Processed entirely on your device — nothing is uploaded
How to use the height converter
- 1Pick the direction — to centimetres or to feet and inches.
- 2Enter the height: feet and inches in their own fields, or a single centimetre figure.
- 3Read the conversion, plus the metres figure for forms that want it.
- 4For repeat lookups, the common-heights table covers 5′0″ to 6′2″ in one glance.
The 5.8 trap
Height conversion has one classic error: typing 5 feet 8 inches as 5.8 feet. They are different numbers — 5′8″ is 5.667 feet, because inches are twelfths, not tenths. 5.8 feet converts to 176.8 cm while 5′8″ is 172.7 cm, a four-centimetre error that regularly ends up on gym records and application forms. Separate feet and inch fields exist precisely to make the mistake impossible.
The arithmetic underneath is exact by definition: one inch is 2.54 cm, fixed by international agreement, so 5′8″ is 68 inches × 2.54 = 172.72 cm. No rounding conventions, no regional variants — height is the rare conversion with a single correct answer.
Going the other way, centimetres rarely divide into whole inches, so 170 cm shows as 5′6.9″ — and the honest reading is 'just under 5′7″'. Forms that force whole inches expect ordinary rounding: 5′7″.
Why height lives in two systems at once
India measures almost everything in metric, but height stubbornly persists in feet and inches — in conversation, matrimonial profiles, cricket commentary and gym records — while every official context wants centimetres: medical charts, passports, driving licences, and the physical-standards tables of police, defence and railway recruitment.
Those recruitment standards are where the conversion carries stakes: eligibility heights are published in centimetres (commonly 157–170 cm depending on post and category), and applicants who know themselves as '5 foot 6' need the exact figure — 167.6 cm — to read their own eligibility. A rounding error in the wrong direction reads as a disqualification that does not exist.
Medical use runs the same way: BMI, drug dosing by body size and growth charts all take centimetres or metres, never feet. The metres figure this converter shows alongside the rest is the one a BMI formula wants, saved from a second conversion step.
Precision that matches reality
Height is measured to about the nearest half-centimetre in any real setting, and it varies through the day — most people are one to two centimetres taller in the morning than at night, as the spine's discs compress. Quoting height to a tenth of a centimetre implies a precision no measuring tape delivers; the converter shows one decimal because forms ask for it, not because bodies hold it.
For self-measurement, the technique that matches how officials do it: heels, back and head against a wall, no shoes, a flat object pressed level on the head, and a mark measured to the floor. Measured that way, the number you convert here is the number the recruitment desk's stadiometer will roughly agree with.
The conversion runs locally in your browser — like every tool on this site, nothing you enter is uploaded, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded. Bookmark it beside the recruitment notification you are reading; the two documents answer each other.
Frequently asked questions
What is 5 feet 8 inches in cm?
172.7 cm — 68 inches × 2.54. And note it is not 5.8 feet; inches are twelfths, which is exactly the error the two-field input prevents.
What is 170 cm in feet?
5′6.9″ — effectively 5′7″. The table above covers the common range at a glance.
Why does my converted height look odd in whole inches?
Centimetres rarely land on whole inches, so honest output shows a decimal (5′6.9″). Round normally for forms that want whole inches.
Which figure do recruitment physical standards use?
Centimetres — police, defence and railway notifications publish eligibility heights in cm. Convert your feet-and-inches height here and compare against the notified figure exactly.
Is anything I enter stored?
No — one multiplication in your browser. Nothing is transmitted.