Convert cm³ to m³ cubic centimetres ↔ cubic metres Free Online Secure
Type a value in cubic centimetres and read it in cubic metres at once. The factor is exact by definition, the arithmetic happens in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
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Common values — Convert cm³ to m³ (cubic centimetres ↔ cubic metres)
| cm³ | m³ |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.000001 |
| 2 | 0.000002 |
| 3 | 0.000003 |
| 5 | 0.000005 |
| 10 | 0.00001 |
| 20 | 0.00002 |
| 50 | 0.00005 |
| 100 | 0.0001 |
Where these units come from
The litre has an awkward history. From 1901 it was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at its densest, which sounds elegant but came out at 1.000028 cubic decimetres — close enough to be confusing and far enough to spoil careful work. In 1964 the definition was abandoned and the litre became exactly one cubic decimetre, which it has been ever since. The gallon has a messier story still: the US gallon descends from the English wine gallon of 231 cubic inches, while Britain redefined its own in 1824 as the volume of ten pounds of water. Nobody reconciled the two, so a US gallon is 3.785411784 litres and an imperial gallon 4.54609 — about a fifth larger. The gallon, pint, cup, fluid ounce and spoons on this page are the US ones.
Where you meet them
Millilitres and litres run through daily life almost invisibly: bottles, fuel, paint, dosage, the capacity of a kettle. Cubic metres belong to water bills, concrete, shipping and the air a ventilation system has to move. Cubic centimetres name engine displacement, cubic feet appear in freight and in appliance capacities, and cups and spoons live almost entirely in recipes — which is exactly where the difference between a US cup and a metric one quietly ruins a cake.
Questions people ask
What does cc mean on an engine?
It stands for cubic centimetres, the same as cm³, and it states the engine's displacement: the total volume swept by its pistons. A 1600 cc engine is a 1.6 litre engine. The figure is a measure of size and not of power, since two engines of the same displacement can differ greatly in output.
How many litres are in a cubic metre?
1000, since a cubic metre is a cube of ten decimetres on each side, and a litre is one cubic decimetre. A cubic metre of water weighs about a tonne. Water and gas consumption are billed in cubic metres, and a bath of 150 litres is therefore 0.15 of one.
Is the answer exact?
Where both units are defined in terms of one another by whole numbers, yes — the page says so above the figure, and the only rounding is in how many digits are shown. Where the ratio has no finite decimal, the page shows twelve significant digits and says the relation is approximate rather than pretending otherwise.
Does anything I type leave my device?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there is no server to upload it to. Load the page once and it keeps working with the network switched off.
Steel, sand and cork: what a cubic centimetre tells you about a cubic metre
Material data sheets give density in grams per cubic centimetre, while shipping, concrete and bulk-goods contracts speak of kilograms per cubic metre and tonnes. A sample of steel of 1 cm³ weighs 7.85 g, so a cubic metre weighs 7,850 kg. The bridge between the two is a factor of one million in volume. To convert cm³ to m³ you divide by 1,000,000, moving the decimal point six places to the left: 2,500,000 cm³ is 2.5 m³, and 350,000 cm³ is 0.35 m³. This page divides as you type, and the text below shows how small samples scale up to cargo, concrete and stockpiles.
The page covers the rule with examples, a note on each unit, a comparison, a tour of materials from cork to gold and the slips to avoid. All arithmetic happens in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to convert cm³ to m³: divide by one million
The rule
One cubic metre is exactly 1,000,000 cubic centimetres, because a metre is 100 centimetres and 100 cubed is a million. To convert cm³ to m³, divide the cubic centimetres by 1,000,000 or move the decimal point six places to the left. So 750,000 cm³ is 0.75 m³, 4,200,000 cm³ is 4.2 m³ and 18,000 cm³ is 0.018 m³. Going back, multiply cubic metres by a million.
Worked examples
A block of 50 by 40 by 30 cm contains 60,000 cm³, which is 0.06 m³. A pallet load of 120 by 100 by 150 cm is 1,800,000 cm³, or 1.8 m³. A skip of 300 by 150 by 100 cm has 4,500,000 cm³, 4.5 m³. For a long number, cut it into groups of three digits and count the groups after the first.
Why six places and not two
Going from centimetres to metres moves the point two places. A volume multiplies three lengths, so it moves six. If you move it only two, the result is ten thousand times too big.
