Lat long finder – get the coordinates of any place

The lat long finder answers "what are the coordinates of this place?" without any typing. Zoom to the spot on the map and click it: the panel shows the latitude and longitude as plain decimal degrees, the way Google Maps and most apps want them, and the same point as degrees, minutes and seconds for paper maps and deeds, degrees and decimal minutes for GPS units, geocaching and boating, UTM and MGRS grid references for hiking, rescue and military maps, a Plus Code that can be typed into Google Maps instead of an address, and a geohash for databases. Every line has its own copy button. The panel also names the nearest town of at least 15,000 inhabitants and how far away it is, which helps to check that the point is where you meant. Paste coordinates you received from someone into the box to see where they are, or use the share link to send the point on.

How to use it

1. Search for a town, press "Use my location", or pan and zoom the map to the place.
2. Click the exact spot; zoom in close first if the point must be precise.
3. Read the coordinates in the format you need and press its copy button.
4. Copy the share link to send the point, or download it as GeoJSON or KML for Google Earth or a GIS.

How accurate is it?

How many decimals you need

One degree of latitude is about 111 km, so the fifth decimal is about 1.1 m and the sixth about 11 cm. The finder shows six decimals, but a click on a map at city zoom covers several metres, so zoom in until the building or path fills the screen when the point has to be within a metre or two. Two decimals of an arc second and four decimals of a minute are of the same order, about 30 cm and 20 cm.

WGS84, the datum behind the numbers

All values are on WGS84, the datum of GPS, Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. National datums such as ETRS89 in Europe and NAD83 in North America differ from WGS84 by around a metre today, and older ones such as NAD27 or ED50 by up to 200 m. Use the coordinate converter when a map or a survey asks for another system.

UTM, MGRS, Plus Codes and geohashes

UTM is calculated with the Krüger series on the WGS84 ellipsoid and agrees with the PROJ library to well under a millimetre; it follows the standard zone exceptions for Norway and Svalbard and is not defined north of 84° N or south of 80° S. The MGRS reference is truncated to the 1 m square the point lies in, as the standard requires. The 10-character Plus Code names a cell of about 14 × 14 m and the 9-character geohash a cell of about 5 × 5 m, so both are approximate by design.

Good to know

Latitude first, then longitude

Latitude (north–south) is written first and longitude (east–west) second in nearly every app, which is also the order the paste box expects without N, S, E or W letters. GeoJSON and many programming libraries write longitude first. If a pasted point lands in the ocean, the numbers are probably swapped or missing a minus sign: west longitudes and south latitudes are negative.

"Use my location" is only as good as your device

A phone with GPS outdoors is usually within 5–10 m; a laptop on Wi-Fi can be off by hundreds of metres. The status line shows the accuracy the browser reports, and you can always click the correct spot on the map instead. The position stays in your browser and is not sent to GeoDrafter.

Town search, not street addresses

The search box knows about 24,000 towns and cities and jumps to their centre. It does not look up street addresses or house numbers, so zoom in from the town and click the building yourself.