Bearing & Azimuth Converter
Convert between surveying quadrant bearing notation (N45°30'15"E) and azimuth notation (0-360° from north) in either direction, with full degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal-degree output shown side by side.
Input
Whole degrees of the bearing angle, measured from the N/S line (0-90).
Leave at 0 if you only have a decimal-degree value.
Output
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
More ways to use this tool
REST API
curl -X POST https://api.iotools.cloud/v1/tool/bearing-azimuth-converter \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"direction": "toAzimuth",
"quadrantNS": "N",
"bearingDegrees": "45",
"bearingMinutes": "30",
"bearingSeconds": "15",
"quadrantEW": "E"
}'Swap in your own key from your account. The tool's fields are the body — no wrapper.
Ask an AI agent
Use the IOTools `bearing-azimuth-converter` tool (Bearing & Azimuth Converter) on this input:
YOUR_INPUT_HEREPaste this at any agent connected to the IOTools MCP server, then add your input.
Embed widget
<iframe
src="https://iotools.cloud/embed/bearing-azimuth-converter/"
width="100%" height="520" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" loading="lazy"
title="Bearing & Azimuth Converter — iotools.cloud"
sandbox="allow-scripts allow-forms allow-same-origin allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"
allow="clipboard-write"
style="width:100%;border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden"></iframe>
<script src="https://iotools.cloud/embed.js" async></script>Drop this into your own page — free, no key required, just a link back.
| Cost per API/MCP call | From 5 credits |
|---|---|
| Need more credits? | View pricing |
Also available with
Guides
Surveying, navigation and legal land descriptions describe direction two different ways. A quadrant bearing like N45°30'15"E measures an angle of up to 90° away from either north or south, toward either east or west. An azimuth like 45.5042° measures a single angle from 0° to 360°, always clockwise from north. This converter turns one into the other, either direction, and shows both the degrees/minutes/seconds (DMS) and decimal-degree form of the result at once.
How it works
- Pick a direction — Bearing → Azimuth, or Azimuth → Bearing.
- Bearing → Azimuth: choose N or S, enter the angle (0-90°) as degrees plus optional minutes/seconds, then choose E or W. The angle is added to or subtracted from a reference (0°, 180°, or 360°) depending on which quadrant it's in:
- N**_**E → azimuth = angle
- S**_**E → azimuth = 180° − angle
- S**_**W → azimuth = 180° + angle
- N**_**W → azimuth = 360° − angle
- Azimuth → Bearing: enter the azimuth (0-360°) as degrees plus optional minutes/seconds. The tool works out which 90° arc it falls in and reverses the formula above to recover the quadrant and the 0-90° angle.
- Leave minutes and seconds at 0 to work in plain decimal degrees — the degrees field alone doesn't have to be a whole number either, so
45.5behaves the same as45° 30' 00".
Reading the result
The result table always shows all four representations — the quadrant bearing, its decimal-degree equivalent, the azimuth in decimal degrees, and the azimuth in DMS — regardless of which direction you converted. That makes it easy to double-check a conversion by eye, or to grab whichever format the next step in your work needs.
Why do the four cardinal directions (due north/east/south/west) look ambiguous?
At an exact cardinal point, two quadrant bearings describe the same direction — due east is equally valid as N90°00'00"E or S90°00'00"E. This tool always resolves that ambiguity to the N/S-first form, matching common surveying convention, but either is correct.
Can I mix decimal degrees and DMS in the same conversion?
Yes. The degrees field accepts a decimal value directly (45.5), and minutes/seconds simply default to 0 when left blank — there's no separate mode to switch between the two notations.