The Acre-Feet to Cubic Meters Converter instantly converts between the two primary volume units in water resource management. One acre-foot equals exactly 1,233.48185 cubic meters — the volume needed to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot, equal to approximately 325,851 US gallons.
1,233.48
m³
1,233,480
L
325,851
gal
1,233.48
m³
1,233,480
L
325,851
gal
The calculator for acre-feet to cubic meters converts between the two dominant volume units in water resource management — the acre-foot used throughout the western United States and the cubic meter (m³) used in SI-based hydrology and international water policy. One acre-foot is defined as the volume of water required to cover one acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of exactly one foot.
The conversion between acre-feet and cubic meters is derived from the exact definitions of the foot and the acre in the international system:
1 acre-foot = 43,560 ft² × 0.3048 m/ft × 0.3048 m/ft × 0.3048 m/ft = 1,233.48185 m³
Equivalently: 1 m³ = 0.000810714 acre-feet. This conversion is exact within the precision of the foot-to-meter definition. For practical water management work, 1,233.5 m³ per acre-foot is accurate to six significant figures. The gallons to liters converter and volume converters category provide complementary unit conversion tools.
The acre-foot is the standard unit of water volume in the western United States, used by water utilities, irrigation districts, dam operators, and state water agencies. It represents the annual water needs of approximately 1–2 average American households. Common applications include:
Outside the US, cubic meters or cubic kilometers are universal. International water treaties, UN reports, and most engineering specifications use SI units exclusively. This online calculator bridges the two systems instantly.
Understanding the scale of an acre-foot helps interpret water resource data:
The barrels to liters converter and bushels to cubic feet converter handle other specialized agricultural and industrial volume units in the same category.
1 acre-foot = 1,233.48 m³ = 325,851 US gallons. It is the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot.
The results use exact international conversion factors. Compare values against standard reference tables to verify accuracy. Use the appropriate unit for your application — metric for international standards, US customary for American recipes and measurements.
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1 acre-foot = 1,233.48 m³.
An acre-foot is the volume of water that would cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot — about 325,851 US gallons.
1 acre-foot = 325,851 gallons. An average US household uses about 0.5 acre-feet per year.
Acre-feet are used in the western United States for water rights, reservoir storage, and irrigation planning.
325,851 US gallons — enough to supply 2-3 average households for a year.
All conversions use exact international definitions where available, providing results accurate to floating-point precision.
Yes, simply use the inverse formula or look for the reverse converter in our collection.
This conversion is commonly used in water resource management and reservoir storage.
This conversion uses internationally defined exact factors wherever possible. Any approximation is noted in the formula section.
Conversion factors are from NIST, BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), and ISO standards.
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