Container Fill Rate Calculator
Empty Space in a Container Is Money Left on the Table
Ocean and truck freight is typically priced by the container or the trailer, not by the cubic foot actually used, so a container shipped at 60% fill costs the same as one shipped at 95%. Fill rate turns "how full was it" into a single percentage that's easy to track shipment over shipment and use to justify better cartonization or load planning.
The Formulas
By item count: Fill Rate = (Item Volume × Quantity) / Container Volume × 100
The volume-based mode compares a known used volume directly against total container capacity. The item-count mode instead builds the used volume from individual item dimensions and quantity, which is useful when you know what you're loading but haven't calculated total cubic volume yet.
Typical Container Capacities
| Container type | Typical interior volume |
|---|---|
| 20-foot standard (20' GP) | about 33 m³ (1,170 ft³) |
| 40-foot standard (40' GP) | about 67 m³ (2,385 ft³) |
| 40-foot high cube (40' HC) | about 76 m³ (2,690 ft³) |
Exact usable capacity varies by manufacturer and by how efficiently pallets or cartons stack — use these as a planning starting point, then enter your container's actual internal dimensions for a precise figure.
Where This Matters
- Load consolidation — deciding whether a partial shipment is worth combining with another order to reach a fuller, more cost-effective container.
- Cartonization planning — testing how a smaller case size or different stacking pattern changes fill rate for the same order quantity.
- Freight cost per unit — a higher fill rate spreads the fixed container cost over more units, directly lowering landed cost per item.
How to Use This Calculator
- Choose a mode: By Volume or By Item Dimensions & Quantity.
- For By Volume, enter Container Volume and Used Volume in matching units.
- For By Item Dimensions & Quantity, enter the container's Length, Width, and Height, then the item's Length, Width, Height, and Quantity.
- Select Calculate to see the fill rate as a percentage.
Related Calculations
Once loading is planned, estimate the shipping cost with the Freight Cost Calculator, or size the order quantity first with the Supply Chain Inventory Calculator.