Electricity converters
Electrostatic Capacitance Converter
Convert capacitance units: farad, microfarad, nanofarad, picofarad and statfarad.
Result
1000 nF
1 µF = 1000 nF
All units for this value
| Unit | Symbol | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Farad | F | 0.000001 |
| Millifarad | mF | 0.001 |
| Microfarad | µF | 1 |
| Nanofarad | nF | 1000 |
| Picofarad | pF | 1000000 |
| Kilofarad | kF | 1.00000e-9 |
| Coulomb per volt | C/V | 0.000001 |
| Abfarad | abF | 1.00000e-15 |
| Statfarad | statF | 898755 |
About this calculator
Electrostatic capacitance measures how much electric charge a component can store for each volt of applied voltage, a fundamental rating for capacitors used throughout electronics. This converter switches between the SI farad and its everyday multiples like microfarad and picofarad, as well as the CGS units abfarad and statfarad found in older texts.
How it works in plain English
Because practical capacitors typically store only tiny fractions of a farad, the converter anchors every unit to the farad itself and rescales your entered value through that common base. Metric prefixes such as milli, micro, nano, and pico each represent a factor of a thousand smaller than the one before, which is why component values are so often written in microfarads or picofarads rather than farads directly. Coulomb per volt is simply the defining combination of units behind the farad and is numerically identical to it.
Abfarad and statfarad come from the older CGS electromagnetic and electrostatic unit systems. The abfarad is an enormous unit equal to one billion farads, reflecting how the electromagnetic CGS system defines charge and voltage differently from SI, while the statfarad is extremely small, roughly 1.11265 × 10⁻¹² farad, since the electrostatic CGS system scales in the opposite direction. Both are included here mainly so that figures from historical physics references can be translated into modern units.
Select your from and to units, enter a value, and the converted capacitance appears immediately, with a full table showing that same reading across every supported unit at once. A precision control adjusts how many decimal places are displayed, and a swap button reverses the two selected units in a single click.
The formula
- value_in_target = value_in_source × (source factor to F) ÷ (target factor to F)
- 1 µF = 1 × 10⁻⁶ F
- 1 pF = 1 × 10⁻¹² F
- 1 statF = 1.1126500560536185 × 10⁻¹² F
Worked example
Suppose a ceramic capacitor is marked as 100 nanofarads and an electronics student needs that value expressed in microfarads to match the units used in a circuit simulation tool. Dividing by the microfarad factor: 100 nF ÷ 1000 = 0.1 µF.
Entering 100 into the nanofarad field with microfarad selected as the target returns 0.1 immediately. Working the arithmetic one step further, converting that 0.1 microfarad back into nanofarads by multiplying by 1000 returns the original 100 nF, confirming the round trip holds. The accompanying unit table also shows this same capacitance as 100,000 picofarads and 0.0000001 farads, both derived automatically from the single value that was originally entered, and browsing that same all-units table also reveals the equivalent reading in statfarads for anyone cross-checking against an older physics reference.
Typical capacitance values for common components and reference
| Component or example | Typical capacitance |
|---|---|
| Small ceramic disc capacitor | 1 pF to 100 nF |
| Film capacitor (signal coupling) | 1 nF to 1 µF |
| Electrolytic capacitor (power supply filtering) | 1 µF to 10,000 µF |
| Supercapacitor (energy storage) | 0.1 F to several thousand F |
| Human body (rough approximation) | ≈100-300 pF |
| 1 abfarad | 1 × 10⁹ F |
General electronics reference values
Frequently asked questions
Why are capacitor values usually written in microfarads or picofarads instead of farads?
A farad is an extremely large unit of capacitance, and most everyday capacitors used in circuits store far less charge per volt than a full farad would represent. Writing values in microfarads, nanofarads, or picofarads keeps the numbers in a convenient, easy-to-read range rather than using long strings of leading zeros.
What is a statfarad and why is it so small?
The statfarad comes from the electrostatic CGS unit system, which defines charge in terms of the force between two charged particles rather than the ampere-based definitions used in SI. That different starting point makes the statfarad equal to roughly 1.11265 × 10⁻¹² farad, a very small fraction of the modern unit.
Is coulomb per volt the same thing as a farad?
Yes. The farad is defined as exactly one coulomb of charge stored per volt of applied voltage, so coulomb per volt and farad describe the same quantity with no conversion factor between them. This converter lists it separately mainly to show the relationship explicitly.
Why do supercapacitors have such enormously larger capacitance than typical capacitors?
Supercapacitors use specially engineered electrode materials with extremely large surface areas to store charge, allowing them to reach capacitances measured in whole farads rather than fractions of a farad. This makes them useful for short-term energy storage applications where ordinary capacitors would be far too small.
Can I convert a capacitance rating from an older CGS-based textbook?
Yes. Select abfarad or statfarad as the from unit depending on which CGS system the reference uses, choose farad or microfarad as the target, and enter the value. The converter applies the exact conversion factor automatically without requiring the original CGS definitions to be looked up separately.
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