Feet to Kilometers Converter

How many feet are in a kilometer?

A kilometer is 1,000 meters and an international foot is exactly 0.3048 meters, so one kilometer contains 1,000 ÷ 0.3048 = 3,280.8399 feet. Turned around, a single foot is 0.0003048 km.

kilometers = feet × 0.0003048Equivalent to dividing by 3,280.8399. To convert kilometers to feet, multiply by 3,280.8399.

Both numbers are exact consequences of the 1959 agreement that fixed the foot at 0.3048 m, so the only rounding in the calculation is the one applied when the answer is displayed.

Why people convert feet to kilometers

Feet and kilometers rarely meet in everyday life, but they do in a few places. Air traffic control in most of the world reports altitude in feet, while distances along the ground are in kilometers. Mountain elevations, cable and pipeline lengths, building heights and runway data can also arrive in feet from US or aviation sources while your report or map uses metric units.

A kilometer is a large unit, so the figures you get are usually small. That is normal: a 100 ft tower is only 0.03048 km tall. The conversion is most useful for large quantities such as flight altitudes or long routes.

How to convert feet to kilometers

1. Type the length in feet into the first box.
2. Read the distance in kilometers in the second box; it updates while you type.
3. For the opposite direction, multiply kilometers by 3,280.84 to get feet.

Example 1. An airliner cruises at 35,000 ft. 35,000 × 0.0003048 = 10.668 km above sea level.

Example 2. A trail gains 12,000 ft of elevation over a season of hikes. 12,000 × 0.0003048 = 3.6576 km of total climbing.

The converter rounds its answer to four decimals. One foot therefore shows as 0.0003 km and ten feet as 0.003 km, although the exact values are 0.0003048 and 0.003048. For short lengths, converting to meters with the feet to meters converter gives a more readable number.

Feet to kilometers conversion table

Common mistakes

• Dividing by 1,000 only. That turns feet into thousands of feet, not kilometers. A foot is shorter than a meter, so the feet-to-kilometers factor is smaller than 0.001.
• Mixing up feet and meters. 1,000 ft is 0.3048 km, not 1 km. A kilometer needs about 3,281 feet.
• Forgetting the unit of the source. Altitudes on aviation charts are in feet unless stated, while elevation on many topographic maps is in meters.

For the reverse job use the kilometers to feet converter, and for lengths measured in miles see the feet to miles converter.