Nautical Miles to Kilometers Converter
Enter a distance in nautical miles and the converter returns kilometers, rounded to six decimals. One nautical mile is exactly 1.852 kilometers.
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Created by the Reeliy Editorial Team. Last updated: Oct 19, 2026
How many kilometers are in a nautical mile?
A nautical mile is exactly 1.852 kilometers, or 1,852 meters. Unlike many conversions this one has no long decimal tail, because the nautical mile was defined internationally in terms of the meter.
kilometers = nautical miles × 1.852In reverse, nautical miles = kilometers ÷ 1.852 (about kilometers × 0.539957).
A handy approximation: nearly 2 km per nautical mile, a little less. Five nautical miles is 9.26 km, so doubling the nautical figure and trimming about 7% gets you close.
Where nautical miles are used
Navigators at sea and in the air measure distance in nautical miles because the unit is linked to the globe: one nautical mile is close to one minute of latitude, so a chart's latitude scale doubles as a distance ruler. Speed follows the same logic, with one knot meaning one nautical mile per hour (1.852 km/h).
International law uses the unit too. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea a state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles from its baseline, the contiguous zone up to 24, and the exclusive economic zone up to 200. Translating those limits into kilometers is a frequent need for maps and news reports.
How to convert nautical miles to kilometers
- Enter the distance in nautical miles in the first box.
- Read the kilometers in the second box; it updates as you type.
- Decimals are accepted, so values such as 3.5 or 0.25 work as well as whole numbers.
Example 1 (territorial sea). 12 nautical miles × 1.852 = 22.224 km.
Example 2 (economic zone). 200 nautical miles × 1.852 = 370.4 km.
Example 3 (a ferry route). A crossing of 35 nautical miles is 35 × 1.852 = 64.82 km, and a vessel making 15 knots travels 15 × 1.852 = 27.78 km every hour.
Nautical miles to kilometers table
| Nautical miles (M) | Kilometers (km) |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 0.1852 |
| 0.5 | 0.926 |
| 1 | 1.852 |
| 2 | 3.704 |
| 5 | 9.26 |
| 10 | 18.52 |
| 12 | 22.224 |
| 24 | 44.448 |
| 50 | 92.6 |
| 100 | 185.2 |
| 200 | 370.4 |
| 500 | 926 |
Reading the result
The converter rounds to six decimal places and does not print trailing zeros, so 5 nautical miles shows as 9.26 rather than 9.260000. To go the other way, use the kilometers to nautical miles converter; 100 km works out to roughly 53.9957 nautical miles.
Nautical miles are not the same as statute miles. A statute mile is only 1.609344 km, so mixing the two units produces an error of about 15%.
Frequently asked questions
How many kilometers is one nautical mile?
One nautical mile is exactly 1.852 kilometers (1,852 meters).
How do I convert kilometers back to nautical miles?
Divide the kilometers by 1.852. For example, 37.04 km ÷ 1.852 = 20 nautical miles.
How many km per hour is one knot?
One knot is one nautical mile per hour, which is 1.852 km/h. Twenty knots is 37.04 km/h.
Why are ships and planes measured in nautical miles?
Because a nautical mile corresponds to about one minute of latitude, distances can be read straight off a chart's latitude scale.
References
- NIST Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)
- United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), articles 3, 33 and 57
Cite this converter and page
If you use this page in your work, you can cite it as:
Reeliy Editorial Team. (2026). Nautical Miles to Kilometers Converter. Reeliy. https://reeliy.com/converters/convert-nautical-miles-to-kilometers“Nautical Miles to Kilometers Converter.” Reeliy, 2026, https://reeliy.com/converters/convert-nautical-miles-to-kilometers.