How many flights of stairs is 10,000 steps?

Stairs and steps are both “steps”, but they are not the same effort. There are two honest ways to compare them: one stair for one step, or the energy each takes.

The short answer

Counting one stair as one step, 10,000 steps would be up to about 625 floors, because a floor of about 3 m (10 ft), the height Fitbit counts as one floor, takes at least 16 stairs at the tallest steps the US building code allows. By effort, climbing stairs takes about 2.4 times the energy of walking at a normal pace, minute for minute, so about 35 minutes on a stair machine is roughly the energy of the 85 minutes 10,000 steps take on the flat.

What counts as a flight?

Fitness trackers don’t count individual stairs as floors. Fitbit, for example, registers one floor when you climb about 10 feet, or 3 metres, measured by an altimeter that senses changes in air pressure along with your steps.

How many stairs that takes depends on the stairs. In the US, the residential building code caps each step’s height, the riser, at 7¾ inches (196 mm). At that maximum, 10 feet takes about 16 stairs. Lower risers mean more stairs per floor.

10,000 steps as stairs, step for step

Measure	10,000 steps
Floors of 10 ft (3 m), at 16 stairs each	up to about 625 floors
Height climbed, at the tallest legal risers	up to about 1,960 m (6,430 ft)

Nobody climbs 10,000 stairs in a day for exercise, which is why the effort comparison is the more useful one.

10,000 steps as stairs, by effort

The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities, the standard reference for the energy cost of activities, lists a stair machine at 9.3 METs (multiples of resting energy use) and walking at a moderate 2.8 to 3.4 mph at 3.8 METs. Minute for minute, that makes stair climbing about 2.4 times the effort of a normal walk.

So the roughly 85 minutes it takes to walk 10,000 steps at a normal pace is about the same energy as 35 minutes on a stair machine.

How do 110 flights compare?

At 16 stairs a floor, 110 flights of 10 feet is about 1,760 stairs and a climb of about 335 m (1,100 ft): a hard workout, and step for step well short of 10,000.

A goal for every walk

Most of us know we should walk more and still skip it, because “go for a walk” has no finish line. reTrek gives you one: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. The walk you would have skipped becomes the one that gets you to the next milestone.

Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.