Coordinates tool

UTM to lat/long

Bidirectional UTM ↔ geographic conversion on WGS84.

Short answer

Enter a zone from 1 to 60, the hemisphere, and the easting and northing in meters. The tool converts to latitude and longitude on WGS84 and converts back to UTM as a check. The default input, zone 18 north, 583960 E, 4507523 N, is 40.71435, -74.00597, in Lower Manhattan.
Latitude
40.71435°
Longitude
-74.00597°
Geographic
Lat
Lon
Round-trip UTM

Worked example: Denver's capitol in UTM

Going the other way, 39.739, -104.985 falls in zone 13, which covers 108° W to 102° W. Its easting is 501,285.3 m and its northing 4,398,789.5 m.

The easting is close to 500,000 m because Denver sits near the zone's central meridian, 105° W, which is given a false easting of 500,000 m. The northing is the distance north of the equator along the projection, about 4,399 km.

How to use it

  1. Enter the Zone number, 1 to 60.
  2. Choose the Hemisphere: North or South. If your coordinate has a band letter, N through X is north and C through M is south.
  3. Enter the Easting and Northing in meters.
  4. Read the latitude and longitude to six decimal places, plus the round-trip UTM. Click a value to copy it. If the inputs are out of range, the card explains what is accepted.

How UTM divides the world

Universal Transverse Mercator splits the Earth into 60 zones, each 6° of longitude wide, numbered 1 to 60 eastward from 180°. Each zone has its own transverse Mercator projection centered on its middle meridian, where the scale factor is 0.9996. That keeps distortion under about one part in a thousand across the zone.

UTM covers 80° S to 84° N. The tool rejects points outside that band, where polar stereographic grids are used instead. The UTM zones guide lists the zones that cross each US state.

Northings and the hemisphere

In the northern hemisphere, northing is measured from the equator, starting at 0. In the southern hemisphere a false northing of 10,000,000 m is added so values stay positive. That is why you must pick the hemisphere: the same northing number means very different places north and south.

Some systems use latitude band letters (C to X) instead of N and S. Bands N and later are northern; bands C to M are southern.

The round-trip check

After converting to latitude and longitude, the tool converts that answer back to UTM and prints it. If the round trip matches your input to the meter, the conversion is consistent. A mismatch usually means the easting is far outside its zone, which happens when a coordinate was copied with the wrong zone number.

Questions people ask

What easting range is valid?

The tool accepts 100,000 to 900,000 m. Real points in a zone fall roughly between 166,000 and 834,000 m at the equator, and in a narrower range toward the poles.

Which datum does the tool assume?

WGS84.

Why do I need the hemisphere?

Southern northings include a 10,000,000 m false northing, so the same number means a different place in each hemisphere.

Sources and data as of

Data as of: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid.

  1. 01USGS FAQ: what does the term UTM mean? (last verified 2026-09-30)

How every number is computed: methodology. Spotted a wrong figure? Report an error.