Centimetres to Inches

How to use CM to Inches Converter

1. 1
   Enter the centimetres. Any value, including decimals.
2. 2
   Read the inches. Shown to three decimals, with a feet-and-inches reading underneath.

About converting centimetres to inches

The inch has been tied to the centimetre by definition since 1959, when the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa agreed to define the international yard as exactly 0.9144 metres. That makes an inch exactly 2.54 centimetres, which is why this conversion is arithmetic rather than approximation. Before that agreement the inch differed very slightly between countries, and the United States kept a separate survey foot for land measurement until it was finally retired in 2023. Where the conversion goes wrong in practice is almost never the arithmetic. It is that the two numbers are measuring different things. Screen sizes are quoted in diagonal inches, so a 27-inch monitor is not 27 inches wide. Pipe and timber dimensions are nominal — a two-by-four is neither two nor four inches. Shoe sizes are not lengths at all, and clothing sizes are labels rather than measurements. Converting the number on a label usually produces a precise answer to the wrong question; converting a measurement you took yourself does not. For heights, note also that the customary reading rounds to the nearest whole or half inch, so 175.3 cm and 175.9 cm are both simply "5 foot 9".

Frequently asked questions