40 ft container
40 ft container loading calculator
What a forty-foot box holds and where it stops. Dimensions for the standard and the high cube, the pallet counts, the weight it is allowed to carry, and a 3D plan for your cargo — the planner below opens on a 40 ft.
Free, and you can run one calculation before signing in at all.
The short answer
25 euro pallets or 21 industrial pallets. About 68 m³ and 26.7 tonnes.
Standard 40 ft dry box, single tier, no overhang.
A 40 ft is the container that runs out of space first. It carries barely more weight than a 20 ft — about 26.7 tonnes against 28 — on twice the floor, so it suits light and bulky cargo: furniture, garments, packaging, assembled goods. Dense freight in a 40 ft leaves the box half empty at the weight limit, which is the most common reason two 20 fts cost less than one 40 ft.
40 ft container dimensions
The 40 ft family: standard, high cube, pallet-wide high cube, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 ft standard (dry) | 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.39 m | 25 · 21 | ~26,700 kg · 68 m³ |
| 40 ft high cube | 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.69 m | 25 · 21 | ~26,500 kg · 76 m³ |
| 40 ft pallet-wide high cube | 12.10 × 2.44 × 2.69 m | 30 · 24 | ~26,000 kg · 79 m³ |
| 40 ft high cube reefer | 11.56 × 2.29 × 2.55 m | 23 · 20 | ~29,000 kg · 67 m³ |
| 40 ft open top | 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.33 m | 25 · 21 | ~26,500 kg · 66 m³ |
Nominal figures. Boxes of the same size differ by a few centimetres between manufacturers; the door on a standard 40 ft is about 2.34 m wide and 2.28 m high. Payload is the ISO rating; the road and rail legs usually allow less.
Pack a 40 ft container
The planner is already set to a 40 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 40 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.
- 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.
- Road limits arrive before the rating
- A 40 ft may be rated for 26.7 tonnes, but the truck collecting it may not be: many European routes cap the loaded box plus chassis at 40–44 tonnes gross, and US roads at 80,000 lb. Plan to the tightest leg, not to the plate on the door.
- What may sit on what
- Double-stacking doubles a count only if the lower tier can carry the upper one and the total clears the roof. Fragile, non-tiltable and crush-limited items break that arithmetic, and they are the norm rather than the exception.
Questions
How many euro pallets fit in a 40 ft container?
25 on a single tier, or 21 industrial pallets; a pallet-wide 40 ft high cube takes 30 euro pallets. Double-stacking doubles those only if the lower tier carries the upper and the total clears 2.39 m — in a standard box it usually does not.
What are the internal dimensions of a 40 ft container?
About 12.03 m long, 2.35 m wide and 2.39 m high, giving 68 m³. The high cube is 2.69 m high and 76 m³ on the same floor.
What is the maximum weight in a 40 ft container?
About 26.7 tonnes of payload — less than a 20 ft, because the empty box weighs more against the same 30.48 t gross rating. Road limits usually bite earlier still.
How many cubic metres is a 40 ft container?
68 m³ for a standard 40 ft and 76 m³ for a high cube. Real fill is 75–90% of that with uniform cartons, and the planner reports the exact figure for your mix.
Plan the 40 ft
Your cargo in a forty-foot box, with the fill and the weight, in 3D.
Open the planner