Capacitance Converter

Capacitance is the amount of charge a capacitor stores per unit voltage, measured in farads. The farad is a large unit, so practical components are rated in microfarads (10⁻⁶), nanofarads (10⁻⁹), and picofarads (10⁻¹²).

Enter a value in any unit and the converter returns its equivalent in the other three. Each step is a factor of 1,000, so 1 µF equals 1,000 nF equals 1,000,000 pF.

Unit relationships are exact integer multiples. 1 F = 10⁶ µF = 10⁹ nF = 10¹² pF. The conversion is just a decimal-point shift. Where confusion creeps in is the marking conventions on physical components, which mostly predate SI standardization. Through-hole electrolytics typically print the value and unit directly (47 µF, 220 µF). Surface-mount and ceramic caps use coded markings: a three-digit number where the first two digits are significant and the third is a power-of-10 multiplier in picofarads, optionally followed by a tolerance letter and a voltage code. The converter normalizes whatever input convention you use.

A worked example. A SMD cap marked 473K. The first two digits (47) are the significant figures; the third digit (3) means multiply by 10³. So 47 × 1,000 = 47,000 pF. That's 47 nF or 0.047 µF. The trailing K means ±10% tolerance, so the actual value sits between 42.3 and 51.7 nF. A different cap marked 0.1J would be 0.1 µF (100 nF, 100,000 pF) at ±5% tolerance.

Limitations worth noting. Capacitance value alone is not a complete spec. A 100 nF ceramic and a 100 nF tantalum behave differently in real circuits — ESR (equivalent series resistance), voltage rating, dielectric type (X7R, NP0, Y5V), and frequency response all matter. Class-2 ceramics like X7R lose 10 to 15 percent of their nominal capacitance at rated voltage and another 5 to 10 percent over temperature. The converter handles only the nominal value; for circuit design, look at the manufacturer datasheet curves. For high-precision applications (filters, oscillators), NP0/C0G ceramics or film caps are the right pick because they hold their nominal value much more tightly than the cheap workhorse parts.