Meters to Kilometers
A kilometer is 1,000 meters, so divide meters by 1,000, or shift the decimal point three places left, to get kilometers: 1,500 m is 1.5 km and 750 m is 0.75 km.
1 meter = 0.001 kilometers
1 m = 0.001 km · multiply by 0.001
Track, pool and mountain distances
Athletics and swimming name their events in meters, but people think of the longer ones in kilometers. A standard running track lap is 400 m, so 2.5 laps make a kilometer and 12.5 laps make the 5,000 m race, 5 km. The 3,000 m steeplechase is 3 km and the 10,000 m on the track is the same distance as a 10K road race. In the pool, the 1,500 m freestyle is 1.5 km, the longest Olympic event held in a pool.
Mountaineers use the same pair. There are fourteen peaks above 8,000 m, the eight-thousanders, all in the Himalaya and Karakoram; 8,000 m is 8 km above sea level, the altitude climbers call the death zone.
Meters to kilometers conversion table
Rounded to six significant digits. Change any value in the converter above for an exact figure.
| Meters (m) | Kilometers (km) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.001 |
| 2 | 0.002 |
| 3 | 0.003 |
| 4 | 0.004 |
| 5 | 0.005 |
| 6 | 0.006 |
| 7 | 0.007 |
| 8 | 0.008 |
| 9 | 0.009 |
| 10 | 0.01 |
| 12 | 0.012 |
| 15 | 0.015 |
| 20 | 0.02 |
| 25 | 0.025 |
| 30 | 0.03 |
| 40 | 0.04 |
| 50 | 0.05 |
| 60 | 0.06 |
| 70 | 0.07 |
| 75 | 0.075 |
| 80 | 0.08 |
| 90 | 0.09 |
| 100 | 0.1 |
| Kilometers (km) | Meters (m) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000 |
| 2 | 2,000 |
| 3 | 3,000 |
| 4 | 4,000 |
| 5 | 5,000 |
| 6 | 6,000 |
| 7 | 7,000 |
| 8 | 8,000 |
| 9 | 9,000 |
| 10 | 10,000 |
| 12 | 12,000 |
| 15 | 15,000 |
| 20 | 20,000 |
| 25 | 25,000 |
| 30 | 30,000 |
| 40 | 40,000 |
| 50 | 50,000 |
| 60 | 60,000 |
| 70 | 70,000 |
| 75 | 75,000 |
| 80 | 80,000 |
| 90 | 90,000 |
| 100 | 100,000 |
How to convert meters to kilometers
km = m × 0.001
1 m = 0.001 km
25 m × 0.001 = 0.025 km
- Start with the value in meters.
- Multiply it by 0.001.
- Round the result to the precision the job needs: whole numbers for everyday use, more decimals for engineering or recipes.
Walking distances and navigation
Signs and apps tend to switch from meters to kilometers once a distance passes 1,000 m, so 950 m and 1.2 km may appear on the same screen. At a normal walking pace of about 5 km/h, 1,000 m takes roughly 12 minutes, so a sign reading 400 m means about five minutes on foot.
Both units are defined through the meter, which since 1983 has been the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second, so the factor of 1,000 is exact.
Decimal commas and other slips
Number formatting causes more trouble than the math. In Germany, France, Spain and many other countries, the comma is the decimal mark and the period separates thousands, so 1.500 m means one thousand five hundred meters and 1,5 km means one and a half kilometers. Reading a European 1.500 m as 1.5 m is a thousandfold error.
The other slip is moving the decimal point the wrong way or the wrong number of places: 75 m is 0.075 km, not 0.75. For the opposite direction see kilometers to meters; for imperial distances, the unit converter has miles and feet.
Frequently asked questions
- How many kilometers is 400 meters?
- 400 m is 0.4 km, one lap of a standard outdoor running track.
- How long does it take to walk 800 meters?
- At 5 km/h, 800 m (0.8 km) takes about 10 minutes.
- What does 2.300 m mean on a European sign?
- In countries that use a decimal comma, the period separates thousands, so 2.300 m is 2,300 m, or 2.3 km.
- Is a 5,000 m race the same as a 5K?
- Yes in distance, 5 km either way. The 5,000 m is run on a track, while a 5K is usually a road race.