KM to Feet Converter
A foot has been exactly 0.3048 metres since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, and a kilometre is exactly 1,000 metres, so kilometres to feet is one division: feet = km × 1,000 / 0.3048. The factor works out to 1,250,000/381, or 3,280.839895013 feet in a kilometre, and that decimal never ends, because 381 is 3 × 127 and a fraction only terminates when its denominator is built from 2s and 5s. So the relation is defined rather than measured, while the printed answer is always a rounding of it: 1 km reads 3,280.83989501 ft here, 5 km reads 16,404.1994751 ft and 10 km reads 32,808.3989501 ft. The one pair that lands round is the mile, 1.609344 km and exactly 5,280 ft. Displayed answers carry twelve significant digits, with very large or very small results shown in exponential notation. This page opens the converter with kilometres in the From box and feet in the To box, whatever pair you converted last, and lists the same distance in metres, centimetres, millimetres, inches, yards, miles and nautical miles under the answer.
1 km in every length unit
Common questions
- How many feet are in a kilometre?
- 3,280.83989501 ft as this page prints it, from km × 1,000 / 0.3048. Written as a fraction it is 1,250,000/381, whose decimal 3,280.839895013123... runs on forever, so every printed answer is that value rounded to twelve significant digits. Half a kilometre is 1,640.41994751 ft, two kilometres is 6,561.67979003 ft and 100 km is 328,083.989501 ft.
- What is the formula for km to feet?
- Feet = kilometres × 1,000 / 0.3048, because a kilometre is 1,000 metres and a foot is exactly 0.3048 metres. Going back the other way, kilometres = feet × 0.3048 / 1,000, so 1 ft is 0.0003048 km. Multiplying by a rounded 3,280.84 instead of dividing is off by about one ten-thousandth of a foot per kilometre, near enough a thousandth of an inch, which stays invisible on a single distance and reaches a fraction of an inch once you multiply it by a few hundred.
- Is kilometres to feet an exact conversion?
- The factor is exact and the decimal is not. The 1959 agreement defines the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, which makes the foot exactly 0.3048 metres and the inch exactly 2.54 cm, so none of this is a measurement that could be refined later. Dividing by 0.3048 is dividing by 381/1,250, and 381 factors into 3 × 127, so the quotient repeats rather than stops. This page shows twelve significant digits of it, and Copy result copies the headline exactly as printed, without the thousands separators.
- How many feet is 5 km, 10 km or a marathon?
- 5 km is 16,404.1994751 ft and 10 km is 32,808.3989501 ft. A half marathon at 21.0975 km is 69,217.519685 ft, and a marathon at 42.195 km is 138,435.03937 ft. Type the distance in the From box and the headline updates as you type; there is no convert button to press, and the list underneath works out every common length unit at the same time.
- How do I read the answer as feet and inches?
- The converter prints decimal feet, so take the whole number of feet and multiply what is left by 12. For 1 km that is 3,280.83989501 ft, which is 3,280 ft plus 0.83989501 × 12 = 10.0787 in, or 3,280 ft 10.08 in. The inches line in the list under the answer agrees with it: 1 km is 39,370.0787402 in, and 3,280 × 12 + 10.0787 is the same number.
- What about the US survey foot?
- That is a slightly different foot, 1,200/3,937 metres, and under it 1 km is 3,280.83333 survey feet rather than 3,280.83989501. The gap is two parts in a million, about 2 mm per kilometre, and it only matters on older US state plane survey data; the survey foot was retired for new work at the end of 2022. This converter carries the international foot at 0.3048 m and no survey variant, so for a pre-2023 survey coordinate multiply by 3,937/1.2 = 3,280.83333 yourself.
- Can I convert feet back to kilometres here?
- Yes. The Swap units button between the two boxes reverses the pair without a reload, which turns this into a feet to kilometres page: 1,000 ft is 0.3048 km, 5,280 ft is exactly 1.609344 km, which is one mile, and 3,281 ft is 1.0000488 km. The list under the answer follows the swap, so a distance in feet comes out in metres, kilometres, miles, yards and the rest at once.
- Why does this page open on kilometres and feet?
- Because a page that names a pair should arrive showing that pair. Kilometres and feet are set on load ahead of whatever the converter last remembered, and the main unit converter keeps its own memory untouched: go back to it and it is still on the pair you left it on. The number you last typed does travel with you, since it is usually the one you are still working on. If you want the unusual units as well, the Show 7 more switch adds nanometres, micrometres, thou, furlongs, astronomical units, light years and parsecs to the list.
Conversion factors are the exact legal definitions where one exists. An inch is exactly 2.54 cm and a pound exactly 0.45359237 kg, so those conversions are exact rather than approximate. Temperature uses offsets rather than factors, and that is shown in the working.