Pallet Loading Calculator Guide — Boxes per Pallet & Pallets per Container
Palletised freight trades some container space for speed and safety: forklifts instead of hand-stacking, fewer damaged cartons, faster turnarounds at both ends. The cost is the pallet footprint and deck height — which is why the numbers deserve calculating rather than guessing.
Common pallet types
| Type | Footprint | Typical max load |
|---|---|---|
| EUR / EPAL | 120 × 80 cm | ~1,500 kg |
| US Standard (GMA) | 121.9 × 101.6 cm (48 × 40 in) | ~1,814 kg |
| UK Standard | 120 × 100 cm | ~1,000 kg |
| AU Standard | 116.5 × 116.5 cm | ~2,000 kg |
| Half pallet | 80 × 60 cm | ~750 kg |
Match the pallet to the destination market: EUR pallets flow through European racking and trucks; GMA pallets through North American systems. A mismatch means re-palletising at destination — double handling you paid to avoid.
The three numbers that matter
- Boxes per pallet = (boxes per layer) × (layers). Boxes per layer is how many cartons tile the pallet footprint; layers are limited by stack height and crush strength.
- Pallets needed = total boxes ÷ boxes per pallet, rounded up.
- Pallets per container (floor loading): a 20ft box floors ~11 EUR pallets or ~9–10 GMA; a 40ft floors ~23–25 EUR or ~20–21 GMA. Exact counts depend on pallet orientation mixing.
Height, overhang and crush limits
Add the pallet deck (~15 cm) to your stack height and compare against internal container height — 239 cm standard, 269 cm High Cube. Keep cartons flush with the pallet edge: overhang concentrates load on carton edges and is the leading cause of crushed stock in transit; underhang wastes paid space. And check the bottom layer can bear the layers above — carton crush strength, not container height, is often the real limit for soft goods.
The QuickCBM pallet calculator runs all of this from your carton dimensions: boxes per layer and layers, pallets for the full order, floor fit in the selected container, and a stack-height check with warnings.
Boxes per pallet: layers times footprint
Two numbers drive how many cartons fit a pallet. The first is boxes per layer — how many cartons tile the pallet’s top surface, which depends on carton footprint versus pallet footprint and on whether you rotate cartons to reduce overhang. The second is number of layers — limited by the container’s internal height minus the pallet deck (about 15 cm), and by the crush strength of the bottom cartons. Multiply the two and you have boxes per pallet. Get either wrong and your whole container plan is off. The calculator computes both from your carton dimensions and the pallet type you select.
Choosing the pallet for the destination market
Pallet choice is not cosmetic — it determines whether your cargo flows through the destination’s racking and trucks without re-palletising. The EUR/EPAL pallet (120×80 cm) is the European standard and fits European racking systems and truck beds. The GMA pallet (48×40 in / 121.9×101.6 cm) dominates North America. Ship EUR pallets into a US warehouse built for GMA and you may pay to re-palletise the entire shipment on arrival — double handling that erases the point of palletising in the first place. Match the pallet to where the goods are going, not to what is cheapest at origin.
Pallets per container
Floor-loading counts, approximately: a 20ft container takes about 11 EUR pallets or 9–10 GMA pallets in a single layer; a 40ft takes about 23–25 EUR or 20–21 GMA. If the cargo and pallet strength allow double-stacking, those numbers roughly double — but only if total height and weight stay within limits. The exact count depends on how you orient pallets (some mixing of lengthwise and widthwise placement squeezes in extra units), which is why a calculated figure beats a rule of thumb.
Overhang, underhang and crush
Cartons should sit flush with the pallet edge. Overhang — cartons projecting past the pallet — concentrates load on carton edges rather than corners and is the leading cause of crushed stock in transit; even 2–3 cm of overhang can cut carton compression strength by 30%. Underhang wastes the paid pallet footprint and reduces stack stability. And the real ceiling on stack height is often not the container roof but the crush strength of the bottom layer: soft goods, produce, or lightly constructed cartons cannot bear many layers above them regardless of how much height the container offers.
Palletised vs floor-loaded
Palletising trades container space for speed and safety. A floor-loaded container fits more cartons — no pallet footprint or deck height consumed — and is common on cost-sensitive lanes from Asia. Palletised cargo loads and unloads in minutes with a forklift instead of hours by hand, suffers less damage, and turns trucks around faster at both ends. The right choice depends on your labour costs, damage tolerance, and whether the destination warehouse can even accept floor-loaded containers. Many FBA prep centres and 3PLs require palletised delivery, which settles the question for a lot of sellers.
Whatever you choose, run the numbers first: the QuickCBM pallet calculator gives you boxes per pallet, pallets for the full order, floor fit in your chosen container, and a stack-height check against the container roof.