Area Converter
Convert any area between metric and imperial units instantly. Enter a value, pick its unit, and see results in square metres, square feet, acres, hectares and eight more units, all referenced to real-world benchmarks like football fields and tennis courts.
Formula
Worked example
Half an acre: 0.5 x 4046.8564224 = 2023.43 m². Dividing by 0.09290304 gives 21,780 ft², or about 0.2023 ha. One soccer pitch (7140 m²) is 1.764 acres or 76,854 ft².
How area conversion works
Every area unit in this tool is defined as a fixed number of square metres, so conversion is always a two-step process: multiply your input by the square metres in its unit to reach a common base, then divide by the square metres in the target unit. Because area is two-dimensional, its conversion factor is the square of the matching length factor. A foot is 0.3048 metres, so a square foot is 0.3048 x 0.3048 = 0.09290304 square metres. Working through one neutral base keeps all outputs mutually consistent and avoids rounding drift from chaining shortcuts.
Metric units: mm², cm², m², km² and ares
The metric squares scale by powers of ten from the base metre: one square metre contains 10,000 cm² or one million mm². A square kilometre is one million square metres. The are (symbol a) is a metric land unit equal to exactly 100 m², while the hectare (symbol ha) is 100 ares or 10,000 m²; both appear in European and South American land records. Square decimetres (dm²) and square dekametres are less common but sometimes appear in building or urban-planning documents.
Imperial and US customary units: in², ft², yd², mi²
Imperial area units are all derived from the international inch (25.4 mm exact). A square inch is 6.4516 cm², a square foot is 144 square inches (0.09290304 m²), and a square yard is 9 square feet (0.83612736 m²). A square mile is 640 acres or roughly 2.59 km². In the United States, flooring and tiles are typically sold by the square foot, carpeting by the square yard, and large land tracts by the acre or square mile.
Land-area units: acres, hectares and real-world comparisons
An acre is 4,046.8564224 m², historically the amount of land one man and one ox could plough in a day. A hectare (10,000 m²) is the metric equivalent and the global standard for agricultural land. One hectare is 2.471 acres; one acre is 0.4047 ha. For practical context: a standard American football field with end zones is about 5,351 m² (1.32 acres), an NBA basketball court is 437 m², a FIFA soccer pitch ranges from 6,400 to 8,250 m², and a standard city block in Manhattan is about 8,094 m². Residential lots in the US average 1,100-1,600 m² (roughly 0.27-0.40 acres).
Using the price-per-area estimator
Toggle "Estimate price for this area" to multiply the converted area by a cost rate. Set the price unit to match your quote, for example $15 per ft² for tile installation or $5,000 per acre for raw farmland. The calculator converts your input area into the chosen price unit first, then multiplies, so you do not need to manually convert the area before costing. This is useful for flooring quotes, paint coverage, turf installation, land valuation, and solar panel estimates. Costs shown are indicative planning figures; verify current market rates before committing.
Area conversion factors and real-world benchmarks
| Unit | Symbol | Square metres | Real-world reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square millimetre | mm² | 0.000001 | About the area of a pinhead |
| Square centimetre | cm² | 0.0001 | About the area of a fingernail |
| Square metre | m² | 1 | A 1 m x 1 m floor tile |
| Are | a | 100 | 10 m x 10 m plot |
| Square foot | ft² | 0.09290304 | Standard residential tile |
| Square inch | in² | 0.00064516 | Postage stamp |
| Square yard | yd² | 0.83612736 | Typical carpet roll width |
| Acre | ac | 4,046.8564224 | ~15 tennis courts or 0.75 soccer pitch |
| Hectare | ha | 10,000 | ~2.47 acres or a 100 m x 100 m square |
| Square kilometre | km² | 1,000,000 | About 100 city blocks |
| Square mile | mi² | 2,589,988.1 | 640 acres; typical US township section |
Exact factors (from the international inch) and approximate real-world equivalents.
Frequently asked questions
How many square feet are in a square metre?
One square metre equals approximately 10.7639 square feet. The exact factor is 1 divided by 0.09290304, because one square foot is 0.09290304 m² (derived from 0.3048 x 0.3048). To convert the other way, multiply square feet by 0.09290304.
What is the difference between an acre and a hectare?
A hectare is a metric unit equal to exactly 10,000 m² (a 100 m x 100 m square). An acre is a customary unit equal to 4,046.8564224 m². One hectare is about 2.471 acres; one acre is about 0.4047 ha. Hectares are standard in Europe, South America and most of Asia; acres are standard in the US and UK.
What is an are and how is it different from an acre?
An are (symbol a) is a metric area unit equal to exactly 100 m². It is not related to the acre: one acre is 40.47 ares. Ares are common in French and Swiss real-estate documents (e.g. a building plot described as "8 a" means 800 m²). The hectare is simply 100 ares.
How do I convert square yards to square metres?
Multiply square yards by 0.83612736 to get square metres. One yard is exactly 0.9144 m, so one square yard is 0.9144 x 0.9144 = 0.83612736 m². To go the other way, divide m² by 0.83612736.
How many square miles are in a square kilometre?
One square kilometre equals about 0.38610 square miles. One square mile is 2,589,988.1 m² (exactly 640 acres). These two conversions come up often in geographic and land-use comparisons between metric and US customary systems.
Why is the area factor the square of the length factor?
Area is length multiplied by length, so when you scale a linear unit you scale area by that factor twice. A foot is 0.3048 metres, so a square foot is 0.3048 x 0.3048 = 0.09290304 square metres. Using just 0.3048 without squaring it is a common mistake that gives the wrong answer.
How big is an acre in real-world terms?
One acre is 4,046.86 m², or about 43,560 ft². Visually, that is roughly 15 standard tennis courts laid side by side, about 75% of a FIFA-standard soccer pitch, or slightly less than an American football field including end zones. A residential city lot in the US is typically 0.1 to 0.5 acres.