Inches to cm Converter

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Convert inches to centimeters with the exact international factor: 1 inch = 2.54 cm, defined since 1959. Reach for this when buying European furniture, comparing TV diagonal sizes, sizing clothes from US listings or working with mixed-unit engineering drawings. The converter runs entirely in your browser; no values are uploaded.

Inch (in)
Centimeter (cm)

Inch (in) → Centimeter (cm)

Quick reference table

Inch (in)Centimeter (cm)
1 inch2.54 cm
2 inch5.08 cm
5 inch12.7 cm
10 inch25.4 cm
25 inch63.5 cm
50 inch127 cm
100 inch254 cm

Glossary

Inch (in)

An inch is the base small unit of the imperial and US customary systems, defined as exactly 25.4 mm since 1959. It appears on screen sizes, tire diameters, pipe fittings, lumber dimensions and DIY tape measures. Twelve inches make one foot; thirty-six make one yard.

Centimeter (cm)

A centimeter is one hundredth of a meter (1 cm = 10 mm = 0.3937 inch). It is the everyday metric unit for clothing sizes, body measurements, paper formats and small object dimensions. Two and a half centimeters approximate one inch; ninety-one centimeters approximate one yard.

Metric system (SI)

The metric system is a decimal system of measurement built around the meter for length, the kilogram for mass and the second for time, with multiples and submultiples expressed as powers of ten (millimeter, centimeter, kilometer). Adopted in France in 1799 and codified internationally as the International System of Units (SI) in 1960, it is now the official measurement system in nearly every country and the standard in science and engineering worldwide.

Imperial / US Customary system

The imperial system is the historical English system of weights and measures whose length units are the inch, foot, yard and mile (12 in = 1 ft, 3 ft = 1 yd, 1,760 yd = 1 mi). Codified by the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 and aligned with US Customary by the international yard-and-pound agreement of 1959 (1 inch = 25.4 mm exactly), it is still used in the United States, the United Kingdom and a handful of other countries for everyday distances.

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