What Is Gaj? The Land Unit Behind North-India Plot Sizes
Gaj is the area unit written on plot listings and sale deeds across UP, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Here is what it measures, why it equals 9 square feet in practice, and where the 8.91 figure comes from.
Explainer
A gaj is a unit of land area. On a plot listing, a sale deed or a broker’s message in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana or Punjab, “100 gaj” means a plot of 100 gaj of ground, and in practice that is 900 square feet.
That single sentence answers most searches for the word. The rest of this page is for the questions that follow: why nine, whether gaj is the same as a square yard, why Google shows 8.91, and how the word gets spelled.
Gaj and square feet
The working rule across North-India property is 1 gaj = 9 square feet. Multiply the gaj figure by 9 and you have square feet. Divide square feet by 9 and you have gaj.
| Gaj | Square feet (×9) | Square feet (×8.91359) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | 8.91 |
| 10 | 90 | 89.14 |
| 50 | 450 | 445.68 |
| 100 | 900 | 891.36 |
The right-hand column is the other convention, explained below. For a live figure with the plot drawn to scale, use the converter.
Gaj and square yard
A yard is three feet. A square yard is a three-foot square, which is 3 × 3 = 9 square feet. So under the 9 square feet rule, one gaj is exactly one square yard. A 200 gaj plot is a 200 square yard plot is an 1,800 square foot plot. Portals and bank calculators state this equivalence and it holds, with the one exception in the next section. The gaj to square yard converter draws the proof.
Why Google shows 8.91
Type “gaj to square feet” into a search engine and the unit converter card at the top may say a square guz is about 8.91 square feet. That is a different definition of a related unit, the guz, not an error in the deed. Google Units puts a square guz at 8.91359 square feet.
Neither figure is wrong. They are two conventions. For a plot in North India the deed’s 9 is the figure that governs the sale. The 8.91 figure matters only when you are reproducing a number that was produced with it. The gaj vs guz article walks through both with a comparison chart, and every converter on this site shows both numbers side by side.
How gaj is “calculated”
People search “how is gaj calculated” expecting a formula with some hidden step. There is none. Gaj is an area, so it is calculated the way any area is: length times width gives square feet, and square feet divided by nine gives gaj. A 30 × 30 ft plot is 900 square feet is 100 gaj. The plot size calculator does this from two sides, and the how-to article writes the steps out.
Where the word is used
Gaj is the everyday unit for house plots in Uttar Pradesh (Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra and the rest), Delhi, Haryana (Gurugram, Faridabad), Punjab, and parts of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Farther south and west, listings switch to square feet, square yards, cents or guntha. The state-by-state article covers how each state’s listings use the word.
Spellings
You will see gaj, gaz, guz, varg gaj and square gaj. Searches for varg gaj to square feet and square gaj to square feet mean the same conversion as gaj to square feet: multiply by 9. Gaj and gaz are the same word in two romanisations. Varg means square in Hindi, so varg gaj and square gaj are both ways of saying “gaj as an area” and mean the same 9 square feet. Guz is the spelling Google Units uses for its 8.91 figure. The word also names an elephant in Hindi and turns up as a surname, which is why a bare search sometimes lands on the wrong sense.
Questions people ask
What is gaj?
A unit of land area used in North India, treated as 9 square feet in plot listings and deeds.
What is gaj and square feet?
Two area units. Gaj is the local unit; square feet is what builders and portals quote. One gaj is nine square feet.
What is 1 gaj vs square feet?
1 gaj = 9 square feet at the listing convention, or 8.91359 square feet under the Google Units square guz.
What is the difference between gaj and square feet?
Size. A gaj is nine times a square foot. Both measure area. The gaj and square feet difference is a factor of nine, nothing more.
How is gaj calculated?
Length × width in feet gives square feet; divide by 9 for gaj.
How many square feet are in one gaj of land?
Nine, under the convention used on deeds.
Why is gaj used in India?
It is the traditional land unit in the Hindi belt and has stayed in use on deeds and listings even as square feet became the builder’s unit.
What is square gaj or varg gaj?
The same unit, with “square” or “varg” added to make clear it is an area, not a length.