Height Converter (cm to Feet and Inches)

About the Height Converter (cm to Feet and Inches)

Convert a body height between feet and inches and centimetres or metres. Type it the way you would write it — 5'7", 5 ft 7 in, 5 feet 7½ inches, 170 cm, 1.70 m or 1,70 m — or use the feet, inches and centimetre boxes, which update each other. The result shows centimetres to 0.1 cm (or 1 cm) and feet and inches to the nearest ¼, ½ or whole inch, with the exact value underneath.

It also catches the most common mistake: 5.7 ft is not 5 feet 7 inches. 5.7 ft is decimal feet — 5 ft 8.4 in, or 173.7 cm — so the converter warns and offers 5 ft 7 in with one tap. A chart from 4 ft 6 in to 7 ft (137 to 213 cm) can be printed, copied or downloaded.

Common uses

• Filling in a form, visa or ID that asks for height in centimetres when you know it in feet and inches — or the other way round.
• Sports, dating and fitness profiles in another country’s units.
• Checking a child’s height measured in centimetres against charts in feet and inches.
• Printing a height chart for a clinic noticeboard, a school or a door frame.

The formula

One inch is exactly 2.54 cm and one foot is 12 inches (NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Appendix C), so:

• cm = (feet × 12 + inches) × 2.54 — 5 ft 7 in = 67 in = 170.18 cm
• feet and inches from cm: inches = cm ÷ 2.54, feet = whole twelves, and the rest is inches — 170 cm = 66.93 in = 5 ft 6.93 in
• metres = cm ÷ 100 — 170.18 cm = 1.7018 m

The arithmetic is exact; only the displayed result is rounded, and the exact value is shown with it.

5.7 feet is not 5 feet 7 inches

Feet are divided into 12 inches, not 10, so the digits after a decimal point are not inches. 5.7 ft = 5 ft + 0.7 × 12 in = 5 ft 8.4 in (173.7 cm), while 5 ft 7 in is 5.583 ft (170.18 cm) — a difference of 3.6 cm. The same goes for 5.5 ft (5 ft 6 in) and 5.11 ft (5 ft 1.3 in).

When you type a decimal number of feet, the converter converts it as decimal feet but warns you and offers the feet-and-inches reading. A bare number with no unit, such as 5.7, is not converted at all until you choose.

How heights are read

• Feet and inches: 5'7", 5′ 7″, 5 ft 7 in, 5 feet 7 inches, 5 foot 7, 5 ft 7½ in, 5'7 1/2", 5'-7"; inches over 11 are carried into feet (5'14" is 6 ft 2 in).
• Inches only: 67 in or 67".
• Metric: 170 cm, 1.70 m, 1,70 m (a decimal comma), 1 m 70, 1700 mm.
• A number with no unit is read only when it can mean one thing: 100 to 272 is centimetres, 0.5 to 2.72 with a decimal point is metres, and a whole number from 3 to 8 is feet. Anything else (such as 67 or 5.7) gets buttons for the possible readings.

Limitations

• Heights up to 5 m (about 16 ft 5 in) are accepted; for other lengths use the Length Converter.
• Rounding to ¼ inch or 0.1 cm is for display; copy the exact value for anything that needs more precision.
• This converts measurements only. It does not say whether a height is typical for an age — for children, use growth charts from a health service or the Child Height Predictor for an estimate.

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