Meters to Miles Converter

Common questions

How many meters are in a mile?

Exactly 1,609.344 metres. Nothing inside that figure is rounded: the international yard is 0.9144 m by definition, a statute mile is 1,760 yards, and 1,760 times 0.9144 comes to 1,609.344 exactly. Type 1,609.344 into the From box, commas included if you like, and the answer reads 1 with nothing trailing after the decimal point. The fractions are just as clean: 804.672 m is half a mile, 402.336 m is a quarter and 160.9344 m is a tenth.

How do you convert meters to miles?

Divide the metres by 1,609.344, or multiply by 0.000621371192237, which is the same arithmetic written the other way round. So 100 m is 0.0621371192237 mi, 1,000 m is 0.621371192237 mi and 3,218.688 m is exactly 2 mi. The division is the one to do by hand, because 1,609.344 is the exact number and the multiplier is a decimal that never ends. The converter does it in double precision and prints twelve significant digits.

What is 5,000 meters in miles, and what about the other race distances?

A 5,000 m race is 3.10685596119 miles, near enough 3.11. The rest follow from the same division: 10,000 m is 6.21371192237 mi, 3,200 m is 1.98838781516 mi, 1,600 m is 0.99419390758 mi, which is 9.344 m short of a full mile, 1,500 m, the metric mile, is 0.932056788356 mi, 800 m is 0.49709695379 mi and one 400 m lap is 0.248548476895 mi, a shade under a quarter mile because a true quarter is 402.336 m.

How many miles is a marathon?

A marathon is defined as 42.195 km, so 42,195 m, and this converter returns 26.2187574565 miles. A half marathon at 21,097.5 m reads 13.1093787282 mi. The older imperial statement of the same race, 26 miles and 385 yards, works out at 42,194.988 m and reads 26.21875 mi, so the two definitions sit 12 mm apart over the whole distance.

Work an example through for me.

Take a 3,000 m steeplechase. Write the division: 3,000 / 1,609.344. Miles are the bigger unit, so the answer must be smaller than 3,000, and 1,609.344 goes into 3,000 not quite twice, which puts it just under 2. Carrying it out gives 1.86411357671, which the converter prints in full and which you would report as 1.86 miles. Checking it backwards: 1.86411357671 times 1,609.344 returns the 3,000 m you started with, and you can run that check here by pressing Swap units and typing 1.86411357671 into the From box.

How do I convert miles back to meters?

Press Swap units, the button between the two boxes, and the pair reverses without reloading the page, with whatever you last typed still in the From box. Type 1 and the answer is 1,609.344 m, 3.1 gives 4,988.9664 m and 5 gives 8,046.72 m. Going that way the division becomes a multiplication, so miles times 1,609.344 is metres. Both unit menus stay open as well, so the same distance will go from metres into kilometres, feet, yards or inches without leaving this page, and the uncommon units switch adds seven more, from nanometres and thous to light years and parsecs.

Is a nautical mile the same as a mile?

No, it is longer. A nautical mile is exactly 1,852 m, which is 1.15077944802 statute miles. Because every common length unit is listed under the answer, 5,000 m shows as 3.10685596119 miles and 2.69978401728 nautical miles at the same time; choose Nautical mile in the To menu to make it the headline instead. Charts at sea and in the air use the nautical mile, while road signs and running races in the United States and the United Kingdom use the statute mile this page starts on.

Why does the answer carry so many decimal places, and can I copy it?

Because metres into miles rarely lands on a short decimal: one metre is 0.000621371192237... of a mile and the digits run on. Results are shown to twelve significant digits with trailing zeros dropped, which keeps the exact cases clean, since 1,609.344 m reads 1 rather than 1.00000000000, and leaves you enough precision to round wherever you like. Copy result puts the headline on your clipboard exactly as printed but without the thousands separators, and every row in the list below has its own Copy button.

The menus say Metre. Is that the same as meter?

Yes. Metre is the international spelling used in the SI brochure and meter is the American one, and the unit behind them is identical: the symbol is m either way and so is the arithmetic. The same holds for kilometre and kilometer in the list below the result.

Why does this page open on metres and miles when I last converted something else?

Because a page that names a pair should show that pair. This one sets Metre and Mile on arrival, ahead of whatever the converter last remembered, and it leaves the main unit converter's own memory alone: go back there 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. Nothing is uploaded either way. The conversion is arithmetic against a table of factors that ships with the page, so it keeps working with no network connection once the page has loaded.