Everyday converters & calculators
Convert and calculate — instant and free.
Six quick, no-nonsense tools in one place. Convert between units of length, weight, temperature, data size, speed and area; work out any percentage; calculate an exact age or the number of days between two dates; check a BMI; or generate placeholder lorem-ipsum text. Everything computes instantly in your browser — no ads-heavy calculator site, no signup.
Handy alongside a job search too: count the days until an interview or an offer deadline, or convert a salary figure's units. Free, private and fast.
- ✓Unit converter: length, weight, temperature, data, speed, area
- ✓Percentage, age and date-difference calculators
- ✓BMI calculator + lorem-ipsum generator
- ✓Instant, free, in your browser
Why manual conversions trip up even careful people
Unit conversion feels trivial until you need it to matter. A recruiter asking how much you made annually when you earned £18 an hour, a job posting listing a salary in USD when you're based in the UK, a phone storage limit in MB when your photo is in GB—these are common enough that getting them wrong changes the decision you make. The friction point isn't the math; it's holding all the factors in your head at once. You're not just dividing a number by another number. You're also remembering which direction to divide (multiply by 52 weeks, divide by 2,000 annual working hours), tracking units, and keeping track of what assumptions you've already baked in. Most people do this in their head while thinking about the role, the company, the offer timeline, and whether they should ask for more money. That cognitive load is why careful people still get it wrong.
Temperature is the textbook case. Celsius to Fahrenheit requires both multiplication and addition—32°C is not twice as warm as 16°C, and the scale doesn't start at zero the same way for both. People learn the formula once and misremember it reliably, often swapping which value gets added or multiplied. Relatedly, people confidently guess conversions based on rough familiarity and are often confidently wrong by 30%. A common pattern is to divide by 2 as a quick approximation (which is nonsense for temperature), or to assume the scales are offset by the same amount everywhere (they're not). Even people who use temperature conversions regularly will guess, rather than look it up, and land confidently on an answer that is off by 10 degrees.
Salary conversion compounds the problem because multiple variables hide in the number. An hourly rate assumes full-time hours (usually 40 per week, but contract roles vary), assumes no unpaid leave, assumes the same number of working days across holidays, and assumes the role doesn't have seasonal variation. A £20 hourly rate is roughly £40,000 annual if you're 40 hours a week with two weeks' holiday, but you must know which assumptions you're making. Most people eyeball it and move on, then discover during offer negotiation that the implied salary was different from what the company meant. Another layer is that recruiters sometimes give salary as an hourly rate for contract roles and as an annual salary for permanent roles, so the same company might quote two salaries for similar work in different formats. Without careful attention, you end up comparing a £50 an hour contract role with a £50,000 annual permanent role and thinking they're similar when they differ by a factor of two or more.
When conversions compound: multiple units in job search
Salary conversion is the most common conversion in a job search, but it rarely travels alone. A role in a different country may post salary in local currency and ask for your previous salary in the same currency, which forces you to convert your history, understand the exchange rate of the day, and know whether the company means gross or net salary (the US lists gross; the UK often lists net after tax; many European countries list gross). Getting this wrong by a factor-of-two is shockingly easy and shockingly common. The problem compounds when you're negotiating. A US company offers you $120,000 annual. You convert it to GBP at today's rate (roughly £96,000). But your previous UK salary was £60,000 net, which you think of as your take-home. The company thinks you were paid £75,000–80,000 gross. You think the offer is a 20% raise; they think it's a 50% raise. This mismatch can cause negotiations to fall apart because neither party believes the other is serious.
Working hours across borders multiply the confusion. The US assumes 40 hours per week as standard; the UK's statutory minimum is 48 hours (averaged), but many roles are genuinely 40; the Netherlands and several EU countries trend toward 36–38 hours; Australia and New Zealand often advertise 38 hours. A £50,000 salary for 40 hours is not the same proposition as £50,000 for 48 hours, and the difference is roughly 20% of your effective hourly rate. If you are comparing roles across regions, this compounds quickly. A UK contract that guarantees 40 hours but has a normal expectation of 45–50 in reality is worth less than the number suggests. A Netherlands contract at 36 hours with strict enforcement of that limit (common due to legal protections) is worth more per hour than US 40 hours with unlimited on-call expectations.
