Area Conversion Calculator

Don't stop at the surface: learn how to calculate the conversion of area measurement units and use our calculator to do it in the blink of an eye.

Here you will learn:

How to convert the area in the metric system;
How to convert the area in the imperial system:
How to calculate the area conversion between the imperial and the metric system;
The area measurement units for land and agriculture;
Some useful tables.

One of the practical applications of our tool is finding the area of the walls in convenient units for estimating the cost of required paint. If you plan to do it, don't miss our interior paint calculator!

Area measurement units

Measuring surface areas is a daily task for many of us: from the size of a room to the area of a field, from the size of a notebook to fabric. Given the wideness of scopes of this quantity (the area), many measurement units flourished (and died) in the past. This almost spontaneous process gave rise to the complex set of area measurement units.

The most common conversion of areas

The most commonly used area measurement units are the square meter and the square foot. They both correspond to the "square" version of the most human-sized length measurement unit. The conversion between them is easy and should be remembered:

\begin{align*} 1\ \text{m}^2 &= 10.7639\ \text{ft}^2\\ 1\ \text{ft}^2& = 0.0929\ \text{m}^2 \end{align*}

If you are in a rush, simply multiply the number of square meters by $10$ to calculate the area conversion to square feet, or divide by $10$ for the opposite calculation. And if you are looking for the area calculation of a specific shape, our other tool explains the kite area formula.

Metric area conversions

You can convert the area measurement units remaining in the magical realm of the metric system. Here, all measurement units are assigned as multiples of $10$ of a single fundamental unit. In the case of area, the fundamental unit is the square meter. The conversion between metric submultiples is, for example:

\begin{align*} 1\ \text{m}^2 &= 100\ \text{dm}^2\\ 1\ \text{m}^2 &= 10,\!000\ \text{cm}^2\\ 1\ \text{m}^2 & = 1,\!000,\!000\ \text{mm}^2 \end{align*}

And in the opposite direction, we convert area between multiples of the meter with the following relationships:

\begin{align*} 1\ \text{m}^2 &= 0.01\ \text{dm}^2\\ 1\ \text{m}^2 &= 0.0001\ \text{hm}^2\\ 1\ \text{m}^2 & =0.000001\ \text{km}^2 \end{align*}

As you can see, each unit has two orders of magnitude of difference from the following one: this comes from the same relations, but for length: one meter equals $10$ decimeters, that squared equal $100$ .

Imperial area conversions

To calculate the conversion of area measurement units within the imperial customary system, we need to get rid of the regularity of the metric system.

The first (and only) useful conversion of area in submultiples of the square foot gives us the square inch:

1\ \text{ft}^2 = 144\ \text{in}^2

To learn how to convert an area to multiples of the square foot, we need to learn how to convert to square yard and to square mile:

\begin{align*} 1\ \text{ft}^2 &= 0.1111\ \text{yd}^2\\ 1\ \text{ft}^2 &= 0.0000000359\ \text{mi}^2 \end{align*}

🔎 Now that you know how to convert area measurement units within the same system (metric or imperial), and how to convert from square meters to square feet, you should have no difficulties in converting between any pair of units. Simply convert to the "base" unit, change system, and convert to the desired unit. Remember that you can multiply conversion factors!

Land and agricultural area conversions

Our area conversion tool can be helpful when it comes to converting area measurement units associated with land and agriculture. Those units are deeply rooted in the ground — or in the soil, if you prefer, with many of them defined as the surface that could be worked by a man or a team of oxen.

Currently, two main sets of these units are in use, one imperial andone metric. The fundamental units are the hectare and the acre.

A hectare corresponds to a square with sides $100\ \text{m}$ long, while an acre corresponds to an area of one chain by one furlong, or ten chains by ten chains, or $43,60\ \text{ft}^2$ . You can see how this is going.

This is how we convert between hectares and acres, and vice versa:

\begin{align*} 1\ \text{ha} &= 2.471\ \text{ac} = 0.4047\ \text{ha} \end{align*}

There are, of course, multiples and submultiples of these units: the handiest ones are associated with the metric hectare. We are talking of the are, that equals a hundredth of an hectare (thus $1\ \text{a} = 100\ \text{m}^2$ ).

A table of area conversions

We laid down the most important area conversions in a table: check it out!

To read it, know that each row corresponds to the unitary value of the unit, converted in the units of the various columns.

	$\text{cm}^2$	$\text{m}^2$	$\text{km}^2$	$\text{in}^2$	$\text{ft}^2$	$\text{yd}^2$	$\text{mi}^2$
$1\ \text{cm}^2$	$1$	$0.0001$	$1\cdot10^{-10}$	$0.155$	$0.00108$	$1.196\cdot10^{-4}$	$3.86\cdot 10^{-11}$
$1\ \text{m}^2$	$10,000$	$1$	$1\cdot10^{-6}$	$1,550$	$10.764$	$1.196$	$3.86\cdot 10^{7}$
$1\ \text{km}^2$	$1. 0\cdot10^{10}$	$1.0\cdot10^{6}$	$1$	$1.55\cdot10^{9}$	$1.0764\cdot10^{7}$	$1.196\cdot10^{6}$	$0.386$
$1\ \text{in}^2$	$6.45$	$6.45\cdot10^{-4}$	$6.45\cdot10^{-10}$	$1$	$0.0069$	$7.772\cdot10^{-4}$	$2.49\cdot10^{-10}$
$1\ \text{ft}^2$	$929.03$	$0.092903$	$9.29\cdot10^{-8}$	$144$	$1$	$0.11$	$3.59\cdot10^{-8}$
$1\ \text{yd}^2$	$8.36\cdot10^{3}$	$0.836$	$8.36\cdot10{-7}$	$1296$	$9$	$1$	$3.23\cdot10{-7}$
$1\ \text{mi}^2$	$2.59\cdot10^{10}$	$2.59\cdot10^{6}$	$2.59$	$4.01\cdot10^{9}$	$2.79\cdot10^{7}$	$3.098\cdot10^{6}$	$1$

And here is the shorter table with the conversion for land and agriculture:

	$\text{a}$	$\text{ha}$	$\text{ac}$
$1\text{a}$	$1$	$0.01$	$2.471\cdot10^{-2}$
$1\ \text{ha}$	$100$	$1$	$2.471$
$1\ \text{at}$	$40.47$	$0.4047$	$1$

How to use our area conversion calculator

Our area conversion tool allows you to convert simultaneously between four different area measurement units. The presets contain the most common ones, but in the drop-down menus, you will find many others: from multiples to submultiples to the more specific fractions of an are, it's likely that here you'll find what you need.

Since it may be helpful, as it is way more immediate, we included a "weird" area measurement unit: the soccer field!