Acreage Calculator — Acres, Square Feet, Square Yards, Hectares, Square Meters and 2026 Land / Service Cost
Convert any land parcel into acres, ft², yd², hectares, and m² in one calculation — with presets for the historic surveyor’s acre (66 ft × 660 ft Gunter chain × furlong) and 2026 cost defaults for mowing, bush hog, and raw rural land. Tied to the NIST conversion 1 acre = 43,560 ft² = 4,046.86 m² exactly.
Acreage Calculator
Enter project dimensions below — results update instantly. Switch units freely.
Estimates assume typical industry density and waste factors. Always verify with your supplier and local building code before purchasing material.
Why 1 Acre = 43,560 ft² (and Where That Strange Number Comes From)
One acre is exactly 43,560 ft². The constant looks arbitrary until you know its history: an acre is 1 chain (66 ft) wide by 1 furlong (660 ft) long — the area a pair of oxen could plough in one day. 66 × 660 = 43,560 ft², and the surveyor’s Gunter chain (invented 1620) has used those proportions ever since.
That history creates four equally valid acre shapes that all surveyors see in the field:
- Square acre — 208.71 ft × 208.71 ft (√43,560). The shape developers slice modern subdivisions into.
- Gunter chain acre — 66 ft × 660 ft (1 chain × 1 furlong). The shape on old survey deeds and the section/township grid.
- Strip acre — 33 ft × 1,320 ft (1/2 chain × 2 furlongs). Common on long rural road frontages.
- Random-shape parcel — the irregular polygon every actual deed describes after 200 years of subdivision.
Three places acre estimates go wrong:
- Confusing acres with hectares. 1 hectare = 2.471 acres (or 1 acre = 0.4047 ha). Reading a metric soil-test report or international land listing without converting throws every per-acre rate off by 2.47×.
- Mixing up acres with ‘square acres’. There’s no such unit as a ‘square acre’ — an acre is already a unit of area. The confusion arises because people picture a square parcel and want to compute its side length: 1 acre square = 208.71 ft per side.
- Per-acre service pricing. 2026 mowing $35–$65/ac (residential property); bush-hog $90–$145/ac (rural overgrown); raw rural land $3,000–$8,000/ac (varies 10× by region). The calculator above multiplies acres by your $/ac to compute a quick total — useful for budgeting before a property visit.
How to Calculate Acreage Calculator
Hectares = acres × 0.4046856422
m² = ft² × 0.09290304
All three constants are exact per NIST SP 811. 43,560 ft² / acre comes from 66 ft × 660 ft; 0.09290304 m² / ft² comes from (0.3048 m / ft)²; 0.4046856422 ha / acre is 43,560 × 0.09290304 / 10,000. The calculator above carries these constants to full precision so the round-trip ft² → acres → m² → hectares is lossless to 6 decimals.
Common Acre Shapes & Side Lengths
| Shape | Dimensions (ft) | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect square | 208.71 × 208.71 | Modern subdivision lots |
| Gunter chain rectangle | 66 × 660 (1 chain × 1 furlong) | 1872 General Land Office survey grid |
| Football-field comparison | 360 × 121 (approximately) | An NFL field is 1.32 acres (360 × 160 ft incl. end zones) |
| Half-mile road frontage | 16.5 × 2,640 (1 rod × 1/2 mile) | Long-and-narrow rural road parcel |
| Quarter-mile road frontage | 33 × 1,320 (2 rods × 1/4 mile) | Common rural agricultural strip |
| City block-ish | 200 × 218 | Urban / suburban block parcel |
Memorized Conversion Constants (NIST SP 811)
- 1 acre = 43,560 ft²
- 1 acre = 4,840 yd²
- 1 acre = 4,046.8564224 m²
- 1 acre = 0.4046856422 hectare
- 1 hectare = 2.4710538147 acres
- 640 acres = 1 sq mile (Section)
- 1 sq mile = 27,878,400 ft²
2026 Per-Acre Service & Land Cost (Mid-Atlantic Baseline)
| Service / Asset | $/Acre | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Residential lawn mowing | $35–$65 | Per cut, typical 0.25–1 acre lots, includes trimming |
| Bush hog / rotary cutter (weekly overgrowth) | $60–$95 | 2-ft tall grass, accessible terrain |
| Bush hog (heavy, 4-ft+ growth or saplings) | $110–$175 | First cut after multi-year neglect |
| Hay baling (round bales) | $25–$45 | Per acre cut; producer keeps hay value |
| Land clearing (light brush) | $1,500–$3,500 | Dozer / skid steer + haul-off |
| Land clearing (forest, mature trees) | $5,000–$12,500 | Full forestry mulcher or selective harvest |
| Raw rural land (Mid-Atlantic, 5+ ac parcel) | $4,000–$8,500 | Untilled, no utilities; varies wildly by region |
| Subdivided residential lot (1/4–1 acre) | $25,000–$150,000 | Per acre equivalent on small lots is misleading; lot pricing dominates |
| Mid-Atlantic farmland (good soil) | $8,000–$16,000 | USDA NASS Land Values 2025: VA / MD / DE / NJ average |
For sub-acre projects, the Square Footage Calculator stays in ft² without the 43,560 conversion. For volume-from-area work (excavation, topsoil), use the Cubic Yard Calculator. For lumber and BF math, the Board Foot Calculator.
