How many pallets fit in a 20ft and 40ft container?

The short answer

Floor-loaded, one layer, no stacking. A high cube has the same floor as a standard box — the extra 30 cm of height only helps if you can stack.

These are planning figures. Load them into the 3D pallet calculator or the 3D container stuffing calculator with your real carton sizes to get the exact fit, and check the equipment dimensions in the container equipment library.

Why the number is what it is

A 20ft container is 2.35 m wide inside. Two Euro pallets placed with their 1.2 m side across the width take 2.4 m, which does not fit — so loaders alternate the orientation: some pallets go 1.2 m across (leaving 1.15 m, enough for one 0.8 m pallet beside it), others go 0.8 m across (fitting two per row with room to spare). That mix is what gets you to 11 rather than 8.

A 40ft container is a little over twice the length of a 20ft, which is why it takes roughly twice the pallets. A pallet-wide container is 9 cm wider inside — enough to place two Euro pallets side by side with their 1.2 m sides across — and that small difference adds about six pallets per 40ft box.

The three limits that decide a real load

• Floor space. The table above, and only if the pallets are not stacked.
• Height. A standard 40ft is 2.39 m high inside and a high cube 2.69 m. If a loaded pallet is 1.2 m tall you can double-stack in either; if it is 1.5 m you can only double-stack in the high cube, and only if the goods can carry the weight of the pallet above.
• Weight. Most 40ft containers are rated around 26,500–28,800 kg of payload, and a 20ft around 28,000 kg. Road weight limits at either end are often stricter than the container's own rating, so a container can be legally full at 24 tonnes while still looking half empty.

Dense cargo — stone, tiles, machinery, liquids — almost always hits the weight limit first. That is why heavy goods usually ship in 20ft containers: a 40ft costs more but carries barely more weight.

Practical points that change the count

• Overhang. Cartons hanging over the pallet edge are crushed in transit and can attract re-palletising charges. Plan for zero overhang.
• Pallet weight and height. A Euro pallet is about 25 kg and 14.4 cm tall. On a double-stacked load that is two pallets' worth of height and weight you are paying freight on.
• Wooden pallets crossing borders. They must be heat-treated or fumigated and stamped under ISPM 15, or the shipment can be refused at the border.
• Loading tolerance. Leave a few centimetres at the door end. A plan that fits to the millimetre does not survive a real warehouse.
• Slip sheets or floor loading. Dropping pallets altogether and floor-loading cartons can add 10–15% more cargo, at the cost of slower handling at both ends.

Worked example

You have 900 cartons, each 40 × 30 × 25 cm and 12 kg. On a Euro pallet, 10 cartons fit per layer (1.2 × 0.8 m) and you stack 4 layers high, so 40 cartons per pallet — that is 23 pallets in total (22 full, one part-loaded).

23 Euro pallets is exactly a 40ft container's floor. Check the weight: 900 × 12 kg = 10,800 kg of cargo, plus 23 pallets at 25 kg = 575 kg, so about 11,375 kg. That is comfortably inside the container's limit, so this load is volume-limited, not weight-limited — a 40ft container it is.

Run your own numbers through the 3D container stuffing calculator to see the stuffing plan in 3D and the exact space used.