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BMI Calculator

Your body mass index, your category, and the healthy weight range for your height.

CalculatorsFreeRuns in your browser
Interactive bmi calculatorRuns in your browser, nothing uploadedFree, no account
Overview

What is the BMI Calculator?

The BMI Calculator works out your body mass index from your height and weight, tells you which WHO category it falls into, and shows the healthy weight range for your exact height. Enter metric (kg, cm) or imperial (lb, ft/in) units — both use the same underlying formula, just scaled differently. BMI is the screening measure doctors, insurers and fitness apps use because it needs only two numbers and no special equipment, not because it is a precise measure of body fat. This calculator gives you the number quickly and explains what it does and does not tell you.

A single BMI number hides a lot. Two people with the same height and the same BMI can have very different amounts of muscle versus fat, and the standard adult categories were built from population data that does not describe children, pregnant women or highly muscled athletes well. Use the result as a starting point for a conversation with a professional, not as a diagnosis.

Benefits

Why use a free bmi calculator?

Metric and imperial, same calculation

Switch between kg/cm and lb/ft-in without converting anything by hand. Both paths use the same formula scaled to the unit system.

Category and healthy range together

You get more than the number — the WHO category it falls in, and the weight range that would put you in the "normal" band at your current height.

The formula is shown, not hidden

See exactly how your BMI was calculated, so you can check it or explain it to someone else.

Honest about the limits

BMI cannot separate muscle from fat and is not the right tool for children, pregnant women or elite athletes. This page says so directly instead of pretending otherwise.

Nothing is uploaded

Your height and weight are processed in your browser and never sent to a server.

Guide

How do you use the BMI Calculator?

  1. 1

    Choose metric or imperial

    Metric uses kilograms and centimetres. Imperial uses pounds and feet/inches. Pick whichever matches how your height and weight are usually recorded.

  2. 2

    Enter your height and weight

    Type the two numbers. There is no need to convert units yourself first.

  3. 3

    Read your BMI and category

    The result shows your BMI to one decimal place and the WHO category it falls into — underweight, normal, overweight or one of the obesity classes.

  4. 4

    Check the healthy weight range

    The calculator also shows the weight range that corresponds to a "normal" BMI at your specific height, so you can see how far you are from it in kilograms or pounds rather than just in BMI points.

Formula

How is bmi calculator calculated?

BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height (m)²

Where:

weight (kg)
Body weight in kilograms
height (m)
Height in metres — divide centimetres by 100
Imperial version
BMI = 703 × weight (lb) ÷ height (in)² — the 703 constant converts pounds and inches into the same scale as the metric formula

The simple version

Divide your weight by your height squared. In metric, weight is in kilograms and height in metres, so a 70 kg person who is 1.75 m tall has a BMI of 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) = 22.9. In imperial, the numbers are in pounds and inches, so a 703 multiplier is added to bring the result onto the same 15–40 scale.

Examples

What does it look like in practice?

Metric calculation

Input

70 kg, 175 cm (1.75 m)

Result

BMI 22.9 — Normal weight

70 ÷ (1.75²) = 70 ÷ 3.0625 = 22.86, rounded to 22.9. This falls inside the 18.5–24.9 "normal weight" band.

Imperial calculation

Input

160 lb, 5 ft 6 in (66 in)

Result

BMI 25.8 — Overweight

703 × 160 ÷ (66²) = 112,480 ÷ 4,356 = 25.82. That crosses the 25.0 threshold into the "overweight" category by a small margin.

Same BMI, different healthy-range framing

Input

90 kg, 180 cm (1.80 m)

Result

BMI 27.8 — Overweight. Healthy range for 180 cm: 59.9–80.9 kg

The calculator also expresses the target range as a weight, which is easier to act on than "get your BMI 3 points lower".

Accuracy

How accurate is it?

BMI is calculated exactly from the formula above — there is no estimation in the arithmetic. The uncertainty is not in the maths, it is in what BMI actually measures: it uses total body weight and cannot distinguish muscle, fat, bone or water, so the category it reports is a population-level screening signal, not an individual diagnosis.

