Health & Fitness · Medical
Body Surface Area (BSA) Calculator — Mosteller, Du Bois & More
Calculate body surface area (BSA) in square metres from height and weight with the Mosteller formula and compare it with Du Bois, Haycock, and Gehan & George. BSA is used in medicine to dose some drugs (such as chemotherapy) and to index measurements like cardiac output and kidney function.
Your inputs
Quick start — try a typical case
Your result Live
Body Surface Area (Mosteller)
1.82 m²
19.6 sq ft · for 70.0 kg and 170.0 cm
- Typical Adult BSA
- About 1.6 m² for women and 1.9 m² for men
All formulas
4 rowsDrug doses must be prescribed and checked by a clinician; formulas can differ by a few percent for very large or very small bodies.
Population-average estimates for healthy adults, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before major changes to diet or exercise, or if you are pregnant or have a health condition.
How this is calculated
Mosteller √(H × W ÷ 3600) · Du Bois 0.007184 × W^0.425 × H^0.725 · Haycock 0.024265 × W^0.5378 × H^0.3964 · Gehan & George 0.0235 × W^0.51456 × H^0.42246
- W, H
- Weight in kg, height in cm; BSA in m²
Body surface area can't be measured easily, so it's estimated from height and weight. The Mosteller formula is the simplest and most widely used; Du Bois (1916) is the classic, and Haycock is often preferred for children. They usually agree within a few hundredths of a square metre.
Assumptions & sources
- Formulas are empirical fits to measured groups of people.
- 1Body surface area formulas (Mosteller, Du Bois, Haycock, Gehan & George) — Journal of Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapeutics (PMC4207836)
Calculator ID HLTH-BSA-001 · version 1.0.0
Common questions
What's the BSA of a 170 cm, 70 kg adult?
About 1.82 m² by Mosteller (√(170 × 70 ÷ 3600)).
Why is BSA used for drug doses?
Some drugs' effects scale better with body size measured as surface area than with weight alone — chemotherapy is the classic example.
Which formula is best?
Mosteller is standard in most hospitals; Haycock is common for children. Differences are small for typical adults.