Fairbanks is located at 64.837780° North, -147.71639° West (Sec. 10, T001S, R001W, Fairbanks Meridian)GR1. Fairbanks is located in the Fairbanks Recording District. Fairbanks is located in the heart of Alaska’s Interior, on both shores of the Chena River, near its confluence with the Tanana River in the Tanana Valley. By air, Fairbanks is 45 minutes from Anchorage and 3 hours from Seattle. It lies 358 road miles (576 km) north of Anchorage. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 84.6 km² (32.7 mi²). 82.5 km² (31.9 mi²) of it is land and 2.1 km² (0.8 mi²) of it (2.48%) is water.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB), a local government unit similar to a county, covers 7,361 square miles and has 82,840 residents. Within the Borough are two cities, Fairbanks and North Pole as well as several unincorporated communities. The Tanana Valley surrounds Fairbanks at an elevation of 436 feet above sea level and rises east to about 2,000 feet at the Canadian border. Fairbanks has stunning views of the Alaska Range to the south, including Mt. McKinley, and the White Mountains to the north. By air, Fairbanks is approximately three and a half hours north of Seattle and fifty minutes from Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.

The Borough is also the northern terminus of the Alaska Railroad with access to the ports of Seward, Whittier and Anchorage. Other than the Glenn and Sterling Highways, all major Alaskan highways meet at or near Fairbanks. FSNB’s location in Alaska, along the transpolar air routes (64º50′ latitude, about the same as Oslo, Norway) makes it logistically attractive to air cargo airlines and the military; by air Fairbanks is less than nine hours from both Europe and Asia.