Convert Centimeters to Kilometers
Centimeters to kilometers is a conversion between the smallest and largest common metric length units, so the numbers shrink fast. One centimeter is exactly 0.00001 kilometers — a tiny fraction, since it takes 100,000 centimeters to make one kilometer.
Centimeters to Kilometers conversion table
| Centimeters (cm) | Kilometers (km) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.00001 |
| 2 | 0.00002 |
| 3 | 0.00003 |
| 5 | 0.00005 |
| 10 | 0.0001 |
| 20 | 0.0002 |
| 50 | 0.0005 |
| 100 | 0.001 |
| 500 | 0.005 |
| 1,000 | 0.01 |
The formula
To convert centimeters to kilometers, multiply the length in centimeters by 0.00001:
kilometers = centimeters × 0.00001
A worked example
Converting 100 cm into kilometers:
100 × 0.00001 = 0.001 km
For smaller lengths, 10 cm comes to 0.0001 km, and 5 cm comes to 0.00005 km.
When you'll use it
This conversion mostly shows up when combining measurements across very different scales — for example, adding a small centimeter-level adjustment onto a kilometer-scale distance in a spreadsheet or engineering document. Because the metric system is base-10, the math is always exact: no rounding, just moving the decimal point.
Frequently asked questions
How many kilometers are in a centimeter?
Exactly 0.00001 kilometers. This is exact, not rounded, because both units are defined within the metric system as clean powers of ten.
Why is the centimeter to kilometer number so small?
Because a kilometer is 100,000 times bigger than a centimeter. Any single centimeter is a vanishingly small slice of a kilometer, so the converted value has several zeros after the decimal point.
Is this conversion ever practical to use directly?
It's more common to convert centimeters to meters first, then meters to kilometers, when working with real-world distances. But for a direct one-step conversion, multiply by 0.00001 exactly as shown.