Freight
Shipping container dimensions: what to check
Independent site, not a government agency or a customs broker. General information, not legal advice or customs advice.
Enter the capacity and payload from your carrier’s sheet, then your cargo: whether it fits by volume and by weight.
Does your cargo fit this container?
With these figures
fits on paper
| Volume used | 83% |
| Weight used | 75% |
The first two fields hold examples, not measures of any container. Ask your trucker for the road limit too.
This page prints no inside measures for containers, and here is why. Inside measures, door openings, tare and payload appear on container lines’ own sheets. On November 2, 2026, most lines’ pages refused our reader or timed out. The one we could read says in its copyright notice that its content may not be reproduced or otherwise used without written consent, so we removed its figures. A Defense Logistics Agency guide refused our reader too. So we state no container measure as fact: for sizes, use your own carrier’s sheet, which your forwarder can send, and enter its figures in the tool. It then compares your cargo with that volume and weight, and shows the share of each that your load would use.
Cubic meters of a shipment
Total volume
9.6 m³
| In cubic feet | 339 ft³ |
| One carton | 0.096 m³ |
Outer carton size, without pallets or gaps.
Rates read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Six figures to ask for
- Inside length, width and height, for the type you are booking.
- Door width and door height, which limit your largest piece.
- Capacity in cubic meters.
- Tare, the weight of the empty box.
- Maximum payload.
- The weight limit for your road leg, from the trucker.
Get them for the equipment type on your booking: dry, high cube, 45-foot, open-top, flat rack or refrigerated. We verified none of those types.
Volume or weight first?
Your load can reach the payload before the box is full, or fill the box before it reaches the payload, so ask for both figures when you compare sizes. The tool at the top checks both once you have replaced its example values.
Next steps
We publish no freight rates. To turn cartons into cubic meters, use the CBM calculator, and for pallets, the pallet calculator.
What is not verified here
All outer and inside measures, door sizes, capacities and payloads. The method page lists what we could not read and why.