San Francisco, CA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of San Francisco, California, shaded from sea level level on the Pacific Ocean to 920 ft on Mount Davidson
Elevation
920 ft 280 m690 ft 210 m580 ft 175 m350 ft 105 m120 ft 35 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

San Francisco sits at about 160 ft (50 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
160 ft 50 m
most residents: 31–340 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Pacific Ocean
Highest
920 ft 280 m
on Mount Davidson
Average
180 ft 55 m
all land inside city limits

San Francisco spans about 920 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
160 ft50 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on Mount Davidson
920 ft280 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets the Pacific Ocean
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for San Francisco
55 ft17 m
Airport (SFO)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 6.2 mi south of the city limits
13 ft4 m
Average of all land180 ft55 m
Nearest peak
Mount Tamalpais, 7.5 mi northwest of the city limits (NGS survey)
2,576 ft785 m

Elevation profile, south to north

15 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of San Francisco, California, shaded from sea level level on the Pacific Ocean to 920 ft on Mount Davidson
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 200 ft (61 m).
Location
Consolidated city and county in California, United States
Population
827,526 2024 est.
Land area
46.7 sq mi + 185.2 sq mi water
Density
17,726 per sq mi
Coordinates
37.7750° N, 122.4194° W
Time zone
Pacific UTC−8 / −7
Landform region
Pacific Border
Drains to
Pacific Ocean
Airport
San Francisco International (SFO) 13 ft
ZIP codes 28
94102 94103 94104 94105 94107 94108 94109 94110 94111 94112 94114 94115 94116 94117 94118 94121 94122 94123 94124 94127 94129 94130 94131 94132 94133 94134 94158 94188
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Daly City360 ft
  2. Brisbane210 ft
  3. Broadmoor200 ft
  4. Colma190 ft
  5. San Francisco160 ft
  6. Tiburon150 ft
  7. South San Francisco130 ft
  8. Sausalito120 ft
  9. Marin City120 ft
  10. Belvedere53 ft
  11. Emeryville18 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Mount Tamalpais2,576 ft
  • Rocky Ridge2,020 ft
  • Scarpet Peak1,930 ft
  • Vollmer Peak1,916 ft
  • Big Rock Ridge1,880 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −20 ft at 37.7010° N, 123.0018° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.