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Enter carton dimensions and a height cap; get cartons per layer, layers per pallet, stack height with the 5.5 inch pallet deck counted in, and how many pallets your shipment needs. Free, runs in your browser.
Outer carton dimensions as stacked. The pallet deck is always counted in the height — that is how carriers measure it.
Both errors run the same direction: they tell you a pallet holds more than it does, and you find out at the dock or on the invoice.
This tool computes geometry only. It does not decide whether a load is safe to move, and it is not a carrier commitment.
The GMA pallet is the default answer in North American warehousing, but it is a convention rather than a rule. It came out of the grocery industry, and it stuck because two of them fit side by side in a 53-foot trailer and because racking, conveyors and forklift geometry were all built around it.
| Pallet | Length (in) | Width (in) | Deck height (in) | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMA / US standard | 48 | 40 | 5.5 | North America |
| Euro pallet | 47.24 | 31.5 | 5.5 | Europe / international |
| Half pallet | 48 | 20 | 5.5 | Retail display, small lots |
| Double-wing / industrial | 48 | 48 | 5.5 | Heavy equipment, machinery |
Deck heights and tare weights are typical values, not specifications: timber species, grade and moisture content move them. Confirm against the pallets you actually buy.
Nobody regulates how high you stack a pallet. What exists is carrier practice, and it has three thresholds worth knowing because each one costs money in a different way.
| Height | What it is | What happens past it |
|---|---|---|
| 72 in | LTL common cap (72 in) | Most LTL carriers start charging a surcharge above this height. |
| 84 in | Straight-truck ceiling (84 in) | Above this a pallet cannot move on the straight trucks used for local pickup and delivery. |
| 96 in | FTL / high-cube (96 in) | Seen on full truckload and high-cube equipment; confirm door clearance before stacking this high. |
A pallet is billed on its outside volume, not on how much carton is inside it. The share of the deck your cartons cover is the number that decides how much of that volume is product and how much is air — and since 2025 that volume is also what sets your freight class.
Everything computes locally in your browser. No upload, no account — pallet geometry is arithmetic, not a rate card.
It depends on the carton footprint and the stack height you have. On a 48 x 40 inch GMA pallet with a 72 inch height cap, roughly 66.5 inches of usable height remains after the 5.5 inch pallet deck. Divide that by your carton height for the number of layers, and divide the 1,920 square inch deck by your carton footprint for boxes per layer. The two multiply to give boxes per pallet.
The GMA pallet is 48 inches by 40 inches with a deck height of about 5.5 inches. It is a de facto industry convention, not a regulation: it came out of the grocery industry and spread because it fits two-across in a 53-foot trailer and standard warehouse racking. The European standard is 1,200 by 800 mm, about 47.24 by 31.5 inches.
72 inches total, including the pallet, is the common practical ceiling for LTL. Above it most carriers add a surcharge. Around 84 inches a pallet stops fitting the straight trucks used for local pickup and delivery, and 96 inches appears only on full truckload and high-cube equipment. These are carrier practices that vary by carrier, so confirm the number with yours before you stack to it.
Yes. Carriers measure and bill the shipment as loaded, so the pallet deck counts toward height. Forgetting the 5.5 inch deck is the most common stacking error: it gives you a layer count that fits on paper but not in the trailer, and it understates the volume you are billed on.
Often yes. A layer that runs all cartons the same way leaves a strip of unused deck along one side. Turning the cartons in that strip by 90 degrees frequently adds cartons to every layer, and the gain multiplies by the number of layers. Calculators that only divide length by carton length and width by carton width miss this entirely.
48 inches by 40 inches is 1,920 square inches, which is 13.33 square feet. Cartons rarely cover all of it: the share of the deck your cartons actually cover is the footprint utilisation, and the uncovered share is volume you still pay for.
A wood GMA pallet typically weighs 30 to 48 pounds depending on the timber species, the grade and its moisture content. That tare weight counts toward the shipment weight and therefore toward the density your freight class is calculated from, so include it.