Acres to m²

One acre is 4,046.8564224 m², and this shows the working rather than just the answer. Nothing you type here leaves your browser — it is worked out on your own device, so there is nothing to send and nothing to log.

The factor

One acre is 4,046.8564224 m². That is the whole of the conversion: multiply by it, and nothing else happens.

And it is exact

Not rounded, not measured, not a convention that might be revised. The factor above is the definition, so an answer from it is as exact as the number you typed.

The acre is 4,840 square yards, which is exactly 4,046.8564224 m².

The number in your head

Most people use 4,000 for this, which is the factor to two significant figures. It is low by 1.1578% — 11.578 m² too few in every thousand, and 115.78 in every ten thousand.

Going the other way

The reverse is not this sum backwards in your head. It is a different factor, 0.000247105381, and dividing by one is not the same as multiplying by a rounded version of the other.

Rounded, the way back is 0.000247, which is low by 0.0426%. So the two roundings do not cancel: go out and back with both and you do not land where you started.

How many of those decimals mean anything

The box above will give you ten decimal places because it can. Whether they mean anything is decided by your measurement, not by the arithmetic.

If you measured to the nearest acre, your figure is already uncertain by half of one — so the answer is uncertain by about 2,023.428211 m², and every digit past that is decoration. Quoting 4,996.08706484 when you measured with a tape is claiming a precision the tape never had.

Where these two sit

Acres and m² both measure area, which is why they can be converted at all. A conversion between families — a length into a weight — is not a conversion, it is a question with a missing quantity in it.

The unit converter pairs acres with hectares rather than with m², because that is the conversion people ask for most. This page exists because a good many ask for this one instead.

Other conversions from acres

ft² · hectares · mi² · km² · yd²