Centimeters to Inches
Convert centimeters into inches instantly.
Inches
70.8661
= 5 ft 10.8661 in
Quick reference
1 cm0.3937 in
5 cm1.9685 in
10 cm3.937 in
25 cm9.8425 in
50 cm19.685 in
100 cm39.3701 in
150 cm59.0551 in
180 cm70.8661 in
Converting centimeters to inches
One inch is defined as exactly 2.54 centimeters, so to convert centimeters to inches you divide by 2.54 (or multiply by about 0.3937). For example, 180 cm ≈ 70.87 in, which is 5 ft 10.9 in. This converter updates instantly as you type and runs entirely in your browser. Need the other direction? Use the inches to centimeters converter.
Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated
What this tool is used for
- Reading a European furniture or clothing measurement against an imperial tape measure.
- Converting a screen or print dimension given in centimetres to inches for a US spec sheet.
- Working out a height in feet and inches from a metric medical record.
- Checking whether a metric-sized item will fit an imperial-labelled space.
- Converting a metric drawing dimension for a supplier who works in inches.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the conversion exact?
- Yes. One inch is EXACTLY 2.54 cm by the 1959 international agreement, so the conversion is a definition rather than a measurement and round-trips perfectly at whatever precision you choose.
- How do I express the result in feet and inches?
- Divide total inches by 12 for feet, and take the remainder as inches. 170 cm is 66.93 in, which is 5 ft 6.93 in — so 5'7" rounded. Rounding the inches before splitting can push you to the wrong foot value.
- Why do screens use inches but design uses cm?
- Display sizes are quoted as a diagonal in inches by industry convention, while print and physical design work in millimetres. A 27-inch monitor is 68.6 cm diagonally — the diagonal, never the width.
- What is a CSS inch?
- Exactly 96 CSS pixels, and a CSS centimetre is 37.8px. These are fixed ratios in the spec and do NOT correspond to physical size on screen — only in print stylesheets do they map to real inches.
- What was the US survey inch?
- Very slightly larger — based on 39.37 inches to the metre rather than 2.54 cm exactly, a difference of about 2 ppm. It was used for US land surveys and was officially retired at the end of 2022, but it still appears in older survey records.
- How precise should the result be?
- No more precise than the input. A measurement to the nearest centimetre converts to roughly the nearest 0.4 inch, so reporting three decimal places invents precision — round to the resolution you actually measured.
Common errors and gotchas
- Reporting a decimal inch where the trade uses fractions, so 3.7 inches needs expressing in sixteenths.
- Rounding before converting to feet and inches, which can shift the result by a whole inch.
- Confusing centimetres with millimetres, a factor of ten that produces a plausible-looking answer.
- Assuming 2.5 as the factor. It is exactly 2.54, and the difference matters on any long measurement.
- Converting a circumference and comparing it against a diameter, which is a units-correct but wrong comparison.
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