When you actually need this conversion
An agent sends you a plot near Pune: "15 guntha, NA-approved, road-facing." The 7/12 extract states the area in hectares and ares. The architect works in square meters. The contractor quotes per square foot. The bank's valuation form wants one number, and nobody in that chain works in guntha. This converter turns guntha into square meters and back, instantly, in your browser.
Here is the good news, and it is genuinely unusual for a South Asian land unit: the guntha is exactly standardized. It is defined as 1/40 of an acre, which makes it exactly 1,089 ft², exactly 121 yd², and exactly 101.17141056 m². There is no Maharashtra guntha versus Karnataka guntha the way there is a Rajasthan bigha versus a Nepali bigha. A guntha in Nashik is the same size as a gunta in Belagavi.
So the guntha will not betray you by being redefined. It will betray you with arithmetic — because it counts in base 40, not base 100, and because it sits within 1.2% of a completely different unit that appears on the same document. Both traps are below, with the money they cost.
The exact definition, and what it looks like on the ground
Everything about the guntha descends from one relationship: 40 guntha = 1 acre. Because the international acre is defined as exactly 4,046.8564224 m², dividing by 40 gives an exact guntha. Nothing here is rounded or customary.
m² = guntha × 101.17141056 guntha = m² ÷ 101.17141056
1 guntha = 1,089 ft² = 121 yd² = 1/40 acre = 2.5 cent
40 guntha = 1 acre 98.842 guntha = 1 hectare
1 guntha, if square, is exactly 33 ft × 33 ft (about 10.06 m × 10.06 m)
That last line is the one worth memorizing. A guntha is a 33-foot square.It is roughly the footprint of a modest two-bedroom house plus a small yard, or about two-fifths of a tennis court including the run-off. When a listing says "3 guntha," picture three of those squares. If the number you calculated does not match that mental image, you have made an error somewhere — and the next section explains where.
Guntha conversion table
Common plot sizes across every unit you are likely to meet in a deed, a listing, or a contractor's quote. These are exact, not approximations rounded for convenience.
| Guntha | Square meters | Square feet | Acres | Hectares | Cent |
|---|
| 1 | 101.17 | 1,089 | 0.025 | 0.0101 | 2.5 |
| 5 | 505.86 | 5,445 | 0.125 | 0.0506 | 12.5 |
| 10 | 1,011.71 | 10,890 | 0.25 | 0.1012 | 25 |
| 20 (half acre) | 2,023.43 | 21,780 | 0.50 | 0.2023 | 50 |
| 40 (1 acre) | 4,046.86 | 43,560 | 1.00 | 0.4047 | 100 |
| 100 | 10,117.14 | 108,900 | 2.50 | 1.0117 | 250 |
The cent column matters if you are comparing land across state lines: cent is the standard small unit in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and 1 guntha is exactly 2.5 cent, because both are simple fractions of the same acre.
Three conversions, worked
1. The base-40 trap — a 1,639 m² typing mistake
A partition deed describes the family land as 3 acres 27 guntha. Someone entering that into a spreadsheet types 3.27 acres. It looks right. It is not, because guntha counts to 40, not to 100. Twenty-seven guntha is 27/40 = 0.675 acre, so the real figure is 3.675 acres. Do it properly: (3 × 40) + 27 = 147 guntha, and 147 × 101.17141 = 14,872 m². The typed version gives 3.27 × 4,046.86 = 13,233 m². The gap is 1,639 m² — over 16 guntha of land that quietly vanished into a decimal point. Convert guntha to a total guntha count first, then convert once.
2. The Pune plot — making three quotes comparable
That 15 guntha NA plot. 15 × 101.17141 = 1,517.6 m², which is 15 × 1,089 = 16,335 ft², or 0.375 acre. Now every quote is on the same footing: a compound wall priced per running meter, a survey priced per acre, and a builder priced per square foot are all describing the same 1,517.6 m². Note what the area does nottell you — the shape. If that plot is a 20 m × 76 m ribbon rather than a 39 m square, it needs about 192 m of boundary wall instead of 156 m, a 23% cost difference on identical area. Area buys you material by the square meter; it never tells you what to buy by the running meter.
3. The "R" on the 7/12 extract is not a guntha
A Maharashtra satbara(7/12) extract records area in hectare–are, printed as something like 0 H 20 R. The R stands for are— a metric unit of exactly 100 m² — and a buyer who reads "20" and thinks "20 guntha" is reading the wrong unit. Twenty are is 2,000 m²; twenty guntha is 2,023.4 m². They differ by only 23.4 m², and that near-miss is exactly what makes this trap survive: it is 1.17% off, close enough to never look wrong.On a 10-acre parcel, that same 1.17% is 474 m² — nearly five guntha — of land you think you are buying and are not. Read the letter, not just the number.
Checklist before you trust the number
- Convert mixed acre-and-guntha figures to total guntha first."2 acres 15 guntha" is (2 × 40) + 15 = 95 guntha, not 2.15 acres. This single mistake is the biggest source of error on this page.
- Check whether the document says R (are) or guntha. They sit 1.17% apart, so the wrong one never looks obviously wrong. On a 7/12 extract, R is always are= 100 m².
- Sanity-check with the 33-foot square.One guntha is a 33 ft × 33 ft patch. If your converted plot could not physically hold that many of them, recheck the input.
