Medical Disclaimer: This calculator provides a general estimate based on established research and is for educational purposes only, not a substitute for medical advice. Individual results can vary based on health conditions, so consult a qualified healthcare professional or registered dietitian before making significant changes to your diet, exercise, or health routine. Read our full Medical Disclaimer.
How Stride Length Is Calculated
Stride length is the distance you cover in one full walking or running cycle, from one heel strike to the next strike of the same heel. It is made up of two steps, one with each foot. You can work it out from a walk over a known distance, or estimate it from your height.
What Stride Length Measures
A step is the distance from one foot landing to the other foot landing. A stride is two steps, so it is twice as long. Many fitness trackers use the word "stride" but mean a single step. Fitbit tells users to divide the distance they walked by the number of steps they took¹, and Garmin works out its stride length from a known distance and a step count². Both give a step length. This calculator shows both numbers, so you know which one you have.
The Formula
Step length = distance / number of steps
Stride length = step length x 2
Estimated step length = height x 0.42 (comfortable walk) or height x 0.46 (brisk walk)
Steps per mile = 63,360 / step length in inches
The height ratios come from measured walking studies, where steps averaged 42% of height at a comfortable pace and 46% at a brisk pace³ ⁴.
How This Calculator Computes Your Result
In Measure mode, enter a distance (feet, yards, miles, meters or kilometers), your step count, and whether you walked or ran. The tool divides distance by steps. In Estimate mode, enter your height and pick a comfortable or brisk walking pace. There is no running estimate, because running steps depend mostly on speed. Both modes show step and stride length in inches, feet, centimeters and meters, steps per mile and per kilometer, and the number to type into your tracker.
What Your Result Means
There is no good or bad stride length. Your result tells you how far each step carries you, which sets how many steps make up a mile. This table shows estimated walking step length by height.
Height | Comfortable step | Brisk step | Steps per mile (comfortable to brisk) |
5 ft 0 in (152 cm) | 25.2 in (64 cm) | 27.6 in (70 cm) | 2,514 to 2,296 |
5 ft 4 in (163 cm) | 26.9 in (68 cm) | 29.4 in (75 cm) | 2,357 to 2,152 |
5 ft 8 in (173 cm) | 28.6 in (73 cm) | 31.3 in (79 cm) | 2,218 to 2,026 |
6 ft 0 in (183 cm) | 30.2 in (77 cm) | 33.1 in (84 cm) | 2,095 to 1,913 |
6 ft 4 in (193 cm) | 31.9 in (81 cm) | 35.0 in (89 cm) | 1,985 to 1,812 |
Double the step to get the stride. A 5 ft 8 in walker at a comfortable pace has a stride of about 57 inches (145 cm). In one study, young adults at a comfortable pace averaged about 0.70 m (28 in) per step³. In another, young adults walking briskly averaged 0.78 m (31 in)⁴.
How to Measure Correctly
Find a known distance, such as a 400 m track lap or 100 feet taped out on flat ground.
Start a few steps back, so you are at your normal pace at the start line.
Count every time either foot lands, not every other step. Count at least 20 steps¹.
Do it twice and average the two counts. In one study, two walking trials were enough for a reliable result⁴.
If you run, repeat at your running pace. Fitbit keeps a separate running value¹.
Why Your Tracker Needs Your Step Length
Trackers turn steps into distance with one sum: steps x stride length = distance¹. Fitbit sets this number from your height and sex unless you change it, keeps separate walking and running values, and updates your running value after a GPS run¹.
Any error in the setting carries straight through to your distance. If your real step is 28 inches but your tracker uses 26, your distance reads about 7% low, which is about 0.36 miles lost on a 5 mile walk.
What Changes Your Step Length
Speed matters most. In 21 young adults, average step length rose from 0.43 m at a very slow walk to 0.70 m at a comfortable pace and 0.87 m at a fast pace³.
Height matters too, but sex adds little once height is known. A US Air Force review of gait studies found that step length had a height effect, not a sex effect⁵, so this tool does not ask for your sex.
Age and walking speed often go together. In 261 hospital patients aged 75 and over, people who could walk at 1.0 m per second (2.2 mph) or faster in a fast walking test took steps of about 40% of their height in that test, while slower walkers averaged about 26%⁶.
Running steps are longer again and grow as you speed up, so measure them on a track. Your speed equals step length times step rate, and the Running Cadence Calculator covers the step rate side.
Where the 0.413 and 0.415 Rule Comes From
Many sites estimate stride as height x 0.413 for women and x 0.415 for men. We could not trace that rule to a published study, and the result is really a step length. It lands close to the 42% of height measured at a comfortable pace³. When a 42% rule was tested on young adults walking briskly, it gave 0.71 m against a measured 0.78 m and matched each person only moderately well⁴. Measuring beats any height rule.
Step Length by Walking Speed
Average step length of 21 young adults at three walking speeds. Speed changes step length more than anything else.
Show data table
| Walking speed | Step length (in) |
|---|---|
| Very slow walk | 16.9 |
| Comfortable walk | 27.6 |
| Fast walk | 34.3 |
A Note on Accuracy
A measured step length is only as good as your step count and your distance. A height estimate is a group average and can be off by several inches for one person. Your step changes with speed, hills, shoes and tiredness, so treat any single number as an average for one pace.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average stride length?
For young adults walking at a comfortable pace, a step averages about 0.70 m (28 in), so a full stride is about 1.4 m (55 in)³. Brisk walkers in another study averaged 0.78 m (31 in) per step⁴.
What is the difference between step length and stride length?
A step runs from one foot landing to the other foot landing, and a stride is two steps, so it is twice as long. Most fitness trackers use "stride" to mean one step¹.
How do I calculate my stride length from my height?
Multiply your height by about 0.42 for a comfortable walk, or 0.46 for a brisk walk, to get step length, then double it for stride. At 5 ft 8 in (68 in), that gives a step of about 28.6 inches and a stride of about 57 inches.
Is a height-based stride length accurate?
Only roughly. When researchers tested a 42% of height rule, it came out too short on average and matched each person's measured step only moderately well⁴.
Sources
How Fitbit Calculates Daily Activity, Fitbit (Google)
Estimated Lower Speed Boundary at Which the Walk Ratio Constancy Is Broken in Healthy Adults, Murakami and Otaka, 2017
Parameters of Walking and Jogging in Healthy Young Adults, Barreira et al., 2010
Do Men and Women Walk Differently?, Frimenko et al., 2014
Walking Speed and Step Length in Older Patients, Morio et al., 2019