Steps Calculator

Turn a step count from your phone or fitness tracker into miles or kilometers, or find how many steps a walk of a given distance takes. Use your measured step length for the best accuracy, or let the calculator estimate it from your height. It also estimates walking time from your pace and the calories burned using the American College of Sports Medicine walking equation. A chart shows the distance for common daily step counts.

distance = steps × step length

estimated step length ≈ height × 0.413 (women) or × 0.415 (men)

oxygen use (mL/kg/min) = 3.5 + 0.1 × speed in meters per minute

calories per minute ≈ oxygen use × body weight (kg) × 5 ÷ 1,000

The height-based step estimate is a widely used rule of thumb, not a measurement; people of the same height can differ by several centimeters. The ACSM equation applies to walking on level ground at about 50 to 100 meters per minute, and the factor of 5 reflects roughly 5 kcal of energy per liter of oxygen.

With a 70 cm step, 10,000 steps cover 7 km, or 4.35 miles. At a moderate 100 steps per minute that is a walking speed of 4.2 km/h and takes about 100 minutes. A 70 kg person uses about 10.5 mL of oxygen per kilogram per minute at that speed, about 3.67 kcal per minute, so the walk burns roughly 368 kcal in total, of which 245 kcal is above what the body would use at rest.

Walk a known distance, such as a running track lap of 400 meters or a measured stretch of sidewalk, at your normal pace and count your steps. Divide the distance by the steps. Repeat two or three times and average. Your step lengthens when you walk faster and shortens on hills or in crowds, so a fitness tracker's distance can drift from day to day even when its step count is accurate.

The 10,000-step target became popular through marketing in the 1960s rather than research. Studies since then, including the review by Tudor-Locke and colleagues, describe a range of healthy daily step counts, and larger recent studies have found that the risk of death drops as daily steps rise from low levels, with benefits leveling off at several thousand steps a day in older adults. Any increase from your current level is worthwhile, and walking at a brisker pace adds further benefit.

Phones count steps with motion sensors and estimate distance from a stride length based on your height, or from GPS when it is available. Wrist trackers can miss steps when you push a cart or stroller and add steps when you move your arms without walking. If the distance in your app differs from a measured route, set your measured step length in the app or use this calculator with your own figure.

Calorie estimates are averages. Walking on hills, carrying a load, walking very slowly or very fast, and individual fitness all change the result, and fitness trackers use their own formulas, so their numbers may differ. Use the figures to compare walks and track trends rather than as exact counts. For other activities, the calories burned calculator covers running, cycling and more.