Curated list · updated 2 November 2026
Best Free Distance Calculators
Pick by question, not by brand: pairs of towns, many pairs at once, or coordinates you already have.
Distance calculators disagree for a boring reason: they measure different things. A great-circle tool returns the shortest arc across the sphere, a road tool follows the network, and a flight tool adds routing and wind. None of them is wrong, and comparing two of them is often more useful than trusting either.
The three below cover the everyday cases. If you need the road number instead, the driving distance calculator in the routes hub is the right instrument.
- 1
Distance Between Two Places
The general-purpose answer: search two places and read miles, kilometres and initial bearing.
- 2
As the Crow Flies Distance
The same spherical method with the maths shown, useful when the number has to be justified.
- 3
Distance Matrix Calculator
Many origins against many destinations in one table, with CSV export.
- 4
Flight Distance Calculator
Airport-to-airport great-circle distance plus an estimated block time.
- 5
Distance Between Cities
A curated list of common city pairs with reproducible coordinates.
- 6
Shipping Distance Calculator
Nautical miles along a sea route when the cargo does not travel in a straight line.
- 7
Distance Calculators
Horizon, poles, equator, coast and coordinate distances, all with the same method notes.
Hub
How this list was chosen
Ranked by how directly each tool answers a single distance question without needing a second calculation. Road and flight times are listed only where the page states its routing assumptions.
MapBench is a single site, so this is a recommendation list rather than an independent market survey. Every listed tool is free, needs no account, and publishes the method behind its result.
Browse the full clusters
Read before you rely on the number
- Distance Calculation: Haversine, Geodesics & When It Matters
Why flat map arithmetic fails over large distances, what the haversine formula does, and when a full ellipsoidal geodesic is the better choice.
- Radius vs. Drive Time vs. Straight-Line Distance: Which Map Should You Use?
A practical guide to choosing between a radius circle, road travel-time map and straight-line distance so your result matches the real question you are trying to answer.
- How to Choose a Fair Meeting Point Between Two or More Places
A practical guide to geographic midpoints, travel-time fairness and choosing a meeting location that works in the real world rather than only on a straight-line map.
Common questions
Is straight-line distance or driving distance more accurate?
Neither is more accurate; they measure different things. Straight-line distance is the geometric minimum and is reproducible; driving distance follows the road network and is always longer.
How accurate is a great-circle distance?
On the WGS84 mean sphere, haversine distance differs from a full ellipsoidal geodesic by roughly 0.3% in the worst case — far smaller than the ambiguity in where a city centre is.