Volume across several buying units
A container has three dimensions, so knowing its floor area alone will not tell you how much it holds. This calculator measures empty space in either a rectangular box or a straight cylinder. It reports the same geometric capacity in four units, useful when one supplier lists cubic feet and another lists cubic yards or litres. Dimensions should describe the usable interior. The outside of a crate includes its boards, and the outside diameter of a drum includes its wall thickness; neither gives the true storage capacity.
Convert depth before multiplying
Box volume = length × width × depth; cylinder volume = π × diameter² × height ÷ 4Metric length and width are entered in metres while depth uses centimetres. Imperial length and width use feet while depth uses inches. The depth is converted before multiplication. A cubic yard contains 27 cubic feet because a yard is three feet in each of three directions: 3 × 3 × 3. The exact conversion factors used here are 0.028316846592 cubic metres per cubic foot and 0.764554857984 cubic metres per cubic yard. A cubic metre contains 1,000 litres. These relationships concern volume, with no assumption about the material inside.
Example: a shallow rectangular compartment
An interior 3 metres long, 2 metres wide and 50 centimetres deep has a capacity of 3 × 2 × 0.5 = 3 cubic metres. That corresponds to 3,000 litres, 105.944 cubic feet or 3.924 cubic yards. With no allowance, the ordering figure is the same 3 cubic metres. For a compartment measured as 9 by 6 feet and 18 inches deep, convert the depth to 1.5 feet; the capacity becomes 81 cubic feet or exactly 3 cubic yards. Adding 10 percent changes the ordering quantity to 3.3 cubic yards while preserving the original capacity in the other results.
Capacity, packing and material mass
The tool assumes level surfaces and straight sides. Tapered baskets, rounded ends and irregular excavations require a different geometric model or several smaller measurements. Allowance is optional and is applied only to the ordering result; it does not enlarge the container. Bags, furniture and coarse rocks contain voids or cannot pack perfectly, so their occupied space may differ from a simple exterior volume. Turning cubic feet into pounds requires a density for the actual contents. A cubic foot of air and a cubic foot of wet sand have the same geometric size but very different masses. Keep transport weight separate from capacity planning.
Frequently asked questions
How many cubic feet are in one cubic yard?
There are exactly 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. Divide a volume in cubic feet by 27 to obtain cubic yards.
Can I mix feet and inches?
Yes, in the fields shown: length and width use feet, while depth uses inches. Enter 18 for a depth of one foot six inches.
Does cubic footage equal square footage?
No. Square footage measures surface area. Multiply an area by a depth in feet to obtain a volume in cubic feet.
How do I measure a cylindrical container?
Enter its inside diameter in the length field and its filled height in the depth field. The width field is ignored in cylinder mode.
Will this tell me the weight?
No. Weight depends on density and moisture. Use a material-specific calculator or the density supplied by your vendor to estimate the load.
Last reviewed: 2026-10-03 · How we calculate