How to find Qibla

1. Choose the origin: the point you will pray from.
2. Read the bearing: degrees from true north.
3. Find north: use a supported phone, a compass or an aligned map.
4. Turn: face true north, then turn clockwise by the bearing.

Every result depends on the starting point. Choose the option that matches where you will actually stand:

• Use my location asks your device for its position once, after you tap. It does not keep following you. Before you rely on the result, check that the place and coordinates shown look right.
• Search city presets covers 107 approximate city centres. A preset is a fixed point in that city. It is not your street or building.
• Enter coordinates instead takes decimal degrees in the Latitude and Longitude fields, such as 43.6532 and -79.3832. Then select Find my Qibla.
  • Negative latitude is south of the equator.
  • Negative longitude is west of Greenwich.
  • If you know roughly how far off your point might be, enter that distance in metres in the optional position uncertainty field.
• Open map lets you move the map to your spot. Then choose Use map centre.

Your city may not be in the suggestions. The direction can still be calculated with your device location, coordinates or the map.

A link someone shares with you can also set the origin they chose. Check that it is the place you mean.

A more specific point is not automatically more accurate, especially one you typed or picked by hand. For help deciding, compare a city preset or current location. When you are ready, open the Qibla finder.

Which way is Qibla? It depends on where you are. The finder gives it as a bearing in degrees, measured clockwise from true north at your chosen origin.

The bearing is the starting direction of the shortest route over a spherical Earth to a published Kaaba reference point at 21.4225241, 39.8261818. It is a geographic calculation. It is not a surveyed alignment or a religious ruling.

The number is not a turn from whichever way you happen to be facing. Find true north first, then turn.

For example, a bearing of 60° means you face true north and turn 60° clockwise. That puts you a little past north-east, towards east.

Qibla is not always west, and no single number covers a whole country. Recalculate when you travel. To see how north references differ, read about true north and magnetic correction.

If your phone or tablet reports a usable compass heading, the finder can move a live pointer as you turn.

1. Set your origin so the bearing appears.
2. Tap Enable live compass. Some browsers ask for motion or orientation permission at this point, and only after a tap.
3. Hold the phone flat or nearly level, with the screen in portrait orientation. Keep both the front-to-back and the side-to-side tilt within about 5°. Rest the phone on your palm like a tray rather than standing it up in front of you.
   • If you see Use portrait and hold level, level the phone and keep the screen in portrait.
   • Live alignment pauses in landscape, or when the phone tilts beyond that near-level range.
4. Keep clear of magnetic cases, speakers, vehicles and large metal objects.
5. Check Device heading. The text beneath it shows where the heading comes from and the correction applied. Then turn slowly with the phone.
6. Follow the turn prompt. The finder tells you to turn left or right by about a stated number of degrees, together with a note on uncertainty. The number updates as you turn.
7. Stop turning when the finder says “Near the estimated Qibla direction”. This is an estimate from the phone’s sensor, so confirm it against a known reference, such as a checked north line or a Qibla marker you trust.
8. Tap Stop compass when you have finished.

Some movement while you turn is normal. If the pointer keeps jittering while you hold still, something may be wrong.

If the arrow can't be trusted:

• Magnetic heading: when the browser reports a magnetic heading, the finder corrects it to true north once.
• No known north: a relative orientation with no known north reference is never treated as north, so no live alignment appears.
• No magnetic correction: live alignment also needs a valid magnetic correction for your place and date. See when no correction is shown.
• Compass off: the arrow is a north-up bearing. It stays still even as you turn, which is expected.

In any of these cases, use the number with another north reference, or fix location or compass problems.

You do not need a compass to calculate Qibla, because the bearing comes from your origin. To use that bearing on the ground, you need an independent way to find true north where you stand.

1. Set the origin with a preset, coordinates or the map. None of these needs location permission.
2. Note the bearing from true north.
3. Choose Open map. Find your position and a recognisable road or building edge beside it.
4. Check which way north lies on the map, and relate the bearing to that road or edge.
5. Line yourself up with the same feature on the ground.

Loading map tiles contacts OpenStreetMap. It can see your IP address and the area you view.

Take care with flat maps: on a common flat world map, a straight line from a distant place to Makkah can point in a different direction from the true starting direction of the shortest route. How much it differs depends on the route and the map projection. It can give you the wrong starting bearing.

A correctly drawn great-circle route, like the line on the finder's map, is a different thing. Even so, a number on a screen cannot tell you which wall you face. When you work from the bearing, you still need a north reference where you are. To begin, open the Qibla finder.

If you would rather not locate north, the shadow guidance below describes a direct method that does not depend on it.

An ordinary compass points to magnetic north, but the finder's bearing is measured from true north. The angle between the two is called magnetic declination, and it changes with place and date.

Apply declination once, and only when your compass needs it. In the steps below, T is the displayed bearing and D is the local declination, with east counted as positive.

• Unadjusted magnetic compass: set the target to (T − D + 360) mod 360.
  • In practice, subtract an east declination or add a west one, then wrap the result into 0–360°.
  • Hypothetical example: a 60° bearing with 10° east declination gives a compass target of 50°.
  • Near 0° the wrapped target can look higher than the bearing. A 5° bearing with the same 10° east declination becomes 355°.
• Compass adjusted to true north: if you have adjusted the compass following its own instructions, use the bearing exactly as shown.
• Converting a magnetic reading to true: add declination, (M + D + 360) mod 360, where M is the magnetic reading.

Never correct twice. If a compass already reads true north, subtracting declination again moves you away from Qibla.

Use a current declination for your location from a trusted geomagnetic source. The NOAA World Magnetic Model page explains how declination varies.

A model describes Earth's main magnetic field. It cannot cancel the effect of nearby metal, wiring or vehicles.

To apply the target with an ordinary, unadjusted magnetic compass:

1. Work out the magnetic target from the bearing and your current local declination, as shown above.
2. Hold the compass level, or rest it on a flat surface, away from phones, metal, wiring and vehicles.
3. Let the needle settle. Then find north on the compass by following its own instructions, because dials and markings differ between models.
4. From that north indication, turn clockwise to the magnetic target and face that direction.

With a compass already adjusted to true north, skip the declination step. Turn clockwise from its north to the bearing as shown.

At home: use your device location or your home's coordinates rather than a city centre. A point at your own address usually matches where you pray more closely, but a point you pick by hand is only as good as the pick. Check the direction against a trusted north reference. Once you have checked it, you can mark it in the room and reuse it.

In a hotel: set the origin to where you are staying, not your home city. A Qibla marker posted in the room or in a prayer area is a local reference. If it disagrees with a moving arrow, check your origin and the phone's heading status first.

On a desktop or laptop: a computer usually cannot orient an arrow, but it can still give you the number.

1. Choose a preset or enter coordinates.
2. Read the bearing from true north.
3. Apply it with a compass, a map or another external reference.

A city point says nothing about how your room is laid out.

The finder does not include a sun or shadow timetable. For questions about a prayer space, or about what to do when you are unsure of the direction, ask qualified local guidance.

Sometimes the finder holds back a result on purpose. Each case has a next step:

• Very close to the Kaaba: no bearing appears within 25 metres of the reference point. If your stated position uncertainty is larger than 25 metres, that larger distance is used. Check the direction locally.
• Near the opposite side of the globe: the same rule applies around the antipode. There, the shortest path has no stable single direction. Small position errors matter here even though you are far from Makkah, so recheck your coordinates.
• At an exact geographic pole: true north has no local meaning there, so no compass direction is shown.
• No magnetic correction: the finder's WMM2025 model window ends on 13 November 2029 at 03:00 UTC. Correction is also unavailable where the horizontal magnetic field is weaker than 6000 nanotesla. Without a correction, no live true-north alignment is shown. The bearing and map can still appear, so use them with another north reference.

A missing correction is not the same as the pause you see in landscape, or when the phone tilts beyond the near-level range of about 5°.

The 25-metre figure is a cautious product limit. It is not a religious boundary or an accuracy guarantee.

Position uncertainty is a distance in metres around your origin. It is not compass error. A blank uncertainty field does not mean the position is exact.

If none of these cases applies, recheck the origin and permissions, then work through the troubleshooting guide.

• City presets, coordinates and the map work without location permission.
• Use my location and Enable live compass are separate requests. Each starts only when you tap it. Your location is requested once, not tracked, and the calculation runs on your device.
• Remember this location on this device is off on first use. Tick it to store the selected point in this browser. If you opted in earlier, it may already be ticked on the homepage.
• Reset finder clears the active point but leaves any earlier saved location in place.
• Clear saved location, or unticking Remember, removes the stored point if your browser's storage allows it. If the finder says it could not, clear this site's data in your browser settings.
• Share location puts the coordinates, the label and any position uncertainty after the # in the link.
  • That uncertainty may be a radius your device reported, one carried by a saved or shared point, or one you typed.
  • Anyone with the full link can see all of this, and so can your browser history and the sharing service.

None of these choices erases browser history, downloaded references or a link you have already sent. Your theme preference is also stored locally. Check what a link reveals before sharing coordinates.