Some roles quote salary excluding bonus or commission, which can be 20–50% of total compensation. Others quote base salary with the assumption that equity or bonus is separate. The posting may or may not tell you which. You cannot compare offers fairly without extracting this information from each one—and conversion tools can only tell you the base maths, not what the company meant by the number. A startup offering £40,000 base plus equity is not comparable to a £60,000 all-in role without understanding the equity vesting schedule, the company's funding stage, and realistic valuation scenarios. A sales role advertising £30,000 base plus 50% commission assumes you'll close deals; a guarantee that number is not what you'll actually make.
The precision limit of conversions and when to verify
A converter will give you an exact answer, and that precision can be false. An exchange rate is live and changes daily; if you convert a salary today and interview tomorrow, the rate may have shifted by 2–3%. That sounds small, but over a £100,000 salary it's £2,000 worth of difference. The tool can only show you the rate at the moment you use it, not a week from now when an offer lands. Worse, some converters use mid-market rates (the true wholesale rate between banks), while others use retail rates (what your bank actually charges you, often 2–4% worse). A tool that shows the mid-market rate is technically accurate but useless for predicting what actually lands in your account. The real-world number is the retail rate—what your bank will give you. If you're evaluating an offer, convert using your bank's rate or an online platform like Wise, not a generic currency converter.
Date-difference calculators have their own quirk: most show the exact number of calendar days, but you may actually care about working days. Forty-five calendar days between today and an interview is not the same as forty-five working days when weekends and bank holidays remove about 30% of the days you can use to prepare. A 45 calendar-day window is roughly 30 working days, which is enough for serious preparation; a 30-day window is only 21 working days, which is tight. Similarly, age calculators show exact days but most people speak about age in years, and you turn a year older mid-interview season without realizing it changes how you answer 'how many years of experience do you have'. If you're 5 years and 11 months into a role and asked 'how many years of experience,' saying '5 years' is honest but just barely; saying '6 years' is a lie.
The takeaway is that converters are a reliable reference point for the base maths, but they are input to your thinking, not a replacement for it. Once the converter gives you the number, ask yourself what that number actually means for the decision you're making. If salary is the lever, what assumptions does it embed—hourly or annual, gross or net, base or all-in, exchange rate you'll actually get, hours per week, holiday allowance? If a countdown matters, is it calendar days or working days, and are there bank holidays in that window? These second-order questions are where the actual judgment lives, and a tool that does basic arithmetic cannot answer them for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard working week for salary conversion?
No. The US standard is 40 hours; the UK statutory maximum is 48 hours (averaged); many EU countries are 36–38 hours. Some roles are genuinely 40 across borders; others vary sharply. A job posting may not state hours at all. Always ask—the difference in total compensation between 40 and 48 hours is roughly 20%.
Why does my calculator give a different answer than a website I saw?
Exchange rates change daily and sometimes intra-day. A currency converter is a snapshot at the moment you use it; if you checked yesterday, the rate has shifted by 0.5–3%. Some converters also use different rounding or lag behind live rates by hours. For salary, always check the latest rate before making a decision.
What's the difference between gross and net salary?
Gross is total earnings before tax and deductions; net is what you receive in your bank account after tax, national insurance, and pension contributions. The US typically quotes gross; the UK often quotes net (you can calculate gross by adding back tax); many EU countries quote gross. Always clarify which one a posting means.
How many working days until my interview?
A calendar-day countdown includes weekends and bank holidays, where you cannot work. A working-day count removes them. For interview prep, working days matter more—40 calendar days is roughly 28 working days in a standard week. The Everyday Tools countdown shows calendar days; count bank holidays yourself if you need working days.
Can I rely on a BMI calculator for health decisions?
A BMI calculator is a basic maths tool (weight in kilos ÷ height in metres²) and mathematically accurate. But BMI does not account for muscle, bone density, or fitness—a rugby player and an unfit person can have the same BMI. Never make a health decision based on BMI alone; it is a starting point for conversation with a doctor, not a diagnosis.
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