- Cross-check against the acre.Divide your guntha count by 40. If a "200 guntha" farm does not land on 5 acres, something is off.
- Watch the spelling, not the size. Guntha, gunta, and guntas are the same unit. Unlike bigha, the spelling variation does not signal a different value.
- Prefer the printed metric area. If the record already states hectares, ares, or square meters, that figure governs. Use this converter to check it, not to replace it.
- Confirm the direction.Guntha → m² multiplies; m² → guntha divides. One guntha is ~101 m², not 0.0099 m².
Accuracy, privacy, and limits
What is exact
Both the definition and the arithmetic — which is rare. The guntha is exactly 1/40 acre, the acre is exactly 4,046.8564224 m², so 1 guntha is exactly 101.17141056 m² with nothing rounded away. The converter multiplies and divides in double-precision floating point, so the output is correct to the digit shown.
What is an estimate
The land itself. A parcel recorded as 15 guntha was measured at some point by a surveyor, and paper area is not ground area: boundaries shift, old village maps were drawn with chains and ropes, and a fresh survey of a plot recorded as 15 guntha routinely comes back a percent or two off. The conversion is exact; the number you feed it inherits whatever error the original survey carried.
This is not legal, tax, or survey advice
A converted figure is for orientation and comparison shopping. It is not a substitute for the area recorded on the 7/12 extract, the mutation entry, or the sale deed — that recorded figure is what governs stamp duty, registration fees, land-ceiling limits, NA conversion, and any boundary dispute. For anything binding, work from a licensed surveyor's measurement and have a property lawyer confirm which unit the document actually uses.
Privacy and local processing
This converter runs entirely in your browser. The plot sizes you type are never sent to a server, never logged, and never stored — there is no account, no upload, and nothing to delete. Once the page has loaded it works offline, and nothing about the property you are researching leaves your device.
Related area converters
Guntha rarely appears alone. A single Deccan land file will mix it with ares, acres, and square feet on the same page, so these are the conversions you are most likely to need next:
- The areis the unit hiding behind the "R" on a 7/12 extract, and the one most often mistaken for a guntha — settle it with the ares to square meters converter.
- Since 40 guntha is exactly 1 acre, farm-scale figures usually get quoted in acres or hectares. The hectares to acres converter bridges those two.
- Building on the plot? Contractors quote in square feet. Turn your result around with the square meters to square feet converter.
- Comparing land in Tamil Nadu or Kerala, where cent replaces guntha (1 guntha = 2.5 cent)? Use the cent to square feet converter.
- North of the Deccan, land records switch to bigha — a unit that, unlike guntha, is not standardized. The bigha to square meters converter explains why that matters.
FAQ
How many square meters is 1 guntha?
Exactly 101.17141056 m², and for once that is a precise answer rather than a regional average. The guntha is defined as 1/40 of an acre, the acre is defined as exactly 4,046.8564224 m², and the division comes out clean. In round numbers: about 101.17 m², or 1,089 ft².
Does the guntha change size between states?
No — and this is the key difference between guntha and bigha. A guntha is 1/40 acre everywhere it is used, across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Gujarat. The spelling shifts (guntais common in Karnataka), but the area does not. A bigha, by contrast, ranges from roughly 809 to 6,773 m² depending on the district.
How many guntha in an acre and a hectare?
40 guntha = 1 acreexactly — that relationship is the definition of the unit. A hectare works out to 98.842 guntha, which is awkward precisely because the guntha is built on the acre rather than on the metric system. Half an acre is 20 guntha; a quarter acre is 10.
What does "2 acres 30 guntha" mean in square meters?
Convert to a single guntha count first: (2 × 40) + 30 = 110 guntha, which is 110 × 101.17141 = 11,128.9 m²(2.75 acres). Do not read it as "2.30 acres" — guntha counts to 40, not 100, so 30 guntha is 0.75 acre, not 0.30. That misreading is the most expensive mistake on this page.
Is a guntha the same as an are?
Close, but no — and the closeness is the danger. An are is exactly 100 m²; a guntha is 101.17 m², making the guntha 1.17% larger. The "R" column on a Maharashtra 7/12 extract means are, not guntha. On small plots the difference looks like a rounding error; on a 10-acre parcel it is nearly five guntha.
How big is a guntha, physically?
A guntha is exactly a 33 ft × 33 ft square— about 10.06 m on a side. That is roughly a modest two-bedroom house footprint plus a small yard. It is a useful sanity check: if your conversion implies a village house sits on 400 guntha (10 acres), a unit got mixed up somewhere.
Can I use this figure for a sale deed, stamp duty, or NA conversion?
No. Use the area printed on the official record. Stamp duty, registration fees, land-ceiling limits, and non-agricultural conversion are all assessed against the recorded area, not against a converted number. Use this tool to sanity-check what you are being told, then verify against the 7/12 extract and the deed — and bring in a licensed surveyor once the number becomes binding.
How to Use This Conversion
Use this guntha to sq meters to test a realistic scenario before moving the result into a quote, worksheet, application, or planning document. Enter the source values from the same time period, review the calculated output, then keep the assumptions nearby so the result is easy to audit.
For planning pages, the most useful result is usually a range. Run a conservative case, an expected case, and a stress case so you can see whether the decision still works when costs, rates, timing, or assumptions move against you.