Distance between Madrid and São Paulo (straight line)

The straight-line distance between Madrid (Spain) and São Paulo (Brazil) is 8,385 km (5,210 miles), as the crow flies, measured from one city centre to the other. It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface; any road between them is longer.

Straight-line distance

8,385 km

5,210 miles · straight line

Heading from Madrid

220° (southwest)

initial compass bearing to São Paulo

Flight time estimate, not a booking

~10 h 30 min

at about 800 km/h, in the air only

Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.

MadridSão PauloThe line is the great circle: straight over the globe, curved on a flat map.

Measure your own two places

Pick any two cities, addresses or coordinates in the calculator, or start from where you are standing. It gives the same straight-line distance, in miles and kilometres.

Madrid to São Paulo at a glance

Straight-line distance
8,385 km (5,210 miles), as the crow flies
Heading from Madrid
220° (southwest) to São Paulo
Heading from São Paulo
32° (north-northeast) to Madrid
Midpoint
9.0473° N, 27.2546° W, halfway along the straight line
Flight time estimate, not a booking
About 10 h 30 min in the air at a cruising speed of 800 km/h along the straight line. Take-off, landing, the real flight path and any stops add more.
Madrid, Spain
40.4165° N, 3.7026° W (city centre)
São Paulo, Brazil
23.5475° S, 46.6361° W (city centre)

Nearby city pairs

Questions

Is 8,385 km (5,210 miles) the driving distance from Madrid to São Paulo?

No. 8,385 km (5,210 miles) is the straight-line distance between the two city centres, as the crow flies. A road route is always longer, because roads bend around terrain and water, and MapGO does not measure driving distance or travel time.

How is the distance between Madrid and São Paulo measured?

Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Madrid's centre (40.4165° N, 3.7026° W) to São Paulo's (23.5475° S, 46.6361° W). This is what "straight-line distance" and "as the crow flies" mean on a globe. On a flat map the line can look curved.

How accurate is this distance?

Within about 0.5% for the two centre points. The figure treats the Earth as a sphere (the haversine formula), while the real Earth is slightly flattened, which shifts a long straight-line distance by up to about 0.5%. Measuring from another part of either city changes it more, since a large city can be tens of kilometres across.

Computed by MapGO from each city's centre point (GeoNames) with the haversine formula. All distances on this page are straight lines over the Earth's surface, not road distances.