Use the following calculator to get the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere.
Calculate the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere
How to use:
- Enter the sphere radius (e.g., Earth radius ≈ 6371 km)
- Enter Point A coordinates (latitude and longitude in degrees)
- Enter Point B coordinates (latitude and longitude in degrees)
- The distance will be calculated automatically as you type
- Distance is calculated using the Haversine formula (great-circle distance)
Any unit (km, miles, meters, etc.)
Point A Coordinates
Point B Coordinates
Distance:
-
Arc angle: -
Sphere Visualization
Point A
Point B
Great-circle arc
How to calculate the distance on a sphere
The distance on a sphere is calculated as the great-circle distance: it is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, measured along the surface.
Haversine Formula:
Given two points with coordinates (lat₁, lon₁) and (lat₂, lon₂):
- a = sin²(Δlat/2) + cos(lat₁) · cos(lat₂) · sin²(Δlon/2)
- c = 2 · atan2(√a, √(1−a))
- distance = R · c
Where R is the sphere’s radius, and the distance will be in the same units as R.
Example – Distance on Earth:
- Earth’s radius: 6371 km (or 3959 miles)
- New York to London: (40.7128°N, -74.0060°W) to (51.5074°N, -0.1278°W)
- Result: ~5,570 km great-circle distance