Degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit Converter

How many degrees Fahrenheit are in a degree Celsius?

Temperature is the one conversion on this site that is not a simple multiplication. degree Celsius and degree Fahrenheit have different zero points as well as different degree sizes, so you must apply an offset as well as a scale factor. The formula is °F = (°C × 9/5) + 32.

This is why "twice as many degrees" never means "twice as hot", and why you cannot convert a temperature difference the same way you convert a temperature. A rise of 10 °C is a rise of 18 °F, not 50 °F.

The reference table under the converter lists the values people look up most often, so for a common figure you can read the answer off directly rather than typing anything.

Worked examples

Three worked examples, using °F = (°C × 9/5) + 32:

0 °C converts to 32 °F. 20 °C converts to 68 °F. 37 °C converts to 98.6 °F.

Notice that the gaps between the converted values are not proportional to the gaps between the originals in the way they would be for a simple multiplication — that is the offset at work, and it is why temperature needs its own formula rather than a factor.

Doing this conversion in your head

The exact formula is (°C × 9/5) + 32, but there is a shortcut worth knowing: double the Celsius figure and add 30. That gives 20 °C → 70 °F against a true 68 °F, and 30 °C → 90 °F against a true 86 °F. It runs a few degrees high in the middle of the range and is close enough for deciding what to wear.

For a more accurate version with barely more effort, double it, subtract a tenth of the result, then add 32. That reproduces the 9/5 factor exactly and gets you to the right answer in your head.

When you need to convert degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit

Whether you need three decimal places or a rough sense of scale depends entirely on why you are converting, so it is worth being clear about that first.

On the source side, Celsius is the weather forecast, oven settings and body temperature across most of the world. On the target side, Fahrenheit is the weather forecast, oven dial and thermostat setting in the United States. The conversion is essentially a translation between those two worlds — most often because a figure produced in one context has to be understood, submitted or acted on in the other.

Precision matters unevenly here. An oven is forgiving to within about five degrees; a medical threshold or a materials specification is not.

All of it happens in the page. There is no upload, no queue and no record of what you converted once the tab is closed.

What a degree Celsius and a degree Fahrenheit actually are

The degree Celsius (°C). Named for Anders Celsius; zero and 100 are the freezing and boiling points of water at sea level.

The degree Fahrenheit (°F). Daniel Fahrenheit's 1724 scale, now used officially only in the United States and a few territories.

Since degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit both quantify temperature against a common defined standard, nothing is lost in translating between them. The only imprecision anywhere in this page is deliberate rounding for readability.

Common mistakes when converting degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit

The classic error is converting a difference as though it were a value. Adding the 32 offset is correct for a temperature; it is wrong for a change in temperature. If a forecast says it will be 10 °C warmer tomorrow, that is 18 °F warmer, not 50 °F warmer.

A second trap is kelvin notation: it is written "300 K", never "300 °K" and never "degrees kelvin". Kelvin is an absolute scale with no degree symbol, and it never goes negative — −273.15 °C is absolute zero, the floor of the scale.

If you are converting many values, change the source unit in the dropdown rather than converting through an intermediate unit. Every extra hop is another rounding opportunity.