India officially went metric in 1958. That was nearly 70 years ago. And yet, if you ask someone how big their apartment is, they'll say "1,200 square feet." If you ask a construction worker the height of a wall, they'll say "10 feet." If your American colleague sends you a recipe, the oven temperature is in Fahrenheit. Metric is official, but the real world is messier than that.
Here are the conversions that actually come up in daily Indian life.
Length — the ones you need
1 metre = 3.28 feet. 1 foot = 30.48 cm. These two are the most used in construction and real estate. If someone tells you a plot is "40 feet by 60 feet," that's 12.2 metres by 18.3 metres, or about 222 square metres.
For height in everyday conversation, 6 feet = 182.9 cm, 5'8" = 172.7 cm, 5'4" = 162.6 cm. Indian medical reports and fitness apps mostly use cm, but people describe height in feet.
Kilometres to miles: 1 km = 0.621 miles. Useful when reading distance specs from American products or talking to someone abroad. The speed limit signs here are in km/h — most imported cars from the US have mph speedometers, which trips people up.
Area — this one is genuinely complicated in India
This is where it gets confusing, because the units change by state. A "bigha" in Uttar Pradesh is 27,225 square feet. A "bigha" in West Bengal is 14,400 square feet. The same word means different things 1,000 km apart — always verify which definition is being used in any land transaction.
For the southern states: 1 cent (Tamil Nadu, Kerala) = 435.6 sq ft. 1 guntha/gunta (Karnataka, Maharashtra) = 1,089 sq ft. 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft everywhere (thankfully consistent).
For real estate, the most practical conversion is 1 square metre = 10.764 square feet. When a developer quotes you a price per square foot and you want to convert to square metres for comparison — divide by 10.764.
Weight
1 kg = 2.205 pounds. 1 pound = 0.454 kg. The common ones for fitness: 70 kg = 154 lbs, 80 kg = 176 lbs, 100 kg = 220 lbs. Medical reports in India use kg. Fitness content from American sources uses lbs. Now you can translate.
For cooking from international recipes, grams to ounces: 1 ounce = 28.35 grams. 100 grams = 3.53 ounces. 250 grams ≈ 1 cup of flour (approximately — depends on the ingredient and packing).
Temperature — the one that causes the most confusion
India uses Celsius. The US uses Fahrenheit. Most imported appliances, American cooking shows, and some old medical equipment use Fahrenheit. The conversion: °C to °F — multiply by 1.8, then add 32. °F to °C — subtract 32, then multiply by 0.556.
The ones worth memorising: 0°C = 32°F (water freezes), 37°C = 98.6°F (normal body temperature), 100°C = 212°F (water boils). Oven temperatures: 180°C = 356°F (most baking), 200°C = 392°F (roasting).
Body temperature above 38°C (100.4°F) is fever. Above 40°C (104°F) is high fever — seek medical attention.
Digital storage — increasingly relevant
1 GB = 1,024 MB. 1 TB = 1,024 GB. With Jio and Airtel mobile data plans, people track data usage more carefully than ever. A minute of 4K video is about 350 MB. An hour of HD Netflix streaming is about 3 GB. A WhatsApp image is typically 100–300 KB; a forwarded video is 5–15 MB.
Cloud storage plans (Google One, iCloud) that say "100 GB" — that's enough for roughly 25,000 photos taken on a modern smartphone, or about 40 hours of 720p video.
Convert between any units instantly with our Unit Converter — length, weight, temperature, area, speed, data, and more.