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Chargeable Weight Calculator
Find the weight a carrier will bill — the greater of actual and volumetric weight — using the air cargo, US parcel, road or ocean convention, or your carrier's own factor.
Your shipment
Each carrier sets its own factor; these are common published ones. Pick yours if you know it.
- Billed on
- Volume — bulky for its weight
- Volumetric weight
- 200kg
- Actual weight
- 150kg
- Volume
- 1.2m³
The formula
Chargeable weight = the greater of actual weight and volume × the carrier's factor| Convention | Factor | As kg per m³ | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air cargo | 6,000 cm³ per kg | 166.7 | IATA's general rule; airlines publish their own |
| US parcel | 139 in³ per lb, over 1,728 in³, sides and result rounded up | about 199 | USPS, from 12 July 2026 |
| Road part load | 333 kg per m³ | 333 | Posti, Finland; Schenker Germany uses 250 |
| Ocean LCL | 1 m³ = 1,000 kg (W/M) | 1,000 | Ocean consolidators' weight-or-measure rule |
Worked example
iContainers' LCL example: 10 cartons of 60 × 40 × 50 cm, 650 kg in all. The volume is 1.20 m³ against 0.65 tonnes, so the shipment is billed as 1.20 W/M — a chargeable weight of 1,200 kg.
The same cartons by air at 150 kg — the calculator's opening values — have a volumetric weight of 1,200,000 cm³ ÷ 6,000 = 200 kg, so the airline bills 200 kg, not 150.
When the answer misleads
When your carrier uses a different factor. The conventions above are common, not universal — European road carriers alone publish factors from 250 to 333 kg per m³ and price long or non-stackable freight on loading metres instead. Use the custom factor with the number from your carrier's tariff, and check how it rounds: USPS rounds every side up to the inch and the result up to the pound.
FAQ
Chargeable Weight Calculator: common questions
- How is chargeable weight calculated?
- Work out the volume, convert it to a weight with the carrier's factor — for air cargo, cubic centimetres ÷ 6,000 — and compare it with the actual weight. The carrier bills the greater of the two.
- What is the volumetric factor for air freight?
- IATA's general rule divides the volume in cubic centimetres by 6,000 to get kilograms, which is about 166.7 kg per cubic metre. Some airlines and express carriers publish their own factors.
- Why do carriers use different factors?
- Because each mode fills up differently: a plane, a parcel van, a truck and a container each run out of space at a different weight. Each carrier sets its factor in its tariff, so the same box can have a different chargeable weight with each.
Sources
- Air cargo tariffs and rules: what you need to know — IATA
- USPS Postal Bulletin 22705 — dimensional weight factor change
- Freight weight ABC — Posti
- Schenker Deutschland AG, contract terms and conditions for road transport, June 2026
- How to calculate ocean freight charges — iContainers
- NIST Guide to the SI (SP 811), Appendix B.8 — conversion factors
Related terms
On Traqo: Freight Settlement matches every invoice to its LR and POD before it is paid.