What is straight-line (great-circle) distance?

It is the shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere — the path a plane would take if it could fly in a perfect arc ignoring wind, terrain, and flight restrictions. It is always shorter than the road distance.

Where do I find a city's latitude and longitude?

Search for the city on Google Maps, right-click the location, and copy the coordinates shown. They appear in decimal-degree format (e.g. 48.8566, 2.3522 for Paris).

What formula does this tool use?

The Haversine formula, which accounts for the curvature of the Earth. It is accurate to within about 0.5% for most city-to-city distances.

Why does the road distance differ from this result?

Roads, mountains, coastlines, and political borders force vehicles to take longer routes. Straight-line distance is always the theoretical minimum — actual travel is typically 20–40% longer.

Is my data sent to a server?

No. All calculations run entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is transmitted to any server.

What coordinate format should I use?

Use decimal degrees (e.g. 40.7128 for latitude, -74.0060 for longitude). Negative latitude means south of the equator; negative longitude means west of the prime meridian.

How far is New York from Los Angeles?

About 3,936 km (2,446 miles) in a straight line between the city centers. The drive across the country is roughly 2,800 miles because roads do not follow the great circle.

Can I just type the city names?

Yes. Start typing and pick the city from the list, which covers more than 27,000 cities with at least 20,000 people. Add the region or country after a comma to narrow it down, for example "Portland, Maine". If you press Calculate without picking, the largest city with that name is used.

Where does the city list come from?

From GeoNames (geonames.org), shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Each city uses the GeoNames point for its center, rounded to about 100 meters, so results can differ by a kilometer or so from calculators that use a different center point.

Distance Between Cities

Type two city names to get the straight-line distance in kilometers and miles. Enter latitude and longitude yourself for places not in the list.

The straight-line distance between two cities, as the crow flies, is the great-circle distance over the Earth's surface.

Enter Two Cities

City 1

City

Latitude

Longitude

City 2

City

Latitude

Longitude

Pick a city to fill in its coordinates, or type latitude and longitude yourself. City data: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0.

Type two city names and click Calculate

Try an Example

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Quick answer

The straight-line distance between two cities, as the crow flies, is the great-circle distance over the Earth's surface. This tool computes it from each city's latitude and longitude with the haversine formula and a 6,371 km Earth radius. Driving distance is usually longer.

Examples

Cities (city centers)	km	miles
New York – Los Angeles	3,936	2,446
New York – London	5,570	3,461
London – Paris	344	213
Delhi – Mumbai	1,148	713
Tokyo – Sydney	7,826	4,863

Type two city names to get the distance in km and miles.

Summary

This tool calculates the straight-line (great-circle) distance between two cities with the Haversine formula. Start typing a city name and pick it from a list of more than 27,000 cities with a population of 20,000 or more (GeoNames data), or enter latitude and longitude for any other place. The distance is shown in kilometers and miles, and everything runs in your browser.

How it works

Start typing the first city and pick it from the suggestions; its coordinates fill in automatically.
Do the same for the second city, or type latitude and longitude in decimal degrees for a place that is not listed.
Click "Calculate Distance" to run the Haversine formula.
Read the result in both kilometers and miles.
Use the copy buttons to copy either distance value.
Click "Swap Cities" to reverse the two city entries, or "Reset" to start over.

Use cases

Estimate how far apart two travel destinations are as-the-crow-flies.
Compare city distances when planning a multi-stop itinerary.
Check airline route distances for rough flight-time estimates.
Educational projects that need quick great-circle distance lookup.
Validating distance data in logistics or geography homework.
Comparing road-trip vs. straight-line distances between cities.
Finding which of several cities is closest to a reference point.
Quick sanity-checking of GPS coordinates before using them in code.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-06-13 · Reviewed by Nham Vu