UTM Coordinates for My Location
Tap the button and this page shows your position as UTM (zone, easting, northing) and MGRS — the grid formats used on topographic maps, by surveyors, and in military and search-and-rescue work. Below it, convert any latitude/longitude to UTM, or go the other way: zone + hemisphere + easting + northing back to a point on the map. Everything is computed in your browser on WGS84, accurate to about a meter.
Click anywhere on the map to read that point's UTM and MGRS.
How to read a UTM coordinate
31U 448252E 5411933N means: grid zone 31 (one of 60 six-degree slices of the world), latitude band U, then meters — 448,252 m east of the zone's reference line and 5,411,933 m north of the equator. Because both numbers are meters, map work becomes arithmetic: two points 500 apart in easting are 500 m apart on the ground, no trigonometry required. That's why paper topo maps, surveying and off-grid navigation prefer UTM over degrees.
UTM vs MGRS — same grid, different spelling
MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) is UTM restated for radio and pencil: the zone and band stay, a two-letter code names the 100 km square, and the remaining digits give meters inside it — 31U DQ 48252 11933 is the same point as the UTM above. NATO forces, search-and-rescue teams and many national mapping agencies log positions this way. This page shows both, from the same one-tap fix.
The fine print that bites
- Datum: everything here is WGS84, matching GPS and virtually all modern maps. Coordinates from old maps on NAD27 or ED50 can be shifted by up to a few hundred meters — the era of the map matters.
- Polar caps: UTM is defined between 80°S and 84°N; beyond that the UPS grid takes over, which this tool doesn't cover.
- Zone edges: near a zone boundary, two valid UTM references can describe nearly the same spot in different zones. When comparing positions, make sure the zone numbers match before comparing eastings.
- Background reading: coordinate systems explained.
Whose maps print UTM — and who went their own way
If you hike outside the big national-grid countries, the numbers on your paper map are probably UTM already. United States: USGS quads carry UTM ticks, and the domestic USNG (United States National Grid) used by FEMA and search-and-rescue is MGRS by another name — a USNG reference like 18S UJ 228 070 reads and converts here exactly like MGRS. Canada: NTS topo maps print the blue UTM grid with MGRS square letters. Norway, Sweden, Finland and much of Europe's hiking mapping run on UTM zones 32–35. All of it converts on this page.
Several countries replaced UTM with a national Transverse Mercator grid tuned to their shape — same mathematics, local constants: Australia's MGA (literally UTM on GDA2020), New Zealand's NZTM (one zone, no seam), Britain's OS National Grid, the Irish grid, and Switzerland's LV95. Each has its own page here with the real conversion.