Elevation tells you how high the ground beneath your feet is above average sea level. Whether you are hiking in the mountains, adjusting a recipe for high-altitude baking, checking if a property is on high ground, or just curious how high up your town sits, this page measures elevation in both feet and meters for any spot on Earth.
1. How This Tool Finds Your Ground Elevation
This page uses two sources to give you a reliable reading:
• Satellite Terrain Maps (Default & Most Reliable for Ground Level): Once your location is set on the map, the tool checks global satellite terrain survey maps that have measured the height of the land across the entire planet. This gives you the true ground elevation whether you are using a phone or a desktop computer.
• Phone GPS Altimeter: If you are on a smartphone and tap "Use Precise GPS," your phone can also report its own sensor altitude. Keep in mind that phone GPS is great for telling if you climbed a hill or went up in a tall building, while the terrain map tells you the height of the ground itself.
| Elevation (Feet) | Elevation (Meters) | Water Boiling Point | Effective Oxygen | Famous Places at This Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 ft (Sea Level) | 0 m | 212.0 °F (100.0 °C) | 100% (Normal) | Miami, New York, London, Tokyo |
| 1,000 ft | 305 m | 210.2 °F (99.0 °C) | 96% | Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis |
| 3,000 ft | 914 m | 206.5 °F (97.0 °C) | 90% | Tucson, Calgary, foothills |
| 5,280 ft (1 Mile High) | 1,609 m | 202.4 °F (94.7 °C) | 82% | Denver (CO), Albuquerque (NM) |
| 7,000 ft | 2,134 m | 199.1 °F (92.8 °C) | 77% | Santa Fe (NM), Flagstaff (AZ), Mexico City |
| 10,000 ft | 3,048 m | 193.6 °F (89.8 °C) | 69% | Leadville (CO), Rocky Mountain ski resorts |
| 14,000 ft | 4,267 m | 186.2 °F (85.7 °C) | 59% | Pikes Peak, Mount Rainier, high mountain passes |
2. Surprising Ways Altitude Affects Cooking, Cars & Hiking
As you go higher above sea level, the air gets thinner and air pressure drops. You start noticing real differences above 3,000 to 5,000 feet:
• Water Boils at a Lower Temperature: For every 1,000 feet you go up, water boils about 1.8 °F (1 °C) cooler. Because boiling water isn't as hot in Denver or Santa Fe as it is at the beach, boiling pasta, rice, potatoes, or hard-boiled eggs takes noticeably longer! For baking cakes or bread above 3,500 feet, you often need slightly less baking powder and a touch more liquid so baked goods don't rise too fast and collapse.
• Hiking & Exercise: The air still has 21% oxygen at high altitude, but because the air is less compressed, every breath you take pulls in fewer oxygen molecules. At 8,000 feet, you get about a quarter less oxygen per breath than at sea level.
• Snacks, Tire Pressure & Engines: Sealed bags of potato chips puff up like balloons when you drive up a mountain pass because the air trapped inside pushes outward against the lower mountain air pressure.
3. How to Use the Elevation Profile Chart
Want to see how steep a hike, bike ride, or road is between two points? Click "Click-to-Draw Transect" above the chart at the bottom of this page, then click any two spots on the map. The tool will draw a side-view slice of the hills and valleys between those two points and show the total climb and steepness.