A quick check
The cubic metre is a huge unit, so the figure must lose six digits. If your “convert cm³ to m³” calculation result lost only three, you have converted to litres, not to cubic metres.
The cubic centimetre
A cube one centimetre on each side
The cubic centimetre, equal to one millilitre, is the volume of a cube 1 cm on a side. It is the basic unit of density tables and sample sizes, and it is what you obtain by multiplying three dimensions measured in centimetres.
Where it appears
Material density, lab samples, small parts and engine capacity.
The cubic metre
A cube one metre on each side
The cubic metre is the SI unit of volume, equal to 1,000 litres or a million cubic centimetres. It is the working unit of concrete, timber, gravel, water supply and freight.
Where it appears
Construction, logistics, utilities and industrial specifications.
Cubic centimetre and cubic metre compared
A cubic metre holds a million cubic centimetres. The scale gap is the reason densities exist: they let a small sample stand for a large mass. A figure in g/cm³ becomes the same figure in tonnes per cubic metre, so 2.4 g/cm³ for concrete is 2.4 t/m³, which is 2,400 kg/m³.
The conversion needs no rounding. The only trap is the number of zeros. Write the unit after each figure and check the order of magnitude before you pass a number on.
Where the conversion appears
Density, side by side
Water has 1 g/cm³, which is 1,000 kg/m³. Steel 7.85 g/cm³, 7,850 kg/m³. Aluminium 2.70 g/cm³, 2,700 kg/m³. Concrete 2.4 g/cm³, 2,400 kg/m³. Oak 0.7 g/cm³, 700 kg/m³. Cork 0.12 g/cm³, 120 kg/m³. Air 0.0012 g/cm³, 1.2 kg/m³. The factor between the two systems is always 1,000.
Freight and pallets
A pallet load of 1.8 m³ filled with sand at 1,600 kg/m³ would weigh 2.9 tonnes. The same pallet filled with polystyrene at 20 kg/m³ weighs 36 kg. Carriers charge by weight or by volume, whichever is higher, so a “convert cm³ to m³” calculation step is the first thing a shipper does to see which applies.
Stockpiles and skips
A skip of 4.5 m³ holds about 7 tonnes of gravel at 1,600 kg/m³. A cubic metre of topsoil weighs around 1,300 kg. Landscapers who measure a hole in centimetres have to convert to cubic metres before ordering material by the tonne.
Gold, lead and mercury
Gold has a density of 19.3 g/cm³, so a cube of 1 cm³ weighs 19.3 g and a cubic metre would weigh 19,300 kg. Lead is 11.34 g/cm³, mercury 13.55. A small flask of 100 cm³ of mercury weighs 1.355 kg. Bullion bars are quoted by weight, but a refiner calculating the melt volume converts the bar's cubic centimetres into cubic metres only when the furnace is large.
Soil volumes and compaction
A trench of 40 by 60 by 200 cm has 480,000 cm³, 0.48 m³. When soil is dug out it expands by 20 to 30 percent, so the loose volume is about 0.6 m³, and when it is compacted back it shrinks again. Excavation plans account for the bulking factor; a “convert cm³ to m³” calculation step is only the first line of the calculation.
Packaging and cartons
A carton of 40 by 30 by 25 cm has a volume of 30,000 cm³, 0.03 m³. A 20-foot container with 33 m³ of space holds about 1,100 of them, though real loading is less perfect. Freight forwarders convert each carton to cubic metres, add them up, and compare with the container's capacity, so a conversion is done hundreds of times in a single booking.
3D prints and moulds
A printed part of 800 cm³ has a volume of 0.0008 m³. In PLA at 1.24 g/cm³ it weighs 992 g. A batch of 1,000 such parts takes 0.8 m³ of material. Manufacturers moving from prototype to production scale up the volume by a million times, and a conversion keeps the figures consistent.
In a spreadsheet
Place the cubic centimetres in column A and use =A2/1000000 in column B. To go back, =B2*1000000. Add a column for density in kg/m³, and multiply to get the mass. Format the result with four decimal places for small volumes, because 0.0016 m³ and 0.002 m³ differ by 25 percent.
