Container load calculator
Calculate how many cartons or pallets fit in a 20ft, 40ft, 40ft high cube or 45ft container, loose or palletised, and whether volume or payload runs out first.
660 cartons per 40ft high cube (40' HC)
Questions people ask about this
How many CBM fit in a 20ft container?
A 20ft standard container has about 33 cubic metres of internal volume, but you will rarely load more than 28 to 30 because cartons do not tile perfectly and you need to be able to close the doors. A 40ft standard is about 67 CBM and a 40ft high cube about 76.
What limits a container load, volume or weight?
For most consumer goods, volume. The box fills before the payload limit is reached. Dense cargo — tiles, liquids, machinery, anything above roughly 400 kg per cubic metre — hits the weight limit first, and road weight limits at the destination can be lower than the container's own.
Should I ship loose or palletised?
Loose loading fits more, often 10 to 15% more, because pallets waste both floor space and height. Palletised is faster to load and unload, less prone to damage, and sometimes required by the receiving warehouse. If your destination charges by the hour to unload, palletised usually wins on total cost.
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Where these numbers come from
This calculator uses arithmetic rather than published rates — every figure comes from the values you enter. See the methodology page for the formulas behind it.
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