CBM Calculator

The label is the geometric interior volume; real loads never reach it. Rectangular cartons leave gaps against curved corrugations and door frames, layers rarely tile perfectly, and loaders need working space. Practical planning capacity is roughly 26–28 CBM for a 20ft and 55–60 for a 40ft high-cube — plan on those, not the brochure.

LCL is priced per "revenue ton" — the greater of one CBM or one metric tonne per CBM of your cargo. Most consumer goods are light for their size, so CBM wins and volume is the bill. Dense cargo like tiles or hardware can flip to weight-based billing; ask your forwarder which side your shipment lands on.

Multiply inches by 2.54 to get centimeters before computing, or compute cubic inches and divide by 61,024 to get CBM directly. A 24 × 16 × 16 inch carton is 61 × 40.6 × 40.6 cm — 0.1006 CBM. Small rounding matters at scale: a 2% carton-size error compounds to half a CBM on a 250-carton order.

Forwarders measure the shipment as received: pallets add height and overhang, cartons bulge when packed tight, and warehouses round each dimension up to the next centimeter. A 5–10% gap between factory-spec CBM and billed CBM is normal. If it is larger, ask for the measurement tally — remeasurement disputes succeed more often than sellers expect.