Rounding
The factor is exact, so rounding is your choice. Match the precision of the input: 1,571 cm³ gives 0.001571 m³. Quoting 0.00157100 would suggest more accuracy than you have. In reports, give the number of significant figures that your instrument supports, and round at the end of the calculation.
Scientific notation
Write 1,800,000 cm³ as 1.8 × 10⁶ cm³. Since 1 cm³ is 10⁻⁶ m³, the volume is 1.8 m³. Write 45,000 cm³ as 4.5 × 10⁴ cm³, which is 4.5 × 10⁻² m³, or 0.045 m³. The exponent method avoids miscounting zeros and is the standard format in data sheets.
Reference values
1 cm³ is 0.000001 m³, 1,000 cm³ is 0.001 m³, 10,000 cm³ is 0.01 m³, 100,000 cm³ is 0.1 m³, 500,000 cm³ is 0.5 m³, 1,000,000 cm³ is 1 m³ and 5,000,000 cm³ is 5 m³. If you convert cm³ to m³ and land far from this ladder, repeat the division.
Checking by reversing
To make sure your “convert cm³ to m³” calculation result is right, multiply it by one million. If 1,800,000 cm³ gave 1.8 m³, then 1.8 times 1,000,000 returns 1,800,000. Another check is the weight: a cubic metre of steel should come out near 7.85 tonnes if you scale up a 7.85 g cube properly, and a result of 7.85 kg or 7,850 tonnes signals a slip.
Reading a bill of lading
A bill of lading lists cargo by package count, weight and volume. A row that says 1,260,000 cm³ per carton, 40 cartons, is 50.4 m³ in total. The carrier then compares the weight, say 9 tonnes, with the chargeable volume. A tonne per cubic metre is the usual break-even for sea freight, so when the cargo is lighter than that the shipper pays by volume. Anyone checking such a bill needs to convert cm³ to m³ on every line.
Lab sample to plant scale
A pilot experiment uses 250 cm³ of a mixture. A plant that makes it by the thousand litres needs 1 m³, which is four thousand times the pilot volume. Scale-up factors are ratios of volumes, so both must be in the same unit. A chemist who forgets the conversion and divides 1 by 250 gets 0.004, not 4,000, and the error is obvious only if the reagent quantities are checked against the tank.
Light materials
Expanded polystyrene has 15 to 30 kg/m³, so a cube of 10 cm has 1,000 cm³ and weighs 15 to 30 g. Cork is 120 kg/m³, balsa 120 to 160, a standard foam mattress about 30. Light materials make a large volume look cheap to ship, but carriers bill on volume instead, which is why packaging engineers measure in cubic metres and aim to fill the space.
Foam, insulation and loft space
An insulation roll of 1.2 m by 8 m by 0.1 m occupies 0.96 m³, or 960,000 cm³. A loft of 6 m by 4 m filled to 25 cm depth takes 6 m³ of loose insulation. Suppliers pack the product compressed, so one bale of 0.3 m³ expands to many times that volume when opened. The label gives the expanded coverage, and the conversion lets you compare it with the packed size on the pallet.
Glass, bricks and building blocks
A standard brick of 215 by 102.5 by 65 mm has a volume of about 1,433 cm³, 0.001433 m³. A cubic metre of brickwork therefore needs roughly 700 bricks if there were no mortar, and about 500 with mortar joints in practice. A concrete block of 440 by 215 by 100 mm has 9,460 cm³, 0.00946 m³, so about 106 blocks fill a cubic metre. Builders quote the number per square metre of wall, but estimators begin with the volume of one unit and a quick convert cm³ to m³ gives the share it takes of each cubic metre.
Wine, beer and tanks
A standard wine bottle holds 750 cm³, so 1,333 bottles make a cubic metre. A beer keg of 50 L holds 50,000 cm³, 0.05 m³, and a fermentation tank of 2 m³ holds the equivalent of forty such kegs. Brewers record batch volumes in hectolitres and litres, wine merchants in bottles, and plant engineers in cubic metres, so the same product is described in three scales that must stay consistent.
Concrete and cylinder tests
A standard cylinder for concrete testing, 100 mm across and 200 mm tall, has a volume of 1,571 cm³, or 0.001571 m³. At 2,400 kg/m³ it weighs 3.77 kg. A cubic metre of concrete would fill roughly 637 such cylinders. Labs report results per specimen, while ordering is by cubic metre, so a quick conversion connects the sample to the batch.
