kPa Unit - Pressure, Stress, and Strength Metric Unit
kPa stands for kilopascal, and it's a pressure unit in the International System of Units (SI). Check out our kPa spreadsheet.
kPa Meaning#
The term kPa represents "kilopascal", which is a pressure unit in the International System of Units (SI).
The k in kPa denotes kilo, a prefix commonly used in the metric system meaning a thousand. Therefore, 1,000 Pa (pascal) equals 1 kPa.
Note that the k in kPa is in lowercase, not uppercase.
kPa Unit Usage#
The unit of kPa is very practical for describing the stress and strength of common materials as well as many everyday pressures.
Soil bearing stress under foundations for buildings, bridges, or wind turbine foundations is typically between 100 and 300 kPa. See this animation of soil stress beneath an onshore wind turbine as the wind load increases.
Car tyre pressure is normally around 200 to 300 kPa. For example, a tyre at 220 kPa is about 32 psi.
Liquid-filled pressure gauges (used in fire protection systems, hydraulics, pneumatics, pumps, and compressors) are often scaled in the range of a few hundred kPa to several thousand kPa.
For reference, atmospheric pressure at sea level is about 101 kPa, which shows why kPa is a convenient unit size for both engineering and everyday applications.
kPa Common Conversions#
The table below shows a list of kPa values and their corresponding conversions across a spectrum of commonly used pressure units within similar contexts.
| kPa | MPa | ksi | psi | ksf | psf | tsf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.001 | 0.0001 | 0.15 | 0.02 | 21 | 0.01 |
| 2 | 0.002 | 0.0003 | 0.29 | 0.04 | 42 | 0.02 |
| 3 | 0.003 | 0.0004 | 0.44 | 0.06 | 63 | 0.03 |
| 4 | 0.004 | 0.0006 | 0.58 | 0.08 | 84 | 0.04 |
| 5 | 0.005 | 0.0007 | 0.73 | 0.1 | 104 | 0.05 |
| 6 | 0.006 | 0.0009 | 0.87 | 0.13 | 125 | 0.06 |
| 7 | 0.007 | 0.0010 | 1.02 | 0.15 | 146 | 0.07 |
| 8 | 0.008 | 0.0012 | 1.16 | 0.17 | 167 | 0.08 |
| 9 | 0.009 | 0.0013 | 1.31 | 0.19 | 188 | 0.09 |
| 10 | 0.010 | 0.0015 | 1.45 | 0.21 | 209 | 0.1 |
| 15 | 0.015 | 0.0022 | 2.18 | 0.31 | 313 | 0.16 |
| 20 | 0.020 | 0.0029 | 2.90 | 0.42 | 418 | 0.21 |
| 25 | 0.025 | 0.0036 | 3.63 | 0.52 | 522 | 0.26 |
| 30 | 0.030 | 0.0044 | 4.35 | 0.63 | 627 | 0.31 |
| 35 | 0.035 | 0.0051 | 5.08 | 0.73 | 731 | 0.37 |
| 40 | 0.040 | 0.0058 | 5.80 | 0.84 | 835 | 0.42 |
| 45 | 0.045 | 0.0065 | 6.53 | 0.94 | 940 | 0.47 |
| 50 | 0.050 | 0.0073 | 7.25 | 1.04 | 1044 | 0.52 |
| 55 | 0.055 | 0.0080 | 7.98 | 1.15 | 1149 | 0.57 |
| 60 | 0.060 | 0.0087 | 8.70 | 1.25 | 1253 | 0.63 |
| 65 | 0.065 | 0.0094 | 9.43 | 1.36 | 1358 | 0.68 |
| 70 | 0.070 | 0.0102 | 10.15 | 1.46 | 1462 | 0.73 |
| 75 | 0.075 | 0.0109 | 10.88 | 1.57 | 1566 | 0.78 |
| 80 | 0.080 | 0.0116 | 11.60 | 1.67 | 1671 | 0.84 |
| 85 | 0.085 | 0.0123 | 12.33 | 1.78 | 1775 | 0.89 |
| 90 | 0.090 | 0.0131 | 13.05 | 1.88 | 1880 | 0.94 |
| 95 | 0.095 | 0.0138 | 13.78 | 1.98 | 1984 | 0.99 |
| 100 | 0.100 | 0.0145 | 14.50 | 2.09 | 2089 | 1.04 |
For even more detailed conversions and the ability to copy formulas into your custom spreadsheets, check out our 📒 kPa spreadsheet.
If you need to convert kPa to any other pressure units, use our 📱 kPa dedicated converter.