Area Converter

How to use the area converter

1. Type a number in Value. A decimal point or a decimal comma both work (12.5 or 12,5).
2. Pick the unit you start from in From and the unit you want in To, for example square metre and square foot.
3. The result updates as you type. The line below it repeats the full conversion (“1 m² ≈ 10.76391 ft²”) and Copy puts that line on your clipboard.
4. Press the Swap units button (⇄) to convert in the other direction.
5. Change Significant figures to get more or fewer digits. A “≈” sign means the displayed value was rounded.

Under the result you get your area in every unit at once, a quick table for the selected pair, a few everyday references (a parking space, a tennis court, a football pitch, Central Park) and the size of each unit in square metres.

Units and exact definitions

An area unit is the square of a length unit, so every factor follows from the exact length definitions of 1959 (1 inch = 25.4 mm):

• 1 square inch = 6.4516 cm².
• 1 square foot = 0.3048² m² = 0.09290304 m², exactly.
• 1 square yard = 9 ft² = 0.83612736 m².
• 1 acre = 43,560 ft² = 4,046.8564224 m², exactly (the international acre).
• 1 square mile = 640 acres = 2,589,988.110336 m², about 2.59 km².
• 1 are = 100 m², 1 hectare = 100 ares = 10,000 m², and 1 km² = 100 hectares.

The are is rarely used on its own today, but it survives in the hectare and in French land registers (“centiare” is simply one square metre).

Watch out for squared factors

A common mistake is to reuse a length factor for an area. Since 1 m ≈ 3.28 ft, it is tempting to think that 1 m² ≈ 3.28 ft², but the factor must be squared: 1 m² ≈ 3.28084² ≈ 10.764 ft². The same applies to centimetres: 1 m² is 10,000 cm², not 100. This tool always applies the squared factor, and the Formula line shows it, for example “m² = ft² × 0.09290304”.

Practical examples

• A 70 m² flat is about 753 ft².
• A 2,000 ft² house is about 185.8 m².
• One hectare is about 2.471 acres; one acre is about 0.4047 ha, a little less than a football pitch (7,140 m²).
• A square mile is 259 hectares.