Meters to Inches Converter

How many inches are in a meter?

A meter is 39.3700787... inches, which the converter displays as 39.3701. The figure comes from the exact definition of the inch, 0.0254 meters, turned upside down: 1 ÷ 0.0254.

inches = meters ÷ 0.0254Equivalent form: inches = meters × 39.3700787...

Since 39.37007874... is a non-terminating decimal, a meter-to-inch result almost never comes out even. That is the opposite of the inch-to-meter direction, where multiplying by 0.0254 gives short exact values.

39.37 or 39.3701?

You will often see 39.37 quoted as the number of inches in a meter. Before 1959 the United States defined its customary units through exactly that ratio, 39.37 inches to the meter. The modern international inch is 2.54 cm exactly, which makes the true ratio slightly larger: 39.3700787...

The gap is only about two parts per million, invisible for a room or a piece of furniture. Over very long distances or in surveying it adds up, so use the longer figure (or let this converter do the division) whenever you need precision.

How to convert meters to inches

1. Enter the length in meters in the first box.
2. Read the inches in the second box; it updates while you type.
3. If you want feet and inches, divide the inches by 12 for the feet and keep the remainder as inches.

Example 1. A 2 m curtain rail: 2 ÷ 0.0254 = 78.7402 inches.

Example 2. A person 1.8 m tall: 1.8 ÷ 0.0254 = 70.8661 inches. That is 5 feet (60 inches) plus 10.8661 inches, so about 5 ft 10.9 in.

Example 3. A 0.5 m shelf is 19.685 inches wide.

To work out the same lengths in feet directly, use the meters to feet converter.

Meters to inches conversion table

Checking your answer

• Rough check. Multiply meters by 40 and take off about 1.6%. For 3 m, 3 × 40 = 120, and the true value is 118.1.
• Direction. Inches are much smaller than meters, so the answer should be about 39 times the input.
• Dividing versus multiplying. If you multiply by 0.0254 instead of dividing, you get a tiny number and have converted in the wrong direction; the inches to meters converter is the right tool for that.