Cubic feet to Cubic meters Converter
Convert Cubic feet (ft³) to Cubic meters (m³) instantly, or use the conversion table below to look up common values.
Cubic feet to Cubic meters conversion table
| Cubic feet (ft³) | Cubic meters (m³) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.028317 |
| 2 | 0.056634 |
| 3 | 0.084951 |
| 4 | 0.113267 |
| 5 | 0.141584 |
| 10 | 0.283168 |
| 25 | 0.707921 |
| 50 | 1.415842 |
| 100 | 2.831685 |
How to convert Cubic feet to Cubic meters
1 ft³ equals 0.028317 m³. Use the converter above for any value, or read the table for common conversions.
m³ = ft³ × 0.028316846592 · ft³ = m³ × 35.31466672148859Multiply a cubic feet figure by 0.028317 to get cubic meters, or divide it by 35.314667 to go the other way.
Worked examples
- 1 ft³= 0.028317 m³
- 2 ft³= 0.056634 m³
- 5 ft³= 0.141584 m³
- 10 ft³= 0.283168 m³
- 20 ft³= 0.566337 m³
What these units are
Cubic feet (ft³). A cubic foot is 28.316846592 liters, and the volume of a cube one foot on each side. It is used for gas meters, freight and the capacity of appliances and containers.
Cubic meters (m³). A cubic meter is 1,000 liters, and the volume of a cube one meter on each side. It is used for bulk water, concrete and sand, and for shipping volume.
US and imperial units are kept separate because they are genuinely different sizes. Confirm which system a source means before trusting a converted figure.
Converting Cubic feet to Cubic meters in practice
Working in cubic feet
A cubic foot is the volume of a cube with edges one foot long, exactly 28.316846592 liters or 0.028316846592 cubic meters. It is a unit of volume, not of area.
Shipping containers, natural gas, water supply, refrigeration and timber are measured in cubic feet in the United States and parts of the freight trade. Appliance capacities also use it.
The cubic foot is defined through the foot, so its liter value is exact at 28.316846592. Only the displayed result is rounded, and a value taken to cubic meters and back may return with the final digit changed.
The error is confusing a cubic foot with a square foot or with a foot; volume needs three dimensions. Another is using the cubic foot where a liquid measure such as the liter or gallon is expected.
Cubic feet and cubic meters divide the same volume on different scales, and liters appear on appliance and gas labels. One cubic meter is about 35.3 cubic feet, so a figure copied between them without conversion is wrong by more than thirtyfold.
Reading the result in cubic meters
The cubic meter is the International System unit of volume, the space in a cube with one-meter edges, exactly 1,000 liters or one kiloliter. It is the reference volume against which metric liquid and bulk measurements are defined.
Concrete, water consumption, natural gas, soil, shipping volumes and reservoir capacity are recorded in cubic meters. Utility bills in metric countries often express water and gas use this way.
One cubic meter is exactly 1,000 liters and exactly 35.3146667214886 cubic feet by the exact foot definition. Printed answers are rounded, so a conversion to cubic feet and back may end a digit away.
The common mistake is writing cubic meters for square meters when quoting floor area, or dropping the third dimension when estimating a load. Bulk volume also differs from the capacity of a container.
Cubic meters suit bulk volumes such as water and gas, liters suit bottles and tanks, and cubic feet do the same job on the imperial scale. A decimal point misplaced between cubic meters and liters changes the volume a thousandfold.
Checking a cubic feet to cubic meters conversion
The metric volume units are a clean decimal chain around the liter, so liters to milliliters is a shift of three places and cubic meters to liters is a shift of three the other way. Those pairs a reader can do without a converter.
Every pair that names a US or imperial liquid unit has to go through the definition first, because three of these units differ from a metric unit by amounts too large to round away: a liter is not a quart, a gallon is 3.785411784 liters in the US system and 4.54609 in the imperial one, and a US fluid ounce is not an imperial fluid ounce.
When checking a volume conversion, convert into liters and out again, or measure the container. The mistake that survives every other check is reading a US measure as the imperial unit of the same name, which changes a recipe, a fuel figure or a tank size by about a fifth.
Tanzania reference points
Real quantities, converted into the units on this page.
The 20-litre bucket or canister used to carry water in Tanzania
20 L = 0.706293 ft³ = 0.02 m³
WaterAid puts the minimum daily water need per person at 20 litres, so one container is roughly one person's daily requirement.
Source: IPS News — water access in Tanzania, citing WaterAid · verified 2026-09-14
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