decimal feet suit maths and spreadsheets, while feet and inches suit tape measures, heights and building talk.

To turn decimal feet into feet and inches yourself, keep the whole feet and multiply the decimal part by 12. For 5.2493 ft: 0.2493 x 12 = 2.99 in, which is 3 in.

Heights from Other Countries

Passports, sports profiles and medical forms outside the US list height in meters or centimeters. A basketball player listed at 2.01 m is 6 ft 7 1/8 in. For a height given in centimeters, the centimeters to feet converter saves the step of moving the decimal.

Rooms, Furniture and Rentals

European and Asian floor plans list walls in meters. Convert each wall to feet and inches before you buy a US-sized rug, bed or cabinet. A 2.1 m wardrobe is 6 ft 10 11/16 in tall.

Sport, Travel and Outdoors

Pools, tracks and climbing routes use meters. A 50 m pool is 164 ft 0 1/2 in long. A trail that climbs 1,000 m rises 3,280.84 ft. The feet to meters conversion guide covers the reverse cases, such as altitude and building height.

Every row below is computed from the exact 0.3048 factor. The last column rounds to the nearest 1/16 in.

Rows add up: 1.5 m plus 0.25 m gives the 1.75 m row. You can also scale by ten, since 10 m is ten times 1 m.

1. Multiplying by 3

Treating a meter as 3 ft makes every answer about 9 percent short. A 10 m wall is 32.81 ft, not 30 ft.

2. Writing 5.74 Ft as 5 Ft 74 in or 5 Ft 7.4 In

The decimal part is a fraction of a foot. 0.74 ft is 8.88 in, so 5.74 ft is 5 ft 8.88 in.

3. Converting Square Meters with 3.28

One square meter is 10.7639 sq ft. Using 3.28 for area makes a 20 square meter room look like 65.6 sq ft instead of 215.3 sq ft.

4. Rounding Before Splitting Feet and Inches

Rounding 1.75 m to 5.7 ft first gives 5 ft 8.4 in. The true value is 5 ft 8.9 in, so round only at the end.

5. Using the Survey Foot for New Work

Some older survey software still defaults to the US survey foot. Anything made after 2022 should use the international foot.

6. Trusting 1/2 in Rounding for Fitted Items

A 1/2 in fraction can be 6 mm off. For shelves, doors and appliances, use 1/16 in or keep millimeters.

The converter is exact for the international foot, because 0.3048 has no hidden digits. Any error comes from your measurement, the fraction you round to or the foot you choose.

One meter is 3.280839895 ft. In feet and inches it is 3 ft 3.37 in, or 3 ft 3 3/8 in to the nearest sixteenth.

Multiply the meters by 3.28. The result is only 0.03 percent low. For a rougher answer, multiply by 3 and add 10 percent, which is 0.6 percent high.

A height of 1.7 m is 5.5774 ft, or 66.93 in. That is 5 ft 6 15/16 in, which most people round to 5 ft 7 in.

Two meters is 6.5617 ft, which is 6 ft 6 3/4 in. The conversion is exact to the nearest 1/16 in within 0.25 mm.

Dividing by 0.3048 is exact. Multiplying by 3.28084 differs by 3 parts in 100 million, which is less than 0.001 in on a 10 m length.

One hundred meters is 328.084 ft, which is 328 ft 1 in. That is about 109.4 yards.

Only on very long lengths. A survey-foot reading is 2 parts per million lower, which is about 2 mm per 1,000 m. It is retired for new work since 2023.

A meter is 39.3701 in, because an inch is exactly 0.0254 m. Divide meters by 0.0254 to get inches directly.

Most gaps come from rounding. Some apps round to 3.28 or show feet and inches to the nearest 1/4 in or whole inch, which can differ by several millimeters.

Yes. A meter is 1.0936 yards, about 3.37 in longer than a yard of 0.9144 m.

• Exact conversion factor: foot to meter, 3.048 E-01 (NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8).
• The U.S. survey foot and its retirement after December 31, 2022 (NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory).
• How the meter is defined from the speed of light (NIST Office of Weights and Measures, SI Units - Length).
• Refinement of values for the yard and the pound, effective July 1, 1959 (Federal Register Notice 59-5442, hosted by NIST).