Timber and boards
A plank of 5 by 20 by 300 cm has a volume of 30,000 cm³, 0.03 m³. Thirty-three of them make 1 m³ of timber. Sawmills sell timber by the cubic metre, joiners buy single planks, and the figure per plank is the one that appears on a cutting list. A “convert cm³ to m³” calculation gives the share of a cubic metre each plank represents.
Sand, gravel and aggregates
Dry sand weighs about 1,600 kg/m³ and gravel 1,700. A wheelbarrow holds about 0.08 m³, or 80,000 cm³, so twelve loads fill a cubic metre. Aggregates are sold by the tonne or the cubic metre, and the conversion between them uses the density. A bag of 25 kg of sand has a volume of 15,600 cm³, or 0.0156 m³, so 64 bags equal one cubic metre.
Water
A cubic metre of water weighs 1,000 kg, so 1 cm³ weighs 1 g. A household using 150 L a day uses 0.15 m³, 150,000 cm³. A pond of 3 by 2 by 0.6 m holds 3.6 m³, 3,600,000 cm³. Water companies bill in cubic metres, while a rain gauge that catches a few cubic centimetres makes the connection between rain and volume on a roof.
Rainfall and roofs
One millimetre of rain on one square metre is a litre, which is 1,000 cm³. A roof of 80 m² receiving 10 mm collects 800 L, 0.8 m³, 800,000 cm³. A butt of 200 L fills in 2.5 mm of rain. The rule of thumb helps you size gutters and tanks, and the conversion from cubic centimetres to cubic metres explains why a gauge reading translates into a surprisingly large volume.
Ice and snow
Ice has 0.917 g/cm³, so a cubic metre weighs 917 kg. Fresh snow is much lighter, around 50 to 100 kg/m³, and wet snow up to 300. A roof with 0.3 m of snow over 80 m² carries 24 m³, which at 100 kg/m³ is 2.4 tonnes. Engineers check roof loads in kilograms per square metre, but the sample taken from the roof is measured in cubic centimetres.
Fuel and oil
Diesel has a density of about 0.84 g/cm³, 840 kg/m³. A tank of 5 m³ holds roughly 4.2 tonnes. A lab sample of 250 cm³ weighs 210 g and is 0.00025 m³. Fuel is sold in litres, stored in cubic metres and tested in cubic centimetres, so the same page of conversions appears in the refinery, the depot and the filling station.
More values for convert cm³ to m³
A longer list of conversions
If the value you need is not in the first list, these further conversions may be close enough to read off directly:
- 0.1 cm³ = 0.0000001 m³
- 0.5 cm³ = 0.0000005 m³
- 3 cm³ = 0.000003 m³
- 4 cm³ = 0.000004 m³
- 7 cm³ = 0.000007 m³
- 15 cm³ = 0.000015 m³
- 20 cm³ = 0.00002 m³
- 75 cm³ = 0.000075 m³
- 200 cm³ = 0.0002 m³
- 500 cm³ = 0.0005 m³
- 2,000 cm³ = 0.002 m³
- 10,000 cm³ = 0.01 m³
Mistakes when you convert cm³ to m³
Dividing by 1,000
That converts to litres. For cubic metres, divide by 1,000,000.
Mixing g/cm³ and kg/m³
The two density units differ by a factor of 1,000. Check which one a table uses before multiplying by a volume.
Losing zeros
With six zeros, one more or fewer changes the answer tenfold. Count groups of three digits.
Quick answers
How many cubic metres are in a cubic centimetre?
0.000001.
How do I convert cm³ to m³?
Divide by 1,000,000.
How many cubic centimetres are in a cubic metre?
1,000,000.
What is 2,500,000 cm³ in cubic metres?
2.5 m³.
Is the number I type stored anywhere?
No, it stays in your browser.
Related pages and a last word
If you work with volumes, these conversions are close at hand: Convert cm³ to L, Convert cm³ to ml, Convert mm³ to m³, Convert L to m³, Convert m³ to yd³, Convert km to mi, Convert mi to km, Convert °C to °F, Convert °F to °C. The reverse of this page is Convert m³ to cm³.
To sum up: to convert cm³ to m³, divide by one million, remember that the factor is one hundred cubed and write the unit beside the result. The figure you enter is processed locally, with no account and no upload.