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How Big Is a Monarch Butterfly?

A monarch butterfly is about 3.9 in (10 cm) long. That is about 17 times smaller than the average man. An orange butterfly famous for migrating thousands of kilometers.

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How big is a monarch butterfly compared to the average man?

A monarch butterfly is about 17 times smaller than the average man. The average man is 17.1× the size of a monarch butterfly: about 17 monarch butterflys stacked up would match it.

Monarch Butterfly size facts

A monarch's wingspan is about 9 to 10 cm.
Some fly about 4,000 km from Canada to Mexico each fall.

How does a monarch butterfly compare to other things?

A monarch butterfly next to 25 things of similar size, plus some everyday references:

Thing	Size	Compared to Monarch butterfly
Sun	865,000 miles (1,393,000 km) across	13.9 billion× bigger
Earth	7,920 miles (12,740 km) across	127 million× bigger
Mount Everest	5.5 miles (8.849 km)	88,500× bigger
Eiffel Tower	1,083 ft (330 m)	3,300× bigger
School bus	40 ft (12.2 m) long	122× bigger
Average man (world)	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)	17.1× bigger
Average woman (world)	5 ft 3 in (159 cm)	15.9× bigger
American crow	1 ft 5.5 in (45 cm) long	4.5× bigger
Goliath birdeater	11 in (28 cm) long	7.1 in (18 cm) bigger
Basketball	9.4 in (24 cm) across	5.5 in (14 cm) bigger
Soccer ball	8.7 in (22 cm) across	4.7 in (12 cm) bigger
Bowling ball	8.6 in (21.8 cm) across	4.6 in (11.8 cm) bigger
Dwarf lanternshark	7.9 in (20 cm) long	3.9 in (10 cm) bigger
Pencil	7.5 in (19 cm) long	3.5 in (9 cm) bigger
Banana	7.1 in (18 cm) long	3.1 in (8 cm) bigger
House mouse	6.7 in (17 cm) long	2.8 in (7 cm) bigger
Smartphone	5.8 in (14.7 cm)	1.9 in (4.7 cm) bigger
Credit card	3.4 in (8.56 cm) long	0.57 in (1.44 cm) smaller
Apple	3.1 in (8 cm) long	0.79 in (2 cm) smaller
Baseball	2.9 in (7.4 cm) across	1 in (2.6 cm) smaller
Tennis ball	2.6 in (6.7 cm) across	1.3 in (3.3 cm) smaller
Wolf spider	2.4 in (6 cm) long	1.6 in (4 cm) smaller
Bee hummingbird	2.2 in (5.5 cm) long	1.8 in (4.5 cm) smaller
Golf ball	1.7 in (4.27 cm) across	2.3 in (5.73 cm) smaller
US quarter	0.96 in (2.43 cm) across	4.1× smaller

Where do these numbers come from?

Sizes are typical adult or reported values, rounded for readability. Read how we measure and compare sizes.

Silhouettes from PhyloPic: Monarch butterfly by Andy Wilson. See credits.