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Enter three sides in inches, centimetres or feet; get cubic feet, cubic metres, litres and cubic inches, plus the density your freight class is calculated from. Free, runs in your browser.
Measure the outside of the shipment as loaded — wrapping, banding and pallet included.
Cubic feet is length × width × height. The only thing that trips people up is the unit: measure in inches and you still have one division left.
It is the number worth memorising if you ship LTL, because it turns a stack height into a volume without any arithmetic.
| From | To | Multiply by | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| cubic inches | cubic feet | ÷ 1,728 | 1,728 = 12³, exact |
| cubic feet | cubic metres | 0.028316846592 | Exact: an inch is defined as 2.54 cm |
| cubic feet | litres | 28.316846592 | Exact, same definition |
| cubic metres | cubic feet | 35.3147 | Rounded: the exact factor is a repeating decimal |
Two of these factors are exact and one is not. Feet-to-metres is exact because an inch is defined as 2.54 centimetres; the reverse direction is a rounded reciprocal, which is why converting back and forth can leave a difference in the last digit.
Volume tells you how much space you occupy. Carriers bill on density, and density needs a second number.
This page converts units and computes volume. It does not quote rates, and the density figure it shows is the arithmetic one — your carrier measures the shipment on the dock.
Multiply length by width by height. If you measured in inches, divide the result by 1,728 to get cubic feet. If you measured in feet, the product is already cubic feet. For several identical items, work out one and multiply by the quantity.
Yes, in inches. A cube 12 inches on each side is 1,728 cubic inches, and 1,728 cubic inches is exactly one cubic foot. In any other unit the answer changes: a cubic foot is roughly 0.0283 cubic metres, or about 28.3 litres.
A 48 by 40 inch pallet stacked to the common 72 inch LTL height cap is exactly 80 cubic feet: 48 x 40 x 72 = 138,240 cubic inches, divided by 1,728. That figure is the outer volume, so it includes the pallet deck and any air above the load.
Multiply cubic feet by 0.028316846592. The factor is exact rather than rounded, because an inch is defined as exactly 2.54 centimetres. Ten cubic feet is about 0.2832 cubic metres, and one cubic metre is about 35.31 cubic feet.
On its own it is only half the story. Carriers price on density, which is weight divided by volume: pounds divided by cubic feet gives pounds per cubic foot, and that number is what selects the freight class on the NMFC density scale. The same carton in the same cubic footage can fall in different classes depending on what it weighs.
The outside, as loaded. Carriers measure the shipment on the dock, so wrapping, banding, dunnage and the pallet itself all count. Measuring the carton before it is wrapped understates the volume you are billed on.
Roughly 1,170 cubic feet of internal volume for a standard 20 foot container, though usable space is less because you cannot load to the roof or fill every gap. Internal dimensions vary by container builder, and the practical number depends on how the load is stowed, so treat any figure as an upper bound rather than a target.