CM to Feet Converter
Convert centimetres to feet and inches online free — instant two-way conversion with decimal and fraction output. No sign-up needed, works in your browser.
To convert centimetres to feet, divide by 30.48. So 170 cm is 5.58 feet, or 5 ft 6.93 in in the form people actually say out loud. Type a value in either box above and both update instantly, with the result shown in decimal feet and in feet and inches. Everything runs in your browser.
How the conversion works
The formula is feet = cm ÷ 30.48, and it runs in both directions here. Because height is normally spoken in feet and inches rather than decimal feet, the result also appears in that familiar form: enter 170 cm and you get 5 ft 6.93 in, the "five foot seven" you would say in conversation. Quick-select buttons cover the usual human height range from 150 to 190 cm.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Feet divide into twelve inches, not ten, so you cannot read the decimal part of a feet figure as inches. This trips people up constantly: 5.5 feet is 5 feet 6 inches, not 5 feet 5. And 180 cm converting to 5.9055 feet does not mean 5 foot 9 — it means 5 feet plus 0.9055 of a foot, and 0.9055 × 12 gives 10.87, so it is nearly 5 foot 11. If you take one thing from this page, take that: multiply the decimal by 12 to get inches.
cm to feet and inches chart
| cm | Feet (decimal) | Feet & inches |
|---|---|---|
| 150 | 4.92 | 4′ 11.06″ |
| 155 | 5.09 | 5′ 1.02″ |
| 160 | 5.25 | 5′ 3.0″ |
| 165 | 5.41 | 5′ 4.96″ |
| 170 | 5.58 | 5′ 6.93″ |
| 175 | 5.74 | 5′ 8.9″ |
| 180 | 5.91 | 5′ 10.87″ |
| 185 | 6.07 | 6′ 0.83″ |
| 190 | 6.23 | 6′ 2.8″ |
Where this conversion is needed
- Visa, passport and immigration forms that ask for height in feet and inches.
- Job and medical forms in the US, where metric height is rarely accepted.
- Dating and sports profiles, where the convention is feet and inches regardless of country.
- Furniture and appliance dimensions from US retailers, against a metric tape measure.
- Doorways, ceilings and airline seat pitch, which are frequently quoted in inches.
Rounding, and when it matters
Because the underlying factor is exact, the only imprecision in this conversion is whatever you introduce at the end. For conversation, rounding to the nearest inch is fine and expected — nobody says "five foot six point nine three". For an official form it depends on the form: some accept the nearest inch, some want a decimal, and a few ask for centimetres anyway. The practical rule is to round to the nearest inch unless the form implies more precision, and never round up to the next whole foot from something like 5 ft 11.7 in, which some people do out of optimism and which will not match a measured record.
Measuring your own height accurately
A conversion is only as good as the measurement feeding it, and self-measured height is unreliable more often than people expect. Stand against a wall without shoes, heels together and touching the wall, looking straight ahead rather than tipping the chin up, which adds a centimetre or two of imaginary height. Have someone place a flat object on the crown of your head and mark the wall at its underside. Measure from the floor to that mark with a rigid tape rather than a fabric one. Worth knowing: height varies through the day, and most people are measurably taller in the morning than the evening because spinal discs compress under load — roughly a centimetre either way, which is more than the rounding decisions above. If a form matters, measure in the morning and record what you measured.
Related converters
Filling in the rest of the same form? kg to lbs handles body weight andCelsius to Fahrenheit covers temperature. If you need real measurement on screen rather than arithmetic, the online ruler shows actual-size centimetres and inches, and the scientific calculator handles any wider maths.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert cm to feet?
Divide centimetres by 30.48, since one foot is exactly 30.48 cm. So 170 cm divided by 30.48 gives 5.577 feet. To express the decimal part as inches, multiply it by 12: 0.577 × 12 is about 6.9, making 170 cm roughly 5 ft 6.9 in.What is 170 cm in feet and inches?
170 cm is 5 feet 6.93 inches, normally rounded to 5 foot 7 in conversation. The exact decimal value is 5.5774 feet, which is why the answer sits just under the 5 ft 7 in mark rather than exactly on it.What is 180 cm in feet?
180 cm is 5.9055 feet, which works out as 5 feet 10.87 inches and is usually stated as 5 foot 11. It is a common point of confusion because the decimal 5.9 looks like it should mean 5 feet 9 inches, which it does not.Why is the factor 30.48 exactly?
The international yard and pound agreement of 1959 defined one inch as exactly 2.54 cm. A foot is twelve inches, so 12 × 2.54 gives exactly 30.48 cm. The ratio is a definition rather than a measurement, so the conversion adds no error of its own.Why can I not read the decimal as inches?
Because feet divide into twelve inches, not ten. So 5.5 feet is 5 feet 6 inches, not 5 feet 5 inches. Multiply the decimal part by 12 to get inches, which is the single most common mistake people make with this conversion.How does 172 cm round — is it 5 ft 8?
172 cm is 5 ft 7.72 in, so it rounds to 5 ft 8. Be careful on official forms, since some ask for exact inches and rounding up nearly a third of an inch can matter. This converter shows the unrounded figure so the decision stays yours.What about metres and inches directly?
One metre is 3.2808 feet or 39.37 inches, so a quick sanity check is that 100 cm is a little over three and a quarter feet. For a height given purely in inches, divide the centimetres by 2.54 instead of 30.48.Does this work offline and keep my data private?
Yes. The conversion is a single division running in your browser as you type, so nothing you enter is uploaded, stored, or tracked, and the page keeps working with no internet connection once it has loaded.