BYTETOOLS

Geohash Converter

Encode coordinates to a geohash at any precision, decode a geohash to its centre and bounding box, and list all eight neighbouring cells.

9
9
Characters
2.6 m
Cell width
4.8 m
Cell height
45
Bits used

Geohash

u4pruydqq

Cell centre
57.6491046, 10.4074216
Centre in DMS
57°38'56.78"N 10°24'26.72"E
Latitude range
57.6490831° → 57.6491261°
Longitude range
10.4074001° → 10.4074430°

Written as a bounding box: 10.4074001, 57.6490831, 10.4074430, 57.6491261 (west, south, east, north).

The eight neighbouring cells

u4pruydqt
nw
u4pruydqw
n
u4pruydqx
ne
u4pruydqm
w
u4pruydqq
this cell
u4pruydqr
e
u4pruydqj
sw
u4pruydqn
s
u4pruydqp
se

Query these nine cells together when you search by proximity — a point just over the border sits in a neighbour, not in this cell, so a prefix search on one cell alone misses it. A dash means the cell is at the pole and has no neighbour in that direction.

How precision changes the cell

LengthGeohashWidthHeight
1u1872.76 km5003.78 km
2u4642.35 km625.47 km
3u4p85.27 km156.37 km
4u4pr20.96 km19.55 km
5u4pru2.62 km4.89 km
6u4pruy653.7 m610.8 m
7u4pruyd81.7 m152.7 m
8u4pruydq20.4 m19.1 m
9u4pruydqq2.6 m4.8 m
10u4pruydqqv63.8 cm59.6 cm
11u4pruydqqvj8.0 cm14.9 cm
12u4pruydqqvj82.0 cm1.9 cm

Cell width shrinks towards the poles because longitude lines converge, so the same character count covers less ground the further north or south you go.

What is the Geohash Converter?

This geohash converter does all three jobs in one place: it encodes a latitude/longitude pair into a base-32 geohash at precision 1 to 12, decodes any geohash back to its centre point and bounding box, and lists the eight cells that surround it.

  • Encode and decode in one tool, at precision 1 to 12 characters
  • Cell bounding box plus width and height in metres at your latitude
  • All eight neighbouring geohashes laid out in a 3 × 3 grid
  • Precision ladder showing the same point from 1 to 12 characters
  • Handles the antimeridian correctly and marks polar cells that have no neighbour
  • 100% client-side — coordinates and geohashes never leave the page

How to use the Geohash Converter

  1. 1

    Choose whether you are encoding a coordinate or decoding a geohash.

  2. 2

    Enter latitude and longitude, then drag the precision slider from 1 to 12 characters — or paste a geohash to decode.

  3. 3

    Read the geohash together with its centre point, bounding box and real-world cell size.

  4. 4

    Use the 3 × 3 grid to copy the eight neighbouring cells for a proximity query.

  5. 5

    Scan the precision table to see how the cell shrinks as you add characters.

About the Geohash Converter

This geohash converter does all three jobs in one place: it encodes a latitude/longitude pair into a base-32 geohash at precision 1 to 12, decodes any geohash back to its centre point and bounding box, and lists the eight cells that surround it. The encoding is the standard interleaved-bit algorithm, so results match Redis, Elasticsearch, DynamoDB and every other implementation.

Geohashes turn a position into a short string where a shared prefix means physical closeness, which is what makes them useful as database keys for proximity search. Because a point near a cell edge sits closer to a neighbour than to most of its own cell, the neighbour grid matters as much as the hash itself.

The cell width and height are shown in real metres at your latitude, so you can pick a precision that actually matches your search radius. Everything runs locally in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is a geohash at each length?

Roughly: 4 characters is about 20 km, 5 is about 5 km, 6 is about 1.2 km, 7 is about 150 m, 8 is about 40 m and 9 is about 5 m. Cells are not square and get narrower towards the poles, which is why this tool measures your specific cell in metres.

Why do two nearby places have completely different geohashes?

Because the grid has hard edges. Two points a metre apart on opposite sides of a cell boundary share no prefix at all — the classic case is a location right on the equator or the prime meridian. That is exactly why you query the eight neighbours as well as the cell itself.

Which letters are missing from the geohash alphabet?

Geohash base-32 uses the digits 0–9 and the letters b–z but drops a, i, l and o, because they are easy to confuse with 1 and 0 when read aloud or typed. A geohash containing any of those four letters is invalid, and this tool will say so.

Can a geohash be converted back to an exact location?

No — a geohash names a rectangle, not a point. Decoding gives you the centre of that rectangle and the error bars around it. The longer the hash, the smaller the rectangle, but there is always a box rather than a single coordinate.

Are geohashes the same as what3words or Plus Codes?

They solve the same problem differently. Geohash uses base-32 characters and is designed for database indexing; Plus Codes use a different alphabet tuned for human readability; what3words is a proprietary dictionary scheme. Only geohash gives you the prefix property that makes range queries work.

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