  • A muscular person can show as "overweight" or "obese" by BMI while having low body fat — this is the most common false positive. The Body Fat Calculator estimates composition directly instead of inferring it from weight and height.
  • The standard adult categories (underweight, normal, overweight, obese) do not apply to children and teenagers, who need age- and sex-specific percentile charts instead.
  • The World Health Organization publishes separate, lower cut-offs for adults of Asian descent (overweight from 23, obese from 27.5) because health risk rises at a lower BMI in Asian populations. This calculator uses the standard global cut-offs; check which set applies if you are being screened clinically.
  • BMI is not designed for use during pregnancy, and standard categories do not apply.
  • This is a screening calculation, not medical advice. A result outside the "normal" band is a prompt to talk to a healthcare professional, not a diagnosis on its own.
Details

What should you know before using it?

The WHO adult BMI categories used by this calculator:

BMI rangeCategory
Below 18.5Underweight
18.5 – 24.9Normal weight
25.0 – 29.9Overweight
30.0 – 34.9Obese (Class I)
35.0 – 39.9Obese (Class II)
40.0 and aboveObese (Class III)
Applications

When should you use a bmi calculator?

Because the bmi calculator runs entirely in your browser, it suits work you would not want to hand to a third-party server — client files, unpublished drafts, anything under an NDA. These are the situations people reach for it in most often.

Personal health tracking

A quick check-in figure to track alongside other measures, not a replacement for a clinical assessment.

Medical and insurance screening

Many intake forms and insurance questionnaires ask for BMI directly because it is cheap to compute from height and weight alone.

Fitness and nutrition planning

A starting reference point when setting a weight or body-composition goal, best used together with the Body Fat and Calorie calculators.

Open the Fitness and nutrition planning

Sports eligibility bands

Some weight-class and youth sports categories reference BMI or the underlying weight range alongside other criteria.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What is a healthy BMI?
For most adults, the World Health Organization defines healthy as a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9. Below 18.5 is classed as underweight, and 25 and above moves through overweight and three classes of obesity. These ranges apply to adults generally, not to children, pregnant women or highly muscled individuals.
Is BMI accurate for athletes?
Not reliably. BMI cannot tell muscle from fat, and muscle is denser than fat, so a muscular athlete often lands in the "overweight" or "obese" category despite having low body fat. Body fat percentage or waist-to-height ratio give a more useful picture for anyone with an athletic build.
How is BMI calculated?
BMI = weight in kilograms divided by height in metres, squared. For pounds and inches, the formula is 703 × weight ÷ height², where the 703 constant adjusts for the different units so the result lands on the same scale as the metric version.
Is BMI different for men and women?
The calculation itself is identical for everyone. The standard adult categories (underweight, normal, overweight, obese) are also the same for men and women, although body fat percentage and where fat is distributed do differ by sex — which is one reason BMI alone is an incomplete picture.
Does a BMI chart apply to children?
No, not the adult chart used on this page. Children and teenagers are assessed against BMI-for-age percentile charts specific to their sex, because a healthy BMI changes as a child grows. Use a pediatric growth chart for anyone under 20.
Why do some countries use different BMI cut-offs?
The World Health Organization has published separate, lower BMI thresholds for adults of Asian descent — overweight from 23 rather than 25, and obese from 27.5 rather than 30 — because research shows health risk rises at a lower BMI in these populations. This calculator uses the standard global thresholds unless you are checking against a specific national guideline.
What is the healthy weight range for my height?
It is the weight span that keeps your BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 at your specific height. This calculator shows that range in kilograms or pounds alongside your result, so you can see a concrete target weight rather than just a BMI number.
Security

Is the bmi calculator safe to use?

This tool runs entirely inside your browser. Your text, files and settings are processed on your own device and are never uploaded to our servers — there is nothing for us to store, log or leak. You can confirm it yourself: open your browser DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will not see an upload request. It also means the tool keeps working if your connection drops mid-task.

No account required No file storage HTTPS everywhere
Sources

Where do these figures come from?

Every method, threshold and standard this page relies on, with a link to the document that defines it. Check them — a tool that will not show its sources is asking you to take its word for it.

  1. 1
    Body mass index — BMI

    World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe · 2010

    Supports: The 18.5–24.9 normal-weight band and the underweight, overweight and obese Class I/II/III thresholds used in the category table.

  2. 2
    Obesity and overweight

    World Health Organization · 2024

    Supports: The general BMI ≥25 (overweight) and BMI ≥30 (obese) definitions used across the page.

  3. 3
    Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies

    WHO Expert Consultation, The Lancet · 2004

    Supports: The lower BMI cut-offs (overweight from 23, obese from 27.5) cited for adults of Asian descent.

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