Qibla Finder
Find the direction of the Kaaba in Makkah from your current location.
Location access is needed to calculate the qibla direction.
For best accuracy, hold your device flat and away from magnetic objects. Compass mode works on mobile devices.
Using the qibla finder
The compass above points to the Kaaba in Makkah along the shortest path over the surface of the earth, calculated from your device location. Phone compasses drift, so the questions below cover what to do when the needle disagrees with the mosque down the road.
How do I find the qibla without a compass?
Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba — around 27–28 May and 15–16 July — and at that moment any shadow anywhere on the daylit earth points away from Makkah. Outside those dates, the reliable low-tech method is a local mosque, whose direction was surveyed once and does not drift.
Why does my phone point somewhere different from my mosque?
Phone magnetometers are pulled off by metal furniture, laptops, car bodies, speakers and phone cases with magnetic clasps. Move away from metal and trace a figure of eight in the air to recalibrate. If the two still disagree by more than a few degrees, trust the mosque: its direction was established with instruments yours does not have.
What is the difference between true north and magnetic north here?
A magnetic compass points at the magnetic pole, which is not the geographic one, and the gap between them — magnetic declination — varies by location from near zero to more than twenty degrees. Qibla bearings are calculated from true north, so a raw compass reading has to be corrected before it means anything.
Is the qibla the shortest path or the direction on a flat map?
It is the shortest path across the globe, the great circle. On a flat map that path looks curved, which is why the bearing from North America is north-east rather than the south-east most people expect. The map is what is distorted, not the bearing.
What if I cannot work out the qibla at all?
You face the direction you judge most likely and pray; the prayer is valid. The Qur'an says "wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah" (al-Baqara 2:115), and the scholars treat a sincere effort to determine the direction as sufficient when certainty is out of reach.