Acreage Coverage Table and Material Reference
| Lot dimensions | ft² | Acres | Hectares | Common use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 × 100 | 6,000 | 0.138 | 0.056 | Urban townhome lot |
| 80 × 120 | 9,600 | 0.220 | 0.089 | Small suburban lot |
| 100 × 150 | 15,000 | 0.344 | 0.139 | Typical 1980s suburban |
| 120 × 180 | 21,600 | 0.496 | 0.201 | Half-acre suburban |
| 150 × 290 | 43,500 | 0.999 | 0.404 | 1-acre lot (essentially) |
| 208.71 × 208.71 | 43,560 | 1.000 | 0.405 | Exact 1-acre square |
| 330 × 660 | 217,800 | 5.000 | 2.023 | 5-acre rural lot |
| 660 × 660 | 435,600 | 10.000 | 4.047 | 10-acre rural parcel |
| 1,320 × 2,640 | 3,484,800 | 80.000 | 32.375 | Quarter-section (80 acres) |
| 5,280 × 5,280 | 27,878,400 | 640.000 | 258.999 | Full section (1 sq mile) |
All dimensions assume a rectangular parcel for simplicity. Actual deeds describe irregular polygons via metes-and-bounds or coordinate geometry; survey area calculation is the source of truth.
| Acres | ft² | yd² | m² | Hectares |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 ac (1/4) | 10,890 | 1,210 | 1,012 | 0.101 |
| 0.5 ac (1/2) | 21,780 | 2,420 | 2,023 | 0.202 |
| 1 ac | 43,560 | 4,840 | 4,047 | 0.405 |
| 2 ac | 87,120 | 9,680 | 8,094 | 0.809 |
| 5 ac | 217,800 | 24,200 | 20,234 | 2.023 |
| 10 ac | 435,600 | 48,400 | 40,469 | 4.047 |
| 40 ac | 1,742,400 | 193,600 | 161,875 | 16.187 |
| 160 ac (1/4 section) | 6,969,600 | 774,400 | 647,497 | 64.750 |
| 640 ac (1 section) | 27,878,400 | 3,097,600 | 2,589,988 | 258.999 |
Memorize the 1-acre row; everything else multiplies linearly.
Real-World Example Calculations
Suburban Lot 80 ft × 120 ft
Typical 1990s-era suburban building lot; computing acreage for mowing service quote.
- L × W
- 120 ft × 80 ft
- Service rate
- $45/acre lawn mowing
Takeaway: Far below the typical $35 per-cut minimum; mowing service will charge their minimum, not the per-acre rate. Useful for budgeting bush-hog on rural lots only.
Rural Land Parcel 660 ft × 660 ft
10-acre square parcel for hobby farm; computing raw-land cost at $4,500/acre.
- L × W
- 660 ft × 660 ft
- $/acre
- $4,500 (raw rural)
Takeaway: 10 acres = 4.047 hectares for international comparison. Bush-hogging the whole parcel annually at $95/ac runs $950/year if accessible.
Section Quarter (1320 ft × 1320 ft)
Quarter-section (40 acres) on the General Land Office survey grid — common rural deed unit.
- L × W
- 1,320 ft × 1,320 ft
- $/acre
- $8,500 (good Midwest farmland)
Takeaway: 1 quarter-section = 40 acres = 16.19 hectares. The PLSS section grid built the entire western US property system; almost every Midwest rural deed describes parcels in fractions of sections (40, 80, 160 acres).
Sources & Standards
These references are used for terminology, safety boundaries, and engineering assumptions. Local code, supplier specifications, and licensed design documents still control your project.
-
NIST Special Publication 811 — Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Referenced for exact unit-conversion constants: 1 acre = 4,046.8564224 m² (exact); 1 ft = 0.3048 m (exact); 1 ft² = 0.09290304 m² (exact).
-
US Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Manual
Bureau of Land Management
Referenced for the Section / Township / Range grid used in 30 western US states (1 section = 1 sq mile = 640 acres; quarter section = 160 acres).
-
USDA NASS Land Values 2025 Summary
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Referenced for 2025 state-by-state cropland and pastureland $/acre values; basis for the 2026 estimates in the per-acre cost table above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many square feet are in an acre?
43,560 ft². This comes from the historic surveyor’s acre: 1 Gunter chain (66 ft) × 1 furlong (660 ft) = 43,560 ft². Memorize this constant; it underlies every per-acre conversion.
What size is a 1 acre square lot?
208.71 ft × 208.71 ft (the square root of 43,560). Useful for picturing acreage: about half the length of an NFL football field on each side, or roughly the size of a square city block in a modern subdivision.
How do I convert acres to hectares?
Multiply by 0.4047 (or divide by 2.471). Example: 5 acres × 0.4047 = 2.024 hectares. Going the other way: 1 hectare = 2.471 acres. Both conversion factors are NIST-exact to many decimal places.
How many acres in a square mile?
640 acres. This is the basis of the US Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Section: 1 mi × 1 mi = 640 ac. A quarter section is 160 acres; an aliquot 1/16 section is 40 acres — the unit most rural deeds use.
How big is an acre compared to a football field?
An NFL regulation football field (including both end zones, 360 ft × 160 ft = 57,600 ft²) is 1.32 acres. So 1 acre is about 76% the size of a US football field. A soccer pitch (FIFA standard 105 m × 68 m = 7,140 m²) is 1.76 acres.
How much does it cost to mow an acre in 2026?
Per-cut residential rates: $35–$65/acre for established turf. Bush-hogging (overgrown grass / brush): $60–$95/acre normal; $110–$175/acre for heavy 4-ft+ growth after multi-year neglect. Most services have a minimum charge of $35–$50 regardless of small lot size.
How much is an acre of land worth?
Wildly variable by region. 2026 estimates: raw rural Mid-Atlantic $4,000–$8,500/acre; good Midwest farmland $8,000–$16,000/acre; subdivided suburban lots $25,000–$150,000/acre equivalent; urban infill lots $300,000+/acre equivalent. USDA NASS publishes annual state-by-state Land Values Bulletin.