Square Meters to Square Feet
Convert square metres to square feet and back, for floor areas, property listings and flooring orders — where the squared conversion factor catches people out.
One square meter is about 10.76 square feet — multiply by 10 and add 8% for a quick estimate.
| Square meters | Square feet |
|---|---|
| 1 | 10.76 |
| 10 | 107.64 |
| 50 | 538.2 |
| 100 | 1076.39 |
| 150 | 1614.59 |
| 200 | 2152.78 |
| 500 | 5381.96 |
| 1000 | 10763.91 |
3.28 is the wrong number here, by a factor of 3.28
One metre is 3.280839895 feet. One square metre is not 3.28 square feet — it is 10.763910417, which is that number squared. A square metre is a square one metre on a side, so both of its dimensions convert and the factor applies twice.
Obvious once written down, and the single most common mistake people make reading a property listing. Anyone carrying "about three times" in their head is out by hundreds of square feet on a small flat:
| Square metres | Correct | Using 3.28 by mistake | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10.76 sq ft | 3.28 sq ft | 7.48 |
| 10 | 107.64 sq ft | 32.81 sq ft | 74.83 |
| 20 | 215.28 sq ft | 65.62 sq ft | 149.66 |
| 50 | 538.20 sq ft | 164.04 sq ft | 374.15 |
| 100 | 1076.39 sq ft | 328.08 sq ft | 748.31 |
The numbers here are exact rather than measured, which is worth knowing. A foot has been defined as precisely 0.3048 metres since 1959, so a square foot is exactly 0.3048 × 0.3048 = 0.09290304 square metres, and a square metre is exactly the reciprocal of that. No uncertainty, no revision pending — the conversion is a definition, and the digits run on as far as you care to take them.
The same squaring is why a bigger room is much bigger
This is the more useful half of the idea, and it has nothing to do with feet. Change every dimension of a shape and the area changes by the square:
| Every dimension | Area |
|---|---|
| +5% | +10.3% |
| +10% | +21.0% |
| +20% | +44.0% |
| +50% | +125.0% |
| -10% | -19.0% |
| -25% | -43.8% |
| -50% | -75.0% |
A room ten per cent longer and ten per cent wider is not ten per cent bigger, it is a fifth bigger. A pizza fifty per cent wider is more than twice the pizza, which is why a 16-inch is not "a bit more" than a 12-inch. And halving every dimension quarters the area.
It works backwards too, and that is where it saves money. If a floor or carpet is quoted per square metre, taking ten per cent off both dimensions of a room cuts the bill by nineteen per cent, not ten.
The constant here is truncated, and it will never matter
Worth measuring rather than worrying about. This page carries
10.7639104167, which is the exact value cut off after twelve significant
figures — a prefix of the right number rather than a wrong one.
The error is 9.7e-12 square feet per square metre.
| To accumulate one square foot of error, you would need | |
|---|---|
| square metres | 1.03e+11 |
| square kilometres | 102,859 |
| a square this many km on a side | 321 |
Roughly the land area of Iceland. So the truncation is real, it is measurable, and it cannot affect a number you type into this page — flagging it as a caveat would be theatre.
The genuinely interesting part is the other direction: twelve figures is preposterously more than anyone needs. A floor plan measured to the nearest centimetre on a ten-metre wall is already carrying error around a billion times larger than the constant's. If a converted area looks wrong, the measurement is the suspect, never the arithmetic.
How to use
- Enter an area in square metres or square feet.
- Read the converted area.
- Add a waste allowance before ordering flooring or tile.
- Check whether a quoted area includes walls, balconies or shared space.
Frequently asked questions
How many square feet in a square metre?
About 10.764. The factor is the length conversion squared: a metre is 3.28084 feet, and 3.28084 squared is 10.7639. Using 3.28 instead of squaring it is a common error that understates the area by a factor of three.
What is a typical flat in both units?
A 70 square metre two-bedroom flat is about 753 square feet. A 100 square metre home is 1,076 square feet, which is why 1,000 square feet and 93 square metres are near equivalents often quoted as round numbers in their respective markets.
Why do property listings differ from my own measurement?
Because they may measure to different boundaries. Gross internal area, net internal area and gross external area can differ by 10 per cent or more on the same property, depending on whether walls, stairwells, balconies and shared corridors are counted. Always check which basis a figure uses.
How much extra flooring should I order?
Usually 10 per cent over the measured area for straightforward rooms, and 15 to 20 per cent for diagonal layouts, patterned material, or rooms with many angles. Offcuts are unavoidable, and matching a later batch is often impossible.
How do I estimate mentally?
Multiply square metres by 10 and add a bit. For 45 square metres, 450 plus a tenth is about 495, against a true 484. The estimate runs slightly high, so it is a safe direction to err when buying material.
What about square yards?
A square metre is about 1.196 square yards. Carpet was traditionally sold by the square yard and now usually by the square metre or by the linear metre off a fixed-width roll, so comparing prices across suppliers often needs two conversions.
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