GPS Coordinate Converter
Type a latitude and longitude in any common format and see it as decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, degrees–minutes–seconds and a UTM grid reference — or enter a UTM zone, easting and northing and get the latitude and longitude back. It follows the WGS84 datum, handles the Norway and Svalbard zone exceptions and tells you exactly what is wrong with a coordinate it cannot read. Runs entirely in your browser — free, no sign-up.
Decimal degrees (48.8582), degrees and decimal minutes (48° 51.492′ N) or degrees, minutes and seconds (48°51′29.5″ N). South and west are negative, or end with S or W.
Results
Latitude and longitude in every format
| Format | Latitude | Longitude |
|---|---|---|
| Decimal degrees (DD) | 48.858200 | 2.294500 |
| Decimal degrees with hemisphere | 48.858200° N | 2.294500° E |
| Degrees, decimal minutes (DDM) | 48° 51.4920′ N | 2° 17.6700′ E |
| Degrees, minutes, seconds (DMS) | 48° 51′ 29.52″ N | 2° 17′ 40.20″ E |
UTM (WGS84)
31U
Zone and band
North
Hemisphere
3°
Central meridian of the zone
448251.80
Easting (m)
5411932.68
Northing (m)
UTM grid reference: 31U 448251.80 5411932.68
How to Use the GPS Coordinate Converter
- 1. Choose what you are converting from. Latitude and longitude accepts any of the three angle formats; UTM coordinates takes a zone, a hemisphere, an easting and a northing.
- 2. Type the coordinates. Latitude comes first, then longitude. Use a minus sign for south and west, or end the value with S or W. Symbols such as ° ′ ″ are optional: 40 42 46.08 N works.
- 3. Read every format at once. The table lists decimal degrees, decimal degrees with a hemisphere letter, degrees and decimal minutes, and degrees–minutes–seconds. Copy the one your map, form or GPS wants.
- 4. Check the UTM grid reference. Zone and band, hemisphere, easting and northing are shown with the zone's central meridian. A note appears when the point falls in one of UTM's special zones.
Three Ways to Write the Same Place
A degree is divided into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds, so the three notations differ only in where the fraction is written: 40.7128° (decimal degrees, DD), 40° 42.768′ (degrees and decimal minutes, DDM) and 40° 42′ 46.08″ (degrees, minutes, seconds, DMS). To convert DMS to DD, add the degrees, the minutes divided by 60 and the seconds divided by 3600. To go the other way, multiply the fractional degrees by 60 to get minutes, then the fractional minutes by 60 to get seconds. Latitude is positive north of the equator and longitude positive east of Greenwich; the letters N, S, E and W do the same job as the sign.
Worked example: New York City, 40.7128, −74.0060
DMS: 40° 42′ 46.08″ N, 74° 0′ 21.60″ W (0.7128 × 60 = 42.768′, then 0.768 × 60 = 46.08″).
DDM: 40° 42.7680′ N, 74° 0.3600′ W.
UTM: zone 18T, easting 583959.37 m, northing 4507351.00 m, central meridian 75° W.
| Decimal places in degrees | Precision at the equator |
|---|---|
| 1 | 11.1 km |
| 2 | 1.11 km |
| 3 | 111 m |
| 4 | 11.1 m |
| 5 | 1.11 m |
| 6 | 0.111 m |
One degree of latitude is about 111 km; longitude precision is the same at the equator and shrinks towards the poles.
How UTM Works
UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) lays a flat metre grid over the Earth so that distances can be measured in metres instead of degrees. The world from 80° S to 84° N is cut into 60 zones, each 6° of longitude wide and numbered eastward from 180° W, and into lettered bands 8° tall (C to X, omitting I and O). Inside a zone the Earth is projected with a transverse Mercator projection on the WGS84 ellipsoid, with a scale factor of 0.9996 on the central meridian. The easting counts metres from a false origin 500 000 m west of the central meridian, so it is always positive; in the southern hemisphere the northing starts at 10 000 000 m at the equator to avoid negative values. This converter evaluates the projection with Krüger's series to sixth order (Karney, 2011), which is accurate to nanometres within a zone.
- Finding the zone. Zone = ⌊(longitude + 180) / 6⌋ + 1. Longitude 2.2945° E falls in zone 31, whose central meridian is 3° E.
- Norway. Zone 32V is widened to 3° E–12° E over south-west Norway, so 60.5° N, 5.3° E is in zone 32V rather than 31V.
- Svalbard. Between 72° N and 84° N (band X), zones 31, 33, 35 and 37 are used and zones 32, 34 and 36 do not exist.
- Poles. Above 84° N and below 80° S, the Universal Polar Stereographic grid replaces UTM; this tool says so rather than guessing.
Worked example: the Eiffel Tower, 48.8582, 2.2945
Zone 31, band U, northern hemisphere, central meridian 3° E.
Easting 448251.80 m and northing 5411932.68 m, written 31U 448251.80 5411932.68.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I convert decimal degrees to degrees, minutes and seconds?
- Keep the whole number as the degrees. Multiply the decimal part by 60: the whole number of the result is the minutes. Multiply the remaining decimal by 60 to get the seconds. For 40.7128°, 0.7128 × 60 = 42.768, so 42 minutes, and 0.768 × 60 = 46.08 seconds.
- How do I convert DMS to decimal degrees?
- Decimal degrees = degrees + minutes / 60 + seconds / 3600. Make the result negative for south latitudes and west longitudes. 40° 42′ 46.08″ is 40 + 0.7 + 0.0128 = 40.7128.
- Which comes first, latitude or longitude?
- Latitude, then longitude, in almost every GPS format and map service (40.7128, −74.0060). GIS software sometimes uses x, y order — longitude first — so check before pasting coordinates between systems.
- What is the difference between UTM and latitude and longitude?
- Latitude and longitude are angles on a globe; UTM is a flat grid in metres projected zone by zone. UTM makes it easy to measure distances and areas within a zone, which is why surveyors, hikers and the military use it. The conversion is exact for a given datum.
- How many decimal places do I need for GPS coordinates?
- Five decimal places in degrees (about 1.1 m) is enough for most phone-GPS work, six (about 11 cm) suits survey-grade equipment, and more than that is beyond what consumer receivers measure.
- Why is my UTM zone different from the one I expected?
- Near southwest Norway (zone 32V) and Svalbard (zones 31X, 33X, 35X and 37X), UTM departs from the plain 6° rule. The converter marks such points with a note. Another cause is a datum other than WGS84, which can shift coordinates by tens or hundreds of metres.