Fraction ↔ Letter ↔ Number Drill Chart

Every fractional size lined up against its closest letter and number drill, for when you need to substitute one system for another.

FractionDecimal (in)Nearest letterNearest number

Why you'd swap systems in the first place

Not every shop's drill index has every size in every system, and a tap drill or clearance hole calculation often lands closer to a letter or number size than a clean fraction — this table lets you go the other way too, starting from a fraction you know and finding what letter or number drill sits closest to it, useful when substituting for a missing size or standardizing a print's callouts to what's actually in the index.

How "nearest" is determined

Each row scans the full letter (A–Z) and number (#80–#1) drill index and picks whichever single size has the smallest decimal difference from that row's fraction — sizes don't line up on a shared grid, so the nearest match is sometimes a very close few ten-thousandths and sometimes several thousandths off. Check the decimal columns on the full Drill Bit Size Chart if you need to see how close a substitution really is.

Verify before cutting anything critical

These decimal equivalents follow standard ANSI B94.11M number, letter, and fractional drill sizes. Cross-check against your own drill index or a manufacturer's chart before committing to a tolerance-critical hole.