Cm to Feet and Inches Converter for Height

This cm to feet and inches converter is built for heights. Enter a height in centimetres and it gives you feet and inches the way people say a height out loud, such as 5 ft 6.9 in.

Switch the direction and it takes feet and inches in two separate boxes and returns centimetres, which is what passport forms, medical records and most of the world use.

The conversion itself is exact. An inch has been exactly 2.54 centimetres since 1959, and a foot is 12 inches, so a foot is exactly 30.48 cm. The only approximation on this page is display rounding, and the converter tells you where it happens: the inches in a feet and inches answer are rounded to one decimal place.

Alongside the main answer you get the height as total inches, as decimal feet, in centimetres and in metres, so you can fill in whichever box a form asks for.

1. Choose the direction. Centimetres to feet and inches uses the centimetre box. Feet and inches to centimetres uses the feet and inches boxes.
2. Type the height. Centimetres can have a decimal (172.5). Feet is a whole number; inches can have a decimal (7.5).
3. Read the result at the top. The cards repeat the height in feet and inches, total inches, decimal feet, centimetres and metres.

If you type 12 or more in the inches box, it is simply added on: 5 ft 14 in is treated as 6 ft 2 in. The preset buttons load 180 cm, 160 cm, 5 ft 10 in and 6 ft.

1. Get the height in centimetres. In centimetres mode, that is the number you typed. In feet and inches mode, the feet and the inches are each converted to centimetres through their exact sizes (30.48 cm and 2.54 cm) and added. A negative number in any box is read as zero.

1. Convert to inches and feet. The centimetres are divided by the exact size of the inch for total inches, and by the exact size of the foot for decimal feet.

1. Split into feet and inches. The decimal feet are cut at the decimal point. The whole number is the feet; the part left over is turned back into inches and rounded half up to one decimal place. If those inches round up to a full 12.0, one foot is added and the inches read 0, so the answer is never written as 5 ft 12 in.

1. Round for display only. The arithmetic runs at 34 significant digits. Total inches are shown to two decimal places, decimal feet to four, centimetres to two and metres to three. Centimetres from whole feet and inches are exact at two places, because each inch is exactly 2.54 cm.

The default, 170 cm:

1. Total inches: 170 ÷ 2.54 = 66.929..., shown as 66.93 in.
2. Decimal feet: 170 ÷ 30.48 = 5.5774 ft.
3. Split: 5 whole feet, which is 60 inches, leave 6.929... inches, rounded to 5 ft 6.9 in.
4. Metres: 1.7 m.

180 cm works out to 70.87 inches in total, so 5 ft 10.9 in. 160 cm is 62.99 inches, which rounds to 5 ft 3 in.

Going the other way, 5 ft 10 in:

1. Centimetres: 5 × 30.48 + 10 × 2.54 = 152.4 + 25.4 = 177.8 cm.
2. Metres: 1.778 m. Total inches: 70.

And 6 ft is 6 × 30.48 = 182.88 cm exactly.

The full tables below the converter list more heights in both directions and can be downloaded as CSV files.

A foot is exactly 30.48 centimetres, and an inch is exactly 2.54 centimetres. Spanish speakers asking cuántos centímetros tiene un pie get the same answer: 30.48. That makes 5 feet exactly 152.4 cm and 6 feet exactly 182.88 cm, both of which appear in the feet and inches table.

Some forms, sports rosters and growth charts want height in inches only. The Total in inches card gives that directly: 170 cm is 66.93 inches, and 5 ft 10 in is 70 inches. To work it out yourself from feet and inches, multiply the feet by 12 and add the inches.

• Measuring technique. Height changes over the day, and shoes, posture and hair all move it by a centimetre or more. The conversion is exact; the height you measured is not.
• Fractions of an inch below one decimal place. The feet and inches answer is rounded to a tenth of an inch, which is 2.54 mm. For finer work, read the Total in inches card, which shows two decimal places.
• Inches written as fractions. Type 5 ft 7½ in as feet 5 and inches 7.5.
• Very small or very large lengths. The converter works for any length, but it is laid out for heights. For general lengths, the inches to cm converter gives more decimal places.

• Reading decimal feet as feet and inches. 5.5 ft is 5 ft 6 in, not 5 ft 5 in, because the decimal is a fraction of 12 inches. The Total in decimal feet card is labelled for this reason.
• Rounding to whole inches too early. Rounding 170 cm to 67 inches and then splitting gives 5 ft 7 in, when the converter's answer is 5 ft 6.9 in. Small, but it shows up when two people compare heights.
• Typing 5.10 for 5 ft 10 in. Some height boxes on websites read 5.10 as five and one tenth feet. Use the separate feet and inches boxes here.
• Mixing up centimetres and metres. 1.75 is metres; 175 is centimetres. The converter's centimetre box wants the larger number.

• NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C, General Tables of Units of Measurement: the inch, foot and yard. nist.gov/pml/owm/nist-handbook-44-current-edition
• NIST Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (2008), Appendix B: conversion factors to SI. nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811
• National Bureau of Standards Miscellaneous Publication 233, Units of Weight and Measure (revised to the 1959 refinement of the yard and the pound announced in the Federal Register, 24 FR 5348). nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/MP/nbsmiscellaneouspub233.pdf