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ShipMargin

Chargeable weight calculator

Compare actual and volumetric weight to find the chargeable weight your carrier bills, for courier, air freight and sea LCL. Shows how much dead air you are paying for.

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The consignment
Parcel dimensions
kg

Straight off the scales, packed.

Unit

Length × width × height in centimetres, divided by 5000. Pieces up to 30 kg round up to the next half kilo; above 30 kg they round to the next whole kilo.

Chargeable weightBilled on volume
5 kg

DHL Express · 11.02 lb

Actual weight
2 kg
Volumetric weight
4.8 kg
Paying for air
60%
Volume
0.024 m³
You are paying for 2.8 kg of air. Reducing the box by a few centimetres on each side often drops a whole weight band.

Questions people ask about this

What is chargeable weight?

The weight your carrier actually bills: whichever is greater of the scale weight and the volumetric weight, after rounding up to the carrier's billing increment. On a bulky, light consignment it can be several times the real weight.

How does air freight chargeable weight differ from courier?

Air freight uses the IATA ratio of 1:6000, which is 167 kg per cubic metre. Couriers use 1:5000, which is 200 kg per cubic metre. On the same bulky consignment, air freight bills roughly 17% less volumetric weight — one reason a forwarder can beat an integrator on large, light shipments.

How is sea LCL different?

LCL is not billed on a divisor at all. It is quoted per revenue tonne, meaning whichever is greater of one cubic metre or 1,000 kilograms. Anything less dense than 1,000 kg per cubic metre — which is most consumer goods — is billed on volume.

How do I reduce chargeable weight?

Shrink the box before you shrink the product. Taking two centimetres off each side of a 40 by 30 by 20 cm carton removes about 14% of the volume, and if that drops you below a rounding threshold the saving is larger than the arithmetic suggests. Right-sizing cartons is usually the single cheapest freight saving available.

Related calculators

Volumetric weightMetric volumetric weight with the divisor your carrier actually uses.Dimensional weightBillable weight in pounds using each carrier's current divisor, side by side.CBMCubic metres, cubic feet, and CBM converted to chargeable weight by mode.Freight classDensity in lb/ft³ mapped to an NMFC class, on the current scale.

Where these numbers come from

Rates and rules change, and a calculator running on stale data is worse than no calculator. Every figure below carries the date we last checked it and a confidence level, so you can judge how much weight to put on it.

Source Publisher Effective Confidence
Dimensional weight divisors by carrier FedEx and UPS daily rates use 139 for inches and pounds, 5000 for centimetres and kilograms. UPS retail counter rates use 166. DHL Express uses 5000. Compiled from carrier documentation and multiple independent operators; FedEx blocked our automated read on 2026-08-17. ShipMargin (compiled) — Corroborated
IATA volumetric ratio for air cargo (1:6000) 6000 cubic centimetres per kilogram, equivalently 167 kg per cubic metre. This is why an air-freight quote and a courier quote on the same box differ: couriers use 5000, giving 200 kg per cubic metre. Air cargo standard practice — Corroborated
LCL weight-or-measure (W/M) revenue tonne LCL is quoted per revenue tonne: whichever is greater of 1 cubic metre or 1,000 kg. Ocean freight standard practice — Corroborated

Page last reviewed . Spotted something out of date? Tell us — corrections are published with the date they were made.