MPa to Pa Converter
1 MPa = 1,000,000 Pa exactly. Type in either box.
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A million, exactly
Mega means a million, so a megapascal is a million pascals. There is nothing to approximate and no factor to look up — the conversion moves the decimal point six places.
1 MPa = 1,000,000 Pa exactly
The reason the prefix exists is that engineering pressures are enormous when written in pascals. A hydraulic system at 20 MPa is 20,000,000 Pa, a number nobody wants on a drawing.
The same relationship runs through the whole family: 1 MPa is 1,000 kPa is 10 bar.
The megapascal
A million pascals, used where pressures and stresses are large: hydraulics, material strength, concrete. One megapascal is almost exactly ten atmospheres, which makes it a convenient size for engineering.
A megapascal is also identical to a newton per square millimetre, which is why materials datasheets quote tensile strength in MPa and structural drawings in N/mm² without anyone needing to convert.
The pascal
The pascal is the SI unit of pressure: one newton spread over one square metre. That is a very small amount of force over a fairly large area, so the pascal itself is a tiny unit — a sheet of paper resting on a table exerts roughly one pascal. Atmospheric pressure is about 101,325 of them.
Because the unit is so small, it is almost always used with a prefix. Kilopascals for weather and tyres, megapascals for material strength, hectopascals for the numbers on a weather map.
The working, step by step
Every line updates with whatever you type above. The point is the method, which is the same for any pair of units in this family.
The same quantity, two different numbers
One physical amount, read off two scales. The tick marks do not line up, and the gap between them is the conversion factor made visible.
How much is that?
A number is easier to judge next to something familiar.
Your turn
Reading a method and being able to use it are different things. Answer within half a per cent and it counts as correct.
Score: 0 of 0
How to use this converter
- Type into either box. The other side updates as you go; there is no button to press.
- Swap the direction with the button between the boxes, carrying your value across.
- Set the decimals if the default is more or less precision than you need.
- Copy the answer with its unit, ready to paste.
- Use the shortcut buttons for the values that come up most often.
- Share the result. The address bar tracks what you type, so the link you copy opens on the same number.
Common uses and tips
Where pressure conversions come up
- Tyres. The single most common reason anyone converts pressure. American placards are in psi, European and Asian ones in bar or kPa, and the three appear side by side on the same door sticker.
- Weather. Forecasts use hectopascals or millibars, which are the same size — 1 hPa is 1 mbar. A typical high-pressure system reads about 1020 of either.
- Diving. Cylinder pressures are in bar almost everywhere and psi in the United States. A full 200 bar cylinder is about 2,900 psi.
- Coffee. Espresso machines are specified in bar; nine bar at the group head is the usual target, which is about 130 psi.
- Materials and hydraulics. Tensile strength and hydraulic ratings come in MPa or psi, and the two communities rarely use the same one.
The trap: gauge pressure and absolute pressure
Almost every pressure you read off a dial in daily life is gauge pressure — how much higher than the surrounding air it is. A tyre at 32 psi contains 32 psi more than the atmosphere, so its absolute pressure is about 46.7 psi.
Conversion between units never changes which of the two you have. If you start with a gauge reading you end with a gauge reading. Where it goes wrong is in physics and chemistry, where the gas laws need absolute pressure: add one atmosphere to a gauge figure before it goes into a calculation. The units psig and psia exist precisely to keep the two apart.
Tips worth knowing
- One bar is not one atmosphere. It is 0.9869 of one. The difference is small enough to ignore for a tyre and large enough to matter in a laboratory.
- Millibars and hectopascals are identical. Weather maps use whichever the local service prefers; the number is the same.
- One MPa is about ten atmospheres, which makes megapascals easy to sanity-check against everyday pressures.
- Torr and mmHg are interchangeable in practice, differing by about one part in seven million.
Values people look up most
Each one opens the converter with the number already in it.
- 0.1 MPa to Pa
- 0.5 MPa to Pa
- 1 MPa to Pa
- 2 MPa to Pa
- 5 MPa to Pa
- 10 MPa to Pa
- 15 MPa to Pa
- 20 MPa to Pa
- 25 MPa to Pa
- 30 MPa to Pa
- 40 MPa to Pa
- 50 MPa to Pa
- 100 MPa to Pa
- 200 MPa to Pa
- 400 MPa to Pa
- 500 MPa to Pa
Quick reference
| Megapascals | Pascals |
|---|---|
| 0.1 MPa | 100,000 Pa |
| 0.5 MPa | 500,000 Pa |
| 1 MPa | 1,000,000 Pa |
| 2 MPa | 2,000,000 Pa |
| 5 MPa | 5,000,000 Pa |
| 10 MPa | 10,000,000 Pa |
| 20 MPa | 20,000,000 Pa |
| 30 MPa | 30,000,000 Pa |
| 50 MPa | 50,000,000 Pa |
| 100 MPa | 100,000,000 Pa |
| 250 MPa | 250,000,000 Pa |
| 500 MPa | 500,000,000 Pa |
Questions people ask
How many pascals in a megapascal?
Exactly one million.
Is 1 MPa the same as 10 bar?
Yes. A bar is 100,000 Pa, so ten of them make a megapascal.
What is 1 MPa in psi?
145.04 psi.
Does this convert gauge or absolute pressure?
Whichever you put in. Converting units does not change which kind of pressure you have — a gauge reading converts to a gauge reading. If a calculation needs absolute pressure, add one atmosphere first.