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Cylinder Calculator — Volume, Surface Area and Capacity

Volume, surface area and capacity of a cylinder from radius or diameter and height — reverse-solve for height, see litres of water — browser-only

  • Runs locally
  • Category Calculator
  • Best for Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.

V = π r² h

Results

Volume
785.398 cm³
Lateral surface area
314.159 cm²
Base area
78.5398 cm²
Total surface area
471.239 cm²

Holds 0.785398 L (785.398 mL) of water

What this tool does

Free cylinder calculator that turns a radius (or diameter) and a height into every standard figure of a right circular cylinder: volume V equals pi times r squared times h, lateral surface area equals 2 pi r h, base area equals pi r squared, and total surface area equals 2 pi r squared plus 2 pi r h. Enter the diameter when that is what you measured across a pipe or tank, and the tool keeps radius equals diameter divided by two exact. Switch into reverse mode to recover an unknown height from a target volume and a known radius, the way you size a tank to hold a set amount. When you work in centimetres the volume already reads in cubic centimetres, so the tool also tells you straight away how many litres and millilitres of water the cylinder holds, since one litre equals 1000 cubic centimetres. One click copies the full result block and the shareable URL reopens the exact figures. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

Tool details

Input
Numbers
The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
Output
Live result + Copy
The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
Privacy
Browser-side processing
The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
Save / share
Shareable URL state
Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
Performance budget
Initial JS <= 9 KB
No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
Best fit
Calculator · Student
Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.

How to use

  1. 1. Input

    Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.

  2. 2. Process

    Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.

  3. 3. Copy / Download

    Copy the result or download to disk in one click.

How Cylinder Calculator fits into your work

Use it for fast estimates, comparisons, and planning numbers before you make the final call.

Calculation jobs

  • Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.
  • Comparing scenarios by changing one input at a time.
  • Turning rough assumptions into a number you can discuss.

Calculation checks

  • Double-check units, dates, rates, and rounding assumptions.
  • Treat health, finance, tax, and legal outputs as planning aids, not professional advice.
  • Save the inputs that produced an important result so you can reproduce it later.

Good next steps

These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.

  1. 1 Triangle Calculator Triangle solver — SSS, SAS, ASA, AAS, and the ambiguous SSA case via law of sines + law of cosines. All sides, angles, area, perimeter, type, drawn to scale. Open
  2. 2 Percentage Calculator 5 common percentage calculations — "x% of y", "x is what% of y", percentage change, increase/decrease — instant, browser-only Open
  3. 3 Scientific Calculator Scientific calculator — sin / cos / log / sqrt / power, with full keyboard input + history, deg/rad mode. Open

Real-world use cases

  • Size a water tank to a target capacity

    You need a cylindrical tank that holds 50 litres and the footprint fixes the radius at 20 cm. Convert 50 litres to 50000 cm^3, switch to the height-from-volume mode, enter radius 20 and volume 50000, and read the height back: about 39.8 cm. Now you know how tall to build or buy before you commit to materials, instead of guessing and finding out it overflows or comes up short.

  • Buy the right amount of paint for a tank or silo

    Painting the curved side of a storage tank uses the lateral surface area, not the volume. Enter the radius and height, read the lateral figure straight off, and divide by the coverage on the paint tin to get the number of cans. If you are also coating the top, add the base area once; the tool lists base area separately so you can decide exactly which faces to count.

  • Check a homework or exam answer step by step

    A student gets V = pi r^2 h and a separate surface-area question on the same cylinder. Plug the radius and height in once and every quantity appears together: volume, lateral area, base area and total surface area, each with its unit. Comparing your hand calculation against all four at once catches the classic slip of squaring the diameter instead of the radius.

  • Estimate how much liquid a glass or container holds

    A drinking glass measures 4 cm across the inside and 12 cm deep. Tick the diameter box, enter 4 and 12 in centimetres, and the capacity line shows roughly 0.151 litres, about 151 millilitres. That tells you whether a recipe that calls for 200 mL will fit, without hunting for a measuring jug.

  • Work out concrete for a round column or footing

    A round concrete pier is 30 cm in diameter and 1.2 m tall. Convert to consistent units, tick diameter, and the volume gives the concrete you need to order for one pier. Multiply by the number of piers and you have the pour quantity, which pairs naturally with a slab estimate from the concrete calculator.

Common pitfalls

  • Squaring the diameter instead of the radius. The radius is half the diameter, and it is squared in every formula, so feeding a 10 cm diameter as if it were the radius makes the volume four times too big. Tick the diameter box, or halve the number yourself, before you compute.

  • Mixing units inside one calculation. A radius in centimetres and a height in metres do not combine — the height is 100 times too small. Convert both to the same unit first; this tool applies a single unit to the whole shape so the result lands in that unit cubed or squared.

  • Confusing lateral surface area with total surface area. Lateral area (2 pi r h) is only the curved side; total area adds the two flat ends (2 pi r^2). Painting a tank top, sealing a can, or wrapping a label each need a different one of these, so read the right line.

Privacy

Every figure here — volume, the three areas, the height-from-volume solve and the litre capacity — is plain JavaScript that runs inside your browser tab. No dimension you type ever leaves the page and nothing is logged. The one thing to know: the shareable URL encodes your radius, height and unit in the query string, so a link pasted into chat records those numbers in the recipient server access log. For anything sensitive, use the copy button and paste the text rather than the link.

FAQ

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Made by Toolora · 100% client-side · Updated 2026-05-30