Article — Meters to Feet Converter (m to ft)
Meters to feet conversion: the exact 0.3048 m foot
One meter equals 3.28084 feet, exactly. The relationship is fixed by the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which set the foot at exactly 0.3048 meter. To convert meters to feet, multiply by 3.28084; to go back, multiply by 0.3048. The factor is a treaty value, not a measurement.
The two units sit on either side of the world's biggest measurement divide. SI countries quote heights, ceilings, and road distances in meters. The United States and most of the UK still use feet for the same jobs. The conversion bridges international architecture drawings, fitness tracker readouts, real-estate listings, and aviation altimeters.
The meters to feet rule
The rule is exact: 1 ft = 0.3048 m. Inverting it gives 1 m = 1/0.3048 = 3.280839895... ft, which rounds to 3.28084 for everyday display. Either factor is correct; pick the one that puts the smaller decimal in the calculation.
For mental math, 1 m ≈ 3.28 ft is accurate to 0.01%. The rougher 1 m ≈ 3.3 ft introduces 0.6% error, big enough to matter in engineering. A 100 m runway converted at 3.3 becomes 330 ft instead of the correct 328.08 ft, almost 2 feet too long.
What is a meter?
A meter is the SI base unit of length. Since 1983 the meter has been defined as the distance light travels in vacuum during 1/299,792,458 of a second. The definition ties the meter to the speed of light, a fundamental physical constant, so any laboratory with the right equipment can reproduce the meter without comparing to a physical artifact.
The meter is used worldwide for science, engineering, surveying, athletics, and everyday measurement. Even in the United States, scientific and medical contexts use meters. Aviation is the major holdout: altitudes worldwide are reported in feet by ICAO convention, regardless of the underlying SI system.
What is a foot?
A foot is 12 inches or exactly 0.3048 meter. The name is anatomical in origin, but the modern definition is metric: the foot is fixed in meters, not in any human body. The international foot replaced regional variants (English foot, US survey foot, French pied) when the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement took effect.
The US survey foot was kept alive for geodetic and cadastral surveys until 2023. It was 2 parts per million longer than the international foot (1200/3937 m versus 0.3048 m exactly). Over a 100-mile span the survey foot gained about 1.06 ft on the international foot. NIST and NOAA officially retired the survey foot on January 1, 2023, so all US surveying now uses the same foot as everyone else.
The meters to feet formula
One exact factor and its reciprocal:
m × 3.28084 = ftft × 0.3048 = m1 m = 3.28084 ft1 ft = 0.3048 mThe feet-and-inches form is useful for human height. Take the decimal feet value, separate the whole-foot part, and multiply the fractional part by 12 to get inches. For 1.75 m: 1.75 × 3.28084 = 5.74 ft = 5 ft + 0.74 × 12 = 5 ft 8.9 in, rounded to 5 ft 9 in.
Meters to feet for human height
Human height is the most-searched application of m to ft. The median adult male in Europe and North America measures around 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in); the median adult female is around 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in). The conversion makes it easy to compare across passports, sports rosters, and dating profiles.
Sports records bring height conversion into focus. The average NBA player is about 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in); 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) was Shaquille O'Neal's listed height. Olympic high jump world record sits at 2.45 m (8 ft 0.5 in), set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
To convert your own height from cm to feet and inches in one step, multiply by 0.0328084. 175 cm × 0.0328084 = 5.74 ft, which is 5 ft 8.9 in. The single-step factor saves you from converting cm to m first.
Meters to feet in construction
International construction projects routinely cross unit systems. European floor plans publish dimensions in meters; US plans use feet. A 4 m × 3 m bedroom on a Polish floor plan is 13 ft 1 in × 9 ft 10 in on an American import. Ceiling heights also differ by convention: 2.7 m is standard in modern European apartments (8 ft 10 in), while 8 ft (2.44 m) and 9 ft (2.74 m) are the common US ceiling heights.
Shipping container sizes use feet for the external label and meters for internal volume specs. A 20-foot dry container (6.10 m long) has an internal volume of 33.2 m³ (1172 ft³). A 40-foot container (12.19 m) holds 67.7 m³ (2390 ft³). The dual notation crops up on every commercial bill of lading.
Meters to feet conversion table
The most-searched values, with practical context.
- 1 m = 3.28 ft (door width)
- 1.5 m = 4.92 ft (low ceiling)
- 1.75 m = 5.74 ft (5 ft 9 in, adult height)
- 1.83 m = 6.00 ft (6 ft, taller-than-average)
- 2.0 m = 6.56 ft (NBA average minus 5 cm)
- 2.7 m = 8.86 ft (EU standard ceiling)
- 3.0 m = 9.84 ft (US 10-foot ceiling target)
- 10 m = 32.81 ft (Olympic diving board height)
- 100 m = 328.08 ft (sprint distance)
- 828 m = 2716.5 ft (Burj Khalifa)
Common meters-to-feet mistakes
Treating decimal feet as feet-and-inches. 5.74 ft is not 5 ft 7.4 in. The decimal part is a fraction of a foot, not a number of inches. Multiply the fraction by 12: 0.74 × 12 = 8.9 in, so 5.74 ft = 5 ft 9 in (rounded).
Using 3.3 instead of 3.28084. The 3.3 factor introduces 0.6% error. For a 100 m runway that is 1.92 ft (23 in) of phantom length. For human height the error is negligible, but for any engineering drawing it is too large to ignore.
Pilots flying anywhere in the world (with very limited exceptions in Russia, China, and a few CIS states) report altitude in feet to air traffic control. A cruise level of FL350 means 35,000 ft (10,668 m). The dual standard is a frequent source of confusion when general-aviation pilots cross between metric and imperial regions; always confirm units explicitly with ATC.
Confusing the international foot with the US survey foot. The two were nearly identical (off by 2 parts per million) but not exactly equal. NIST retired the survey foot in 2023, so all current US measurements use 0.3048 m as the foot. Older property deeds and elevation benchmarks may still use the survey foot value; check the date and standard.
Rounding before squaring or cubing. Area and volume amplify rounding error. If you round 1 m = 3.28 ft and then square to get area, the result is 10.7584 ft² instead of the more accurate 10.7639 ft². For a 100 m² floor plan that is 0.55 ft² of phantom area. Carry more decimals through volume and area calculations.