CBM Calculator

CBM stands for cubic meter, the standard unit for measuring cargo volume in freight. It comes from multiplying a carton or pallet's length, width, and height (in meters, or centimeters divided by 1,000,000) and is used across sea, air, and road freight to describe how much space a shipment occupies, separately from how much it weighs.

CBM measures volume; chargeable weight is what a carrier actually bills you for, and it is the higher of your actual (gross) weight and a volumetric weight derived from CBM using a mode-specific divisor. A light but bulky shipment is billed on its volumetric weight, while a dense, heavy shipment is billed on its actual weight — carriers always charge whichever number is larger.

A 20ft general purpose (20GP) container has a nominal internal volume of about 33.2 m³, but usable capacity is closer to 28 m³ once you allow for pallet shape, stacking limits, and the fact that cargo rarely stows edge-to-edge with zero gaps. A 40ft high cube (40HC) is nominally 76.4 m³ with roughly 68 m³ usable for the same reasons. Always plan against the usable figure, not the nominal one, when deciding between FCL and LCL.

Yes — measure the full footprint including the pallet itself, not just the cartons stacked on it. A pallet adds height (commonly 14-15 cm for a standard wood pallet) and can round the footprint up if cartons overhang the deck, so leaving it out understates the volume a forwarder actually needs to book.

LCL (less than container load) freight is typically quoted per CBM, so your total CBM figure multiplied by the forwarder's rate gives the base ocean freight cost. Most forwarders also apply a minimum charge, commonly 1 CBM, so a shipment measuring 0.24 CBM will usually be billed as if it were 1 CBM rather than at the smaller actual volume.