How Many Cartons Fit in a 20ft or 40ft Container?

Using simple floor-pattern arithmetic, about 225 cartons of 60 × 40 × 40 cm fit in a 20 ft container, 500 in a 40 ft and 600 in a 40 ft high cube. The method is to divide each inside dimension of the container by a carton side, round down, and multiply, trying each way the carton can turn.

Container inside dimensions and CBM

Outside sizes are standard, but inside sizes vary slightly between makers. Typical internal figures:

CBM (cubic metre) is length × width × height in metres. A 60 × 40 × 40 cm carton is 0.6 × 0.4 × 0.4 = 0.096 CBM. The CBM calculator does this for a whole shipment.

Why you can’t just divide the volume

Dividing container volume by carton volume gives an upper limit: 33.1 ÷ 0.096 = 345 cartons for a 20 ft. But cartons are rigid blocks. They only fit in whole numbers along each wall, and the leftover gaps are wasted. That’s why the real count is lower.

Worked example: 60 × 40 × 40 cm in a 20 ft

Inside, a 20 ft is about 590 × 235 × 239 cm. Try each orientation and count how many fit along each side:

The best simple pattern lays the 60 cm side along the length: 590 ÷ 60 = 9 (rounded down), 235 ÷ 40 = 5, 239 ÷ 40 = 5, so 9 × 5 × 5 = 225 cartons. That fills 65% of the space. The 50 cm left at the door end and the small gaps at the sides and top are why it isn’t higher.

For the 40 ft, the same carton gives 20 × 5 × 5 = 500, and the high cube’s extra 30 cm of height adds a whole layer: 20 × 5 × 6 = 600.

Mixed patterns can squeeze in more

Loaders sometimes turn the last rows or the top layer a different way to use leftover gaps. With about 50 cm spare at the door of a 20 ft, one extra row turned so the 40 cm side runs along the length (60 cm across, 40 cm high) fits 3 across and 5 high, adding 15 cartons for a total of 240. Turning cartons in the side and top gaps as well can add a few more, which is how a careful load reaches around 255. The container loading calculator tries these combinations for you.

When you don’t fill a container

Smaller shipments go as LCL (less than container load), where you share a container and pay by the CBM or by weight, whichever is greater. 100 of these cartons would be 9.6 CBM. Once a shipment goes well past half of a 20 ft, a full container is often worth pricing too.

Real-world loading

• Expect 85 to 90%. In practice, bulging cartons, door clearance, corner posts and dunnage mean you’ll fit roughly 85 to 90% of the theoretical pattern. Plan with a margin.
• Check the weight limit. Heavy goods hit the container’s maximum payload before it is full. The payload is printed on the container door, and road weight limits in your country may be lower still. 225 cartons at 20 kg each is 4,500 kg, fine for most 20 ft boxes, but dense cargo such as tiles or metal often won’t fill the space.
• Respect stacking strength. The bottom carton must carry the weight of all above. Check the box’s compression strength before stacking 5 high.
• Pallets cost space. Palletised cargo loses the pallet height and the gaps between pallets. Use the pallet loading calculator to compare floor-loaded and palletised options.

If you’re shipping by courier rather than sea, box size is billed differently; see dimensional weight explained.

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