Convert kilometres to metres

One kilometre is 1000 metres. To convert any amount, multiply by 1000. Going the other way, one metre is 0.001 kilometres.

Multiply the kilometre figure by 1000. So m = km × 1000. For a quick mental estimate, multiplying by about 1000 gets you within a percent or so, which is close enough for most everyday purposes.

One kilometre is about a 12-minute walk. The kilometre is the standard road-distance unit everywhere except the United States, the United Kingdom and a handful of small territories.

One metre is roughly the height of a kitchen counter plus a bit. The metre has been defined since 1983 as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second — a definition that ties it to a physical constant rather than to any object.

Yes. Since the 1959 international yard and pound agreement, the imperial and metric systems are related by exact definitions rather than measurements — the inch is exactly 25.4 mm and the pound exactly 0.45359237 kg. Everything derived from those, including this conversion, is therefore exact. Round at the end rather than partway through, since rounding km before converting introduces an error the conversion then multiplies.