MongoDB Documentation, Release 3.0.4 spherical: true } ) { // [ ... ] "results" : [ { "dis" : 0.01853688938212826, "obj" : { "_id" : ObjectId( ... ) "loc" : [ -73, 40 ] } } ], "stats" : { // [ ... ] "avgDistance" : 0.01853688938212826, "maxDistance" : 0.01853714811400047 }, "ok" : 1 } db.runCommand( { geoNear: "places", near: [ -74, 40.74 ], spherical: true , distanceMultiplier: 3963.2 } ) { // [ ... ] "results" : [ { "dis" : 73.46525170413567, Chapter 8. Indexes 538 The output of the above operation would resemble the following: Using distanceMultiplier in spherical queries provides results from the geoNear command that do not need radian-to-distance conversion. The following example uses distanceMultiplier in the geoNear command with a spherical (page 537) example: The distanceMultiplier option of the geoNear command returns distances only after multiplying the results by an assigned value. This allows MongoDB to return converted values, and removes the requirement to convert units in application logic. Note: While the default Earth-like bounds for geospatial indexes are between -180 inclusive, and 180 , valid values for latitude are between -90 and 90 . Warning: Spherical queries that wrap around the poles or at the transition from -180 to 180 longitude raise an error. The output of the above command would be: Distance Multiplier