Container internal dimensions
These are Hapag-Lloyd's published figures for their own fleet, verified August 2026. The carrier attaches its own caveat and so do we: containers vary by manufacturer, and payload ratings vary by individual box. Read the plate on the container you are actually loading.
| Container | Internal L × W × H | Capacity | Tare | Max payload |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20' Standard | 5,900 × 2,352 × 2,395 mm | 33.2 CBM | 2,350 kg | 28,130 kg |
| 40' Standard | 12,032 × 2,352 × 2,395 mm | 67.7 CBM | 3,750 kg | 28,750 kg |
| 40' High