Distance and Bearing Calculator

How the distance and bearing are calculated

This tool measures the great-circle distance between two points — the shortest path along the surface of a sphere, which is how ships, planes, and long-haul flight paths actually travel rather than a straight line drawn on a flat map. It's the same calculation behind "as the crow flies" distances you see quoted for flights or migrations, and it's noticeably shorter than a straight line on most rectangular map projections once two points are far apart in longitude.

Bearing is the compass direction you'd need to travel in, measured clockwise from true north (0°) through east (90°), south (180°), and west (270°). The initial bearing is the direction to head at the start of the journey from Point A; because the earth is curved, that direction actually changes gradually along the route, so the return bearing from B back to A isn't simply the initial bearing plus 180°. The midpoint is the coordinate exactly halfway along that great-circle path, not halfway between the two points' latitude and longitude values averaged directly.

Typical uses: checking how far apart two cities, GPS waypoints, or shipment origin/destination pairs really are, plotting a compass heading for navigation or orienteering, or sanity-checking a distance a mapping API returned. Paste in decimal-degree coordinates for each point — if you have them in degrees/minutes/seconds instead, convert them first with the DMS converter linked above.

Distances are given in kilometers, miles, and nautical miles so you can use whichever unit fits — nautical miles for marine or aviation navigation, kilometers or miles for everything else. Every calculation happens locally in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.