Enter real power (kW) and power factor to calculate apparent power (kVA).
How to Use the kW to kVA Calculator
Real power in kW and power factor as a decimal are the only two fields — divide one by the other and the apparent power comes back immediately.
kVA = kW ÷ PF4 kW at a 0.8 power factor works out to 5 kVA. This is the direct inverse of the kVA to kW calculator elsewhere in this group, and the thing people get backward is exactly that: it's easy to instinctively multiply by PF here the way the other calculator does, when going this direction means dividing by it instead.
The result of that mix-up is usually a number smaller than it should be, which matters because kVA is never less than kW for the same load — dividing a positive number by something no larger than 1 can only hold it steady or make it bigger, never shrink it. A power factor of 1.0 is the one case where kVA and kW come out equal; anything below that, and apparent power has to exceed real power to make up the difference the load isn't using productively.
That relationship is also a fast sanity check on any kW-to-kVA figure you're handed: if a spec sheet or calculation shows kVA below the stated kW for the same equipment, something's been transposed — divided the wrong way, or the two values got swapped before they were written down.
There's no phase toggle on this page because there doesn't need to be one — kW and kVA scale together regardless of how many conductors are carrying them, so the ratio between them depends only on power factor, never on phase count.