Heavy products run out of kilos, not cubic metres
If the payload figure is the limit, redesigning the carton gains you nothing. Splitting heavy and light products across the same container is what fills both the deck and the weight limit.
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Container loading calculator
How many cartons fit in a 20ft or 40ft container, and will weight stop you before space does? Put in your carton size and weight and the container's inside dimensions, and you get cartons per layer, layers high, the total and how full the box actually is.
Your figures
Outside dimension of the shipping carton, not the product inside it. Measure a packed one, including any bulge.
Outside width of the packed carton. Round up to the nearest centimetre; cartons are never as square as the spec sheet.
Outside height of the packed carton. This decides how many layers fit, so an extra centimetre can cost you a whole layer.
Gross weight of one packed carton. Enter zero if you only want the space answer.
Roughly 589 cm for a 20ft, 1,203 cm for a 40ft. Inside measurements, which are smaller than the name suggests.
About 234 cm for standard containers. Pallet-wide containers are a little wider; check the shipping line's spec.
About 239 cm standard, 269 cm for a high cube. Leave a few centimetres clear if you need to get a forklift in.
Maximum cargo weight for the container, and check your road limit too: many countries cap what a truck can take to the port below the container's own limit.
Cartons per container
882
Cartons per container
The lower of what space and weight allow.
- Cartons per layer
- 98
- Layers high
- 9
- Cartons the payload allows
- 2,625
- Container volume used
- 80.3
Best of the two floor orientations.
Limited by inside height, and by what your cartons can carry without crushing.
If this is the lower number, you are shipping air.
Above 85 per cent is a well-planned load.
A one-page summary with your figures, the method and what the answer means.
The container is the easy part, the unload is not
What arrives has to be received, checked and put away before it can be sold. That is where a big inbound either flows or blocks the dock.
See how inbound handling worksHow this works, in plain English
In plain terms: lay cartons flat across the floor of the container in whichever of the two directions fits more, then stack that layer as high as the ceiling allows. Multiply the two and you have the cartons by space. Then check the weight limit, because a heavy product fills the payload long before it fills the box, and take whichever number is lower.
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Two things worth knowing
A centimetre off the carton can be a whole extra row
Because everything is whole cartons, small size changes move the answer in steps. Before a new packaging run, test a few sizes here: shaving two centimetres often adds a row across the width and pays for the tooling.
Questions people ask
Does this account for pallets?
No, it assumes floor-loaded cartons. Palletised loads fit fewer cartons because of the pallet height and the gaps around them; work out cartons per pallet first, then pallets per container.
Can I mix orientations in a real load?
Yes, and a good loader will, which is why real loads often beat this figure slightly. Treat the answer as a reliable plan, not a hard ceiling.
Other calculators
Pallet and loading metre calculator
Loading metres, floor area, volume and trailers needed, from your own pallet sizes and stacking height.
Volumetric weight calculatorDimensional weight, real weight and the chargeable weight your carrier actually bills.
Warehouse space calculatorSquare metres for a given number of pallet positions, including aisles and support space.
These sums get easier when the data is already right
Loading metres, stock levels and order points are only as good as the stock data behind them. That is what a warehouse management system keeps accurate, every movement, without anyone maintaining a spreadsheet.