Is 1 foot exactly 0.3048 meters?

Yes. Since 1959, the foot is defined as exactly 0.3048 meters internationally, making this a precise conversion.

Why do buildings in the US still use feet if most of the world uses meters?

US customary drawings and materials still commonly use feet and inches. Metric projects instead specify meters or millimeters, so mixed-unit projects must state the unit explicitly.

I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall and need to fill out a European health form that asks for height in meters — what do I enter?

5 feet 10 inches is 70 inches total. Multiply by 0.0254 to get 1.778 meters. You'd enter 1.78 m. Alternatively, convert the feet and inches separately: 5 ft = 1.524 m, 10 in = 0.254 m, total 1.778 m.

A vacation rental listing says the living room is 20 feet by 15 feet — how many square meters is that?

Convert each side first: 20 ft × 0.3048 = 6.096 m, and 15 ft × 0.3048 = 4.572 m. Multiplying the converted dimensions gives about 27.87 square meters.

Feet to Meters Converter

Enter a value to instantly convert between length units.

From

Precision4 dp

1 Foot = 0.3048 Meter

Key Formulas

Centimeter → Inch

in = cm × 0.393701

Kilometer → Mile

mi = km × 0.621371

Foot → Meter

m = ft × 0.3048

Inch → Centimeter

cm = in × 2.54

Formula

m = ft × 0.3048

Feet appear in US building plans, property listings, and height measurements, while metric plans and international forms use meters. Convert feet to meters when reporting an inch-based measurement in a metric specification. One international foot is exactly 0.3048 meters.

Source: NIST SP 811, Appendix B.9

Reviewed by the Convert Calc editorial team · Last reviewed: 2026-08-01 · see our methodology

Frequently Asked Questions

Real-World Examples

A height recorded as 6 feet converts to 1.8288 meters for a metric form.

6 ft = 1.8288 m

A 10-foot ceiling converts to 3.048 meters on a metric renovation plan.

10 ft = 3.048 m

A 30-foot tall climbing wall is about 9.1 meters high

30 ft = 9.144 m

A 100-foot property boundary converts to 30.48 meters for a metric site plan.

100 ft = 30.48 m

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