Coordinates Converter
Type latitude and longitude in decimal degrees, or paste a degrees-minutes-seconds string, and see both forms side by side -- plus a map that jumps straight to the point.
Decimal degrees
Degrees, minutes, seconds
40° 41′ 21.12″ N
74° 2′ 40.20″ W
Converted live from the decimal-degree fields -- this direction never needs its own input.
What's at these coordinates
The map jumps to the current point automatically; click anywhere on it to set a new one.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Worked examples
Three real landmarks, converted live by this page with the same ddToDms function the tool above uses -- including one southern latitude and one western longitude, so the sign handling isn't hidden in a single easy case.
| Place | Decimal degrees | Degrees / minutes / seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Statue of Liberty | 40.69, -74.04 | 40°41′21.12″N 74°2′40.20″W |
| Sydney Opera House | -33.86, 151.22 | 33°51′24.48″S 151°12′55.08″E |
| Cape Town City Hall | -33.92, 18.42 | 33°55′29.64″S 18°25′26.76″E |
Round-trip accuracy
Converting decimal degrees to DMS and back should recover the original value (down to ordinary floating-point rounding), and this site's own test suite checks exactly that -- including a southern latitude and a western longitude, the two cases most likely to expose a sign-handling bug. If you ever paste a DMS string back in and get a decimal value that looks off by a whole degree or has the wrong sign, that's worth reporting -- see the Contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between decimal degrees and degrees-minutes-seconds?
Both describe exactly the same point on Earth, just written differently. Decimal degrees (like 40.6892) express a fraction of a degree as a decimal -- easiest for computers, GPS devices, and most modern mapping tools. Degrees-minutes-seconds (like 40°41'21"N) splits that fraction into minutes (1/60th of a degree) and seconds (1/60th of a minute) -- the older, sexagesimal convention still used in navigation, surveying, and some older map datums.
How does the conversion actually work?
To go from decimal degrees to DMS: the whole-number part is the degrees; multiply the remaining fraction by 60 to get minutes (its whole-number part) and multiply what's left after that by 60 again to get seconds. To go the other way: degrees + minutes/60 + seconds/3600, then negate the result if the hemisphere is South or West -- decimal-degree latitude is positive north of the equator and negative south of it, and longitude is positive east of the prime meridian and negative west of it.
Why does a southern latitude or western longitude come out negative?
That's the standard sign convention: north and east are positive, south and west are negative. A degrees-minutes-seconds value like "33°55'22"S" doesn't carry a minus sign itself -- the "S" does that job -- so converting it to decimal degrees means computing the positive magnitude first, then applying the negative sign because the hemisphere is South.
What formats can I paste in?
Either "40.6892, -74.0445" (decimal degrees, comma or space separated) or "40°41'21"N 74°02'40"W" (degrees-minutes-seconds with a hemisphere letter on each). Anything that doesn't confidently match one of those two patterns, or that resolves to an out-of-range latitude or longitude, is rejected rather than guessed at -- you'll get a message instead of a silently wrong point.
The map shows a point, but how do I know what's actually there?
The embedded map centers on your coordinates and drops a pin exactly there, using the same free OpenStreetMap tiles as every other tool on this site, so you can see the surrounding streets, landmarks or terrain directly. For anything needing an authoritative address lookup rather than a visual check, use the reverse-geocoding feature of a dedicated mapping service.
Every distance, area and radius on this site is a geometric estimate from the coordinates you provide, not a survey-grade measurement -- and this tool does not calculate driving routes or travel time. See the Terms.