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Tools / Container Loading Calculator

Container Loading Calculator

20ft, 40ft and 40HC containers. Carton dimensions, quantity, weight and rotations — see what fits in your shipping container.

CARGO ITEMS
Rotation
Stacking
1 of 50 items
CONTAINER
Inner 12.04 × 2.35 × 2.70 m · payload 28,620 kg
CARTONS LOADED0 / 100
VOLUME USED0%
WEIGHT USED0%0 / 28,620 kg
LIMITING FACTOR

How the calculation works

Container loading runs the EB-AFIT packing heuristic — a published container-loading algorithm — right in your browser. It builds the load layer by layer, mixing cartons of different sizes and trying every allowed rotation of each item, then keeps the best arrangement it finds. Per-item rules are respected: keep-upright cartons never lie on their side, fragile ("no top") cargo gets nothing stacked on it, and floor-only cargo stays on the container floor. Weight is checked against the container's payload limit (the absolute maximum you can legally load).

EB-AFIT layer packing → best valid arrangement across allowed rotations
Does the calculator account for the container door opening?

Not yet — the calculator assumes cargo can be positioned freely inside. Door clearance (234 cm wide, 228 cm high on standard boxes) matters only for single oversized pieces, not for cartons. Door-clearance checks are on our roadmap.

Why does my forwarder quote fewer cartons than this?

Real stuffing loses space to pallets, dunnage, uneven cartons and loading practicality. Treat the grid result as the theoretical maximum; a practical plan usually reaches 85–95% of it.

Embed this calculator on your site

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<iframe src="https://cargosum.com/embed/container-loading-calculator/" width="100%" height="760"
  style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:4px" title="Container Loading Calculator — CargoSum" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>Calculator by <a href="https://cargosum.com/container-loading-calculator/">CargoSum Container Loading Calculator</a></p>