20 ft container
20 ft container loading calculator
What a twenty-foot box actually holds. Internal dimensions, the pallet count that follows from them, the weight that usually limits it first, and a 3D plan for your cargo — the planner below opens on a 20 ft.
Free, and you can run one calculation before signing in at all.
The short answer
11 euro pallets or 10 industrial pallets. About 33 m³ and 28 tonnes.
Standard 20 ft dry box, single tier, no overhang.
A 20 ft is the container that runs out of weight first. Its floor takes eleven euro pallets, but at 28 tonnes of payload that is 2.5 tonnes a pallet before the box is full — so for tiles, drinks, paper and machinery the question is rarely how many pallets fit but how many the rating allows. Light cargo has the opposite problem: 33 m³ fills fast with cartons that do not stack to the roof.
20 ft container dimensions
The 20 ft family: standard, high cube, pallet-wide, reefer and open top, with internal measurements, one-tier pallet counts, payload and volume.
| Container | Internal L × W × H | Pallets, one tier (euro · industrial) | Payload · volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 ft standard (dry) | 5.90 × 2.35 × 2.39 m | 11 · 10 | ~28,200 kg · 33 m³ |
| 20 ft high cube | 5.90 × 2.35 × 2.69 m | 11 · 10 | ~28,000 kg · 37 m³ |
| 20 ft pallet-wide high cube | 5.90 × 2.44 × 2.69 m | 14 · 10 | ~28,000 kg · 39 m³ |
| 20 ft reefer | 5.44 × 2.29 × 2.27 m | 10 · 9 | ~27,500 kg · 28 m³ |
| 20 ft open top | 5.89 × 2.35 × 2.35 m | 11 · 10 | ~28,000 kg · 32 m³ |
Nominal figures. A standard 20 ft door opening is about 2.34 m wide and 2.28 m high, smaller than the box behind it; reefer interiors are quoted to the load line. Measure the allocated box before planning to the centimetre.
Pack a 20 ft container
The planner is already set to a 20 ft. Enter your cartons or pallets — or describe the shipment — and it places every piece, reports the fill, and says what did not fit.
This is the planner itself, not a demo. Enter your own cargo and it packs it — the figures above are the starting point, not the answer for your load.
What changes the answer
Four reasons a 20 ft holds fewer pallets, or more, than the table says.
- The door, not the box
- A standard container door is about 2.34 m wide and 2.28 m high — narrower and lower than the 2.35 × 2.39 m inside. Anything that fits the box but not the opening does not go in, and a high cube's taller door is often its real advantage.
- Weight before space
- Dense cargo hits the payload limit long before it fills the floor. A 20 ft container holds about 28 tonnes and 33 m³ — anything above roughly 850 kg per cubic metre runs out of weight first, and the pallet count stops mattering.
- Volume is not capacity
- 68 m³ of box holds far less than 68 m³ of cartons. Rows that do not divide the width evenly, the gap above the top tier and odd sizes at the end take 10–25% on a good day. The fill percentage the planner reports is the honest figure.
- Overhang
- Cargo that extends past the pallet edge changes the footprint the trailer sees. A few centimetres per pallet is what turns 33 into 30, and it is the single most common reason a published count does not survive contact with real cargo.
Questions
How many euro pallets fit in a 20 ft container?
11, loaded as a mix of lengthways and across so the 2.35 m width is used — two across at 1.2 + 0.8 m, with the odd one at the end. A pallet-wide 20 ft (2.44 m inside) takes 14, two euro pallets side by side.
What are the internal dimensions of a 20 ft container?
About 5.90 m long, 2.35 m wide and 2.39 m high, giving 33 m³. The door is narrower and lower than that: roughly 2.34 by 2.28 m.
What is the maximum weight in a 20 ft container?
Around 28 tonnes of payload against a 30.48 t gross rating, but the road leg often allows less — many European routes cap the loaded box plus chassis at 40–44 t gross, which leaves 24–26 t of cargo. Check the tightest leg, not the tag.
How many cubic metres is a 20 ft container?
33 m³ internal for a standard box, about 37 for a 20 ft high cube and 28 for a 20 ft reefer. Usable volume is less: expect 75–90% fill with uniform cartons and less with mixed sizes.
Plan the 20 ft
Your cargo in a twenty-foot box, with the fill and the weight, in 3D.
Open the planner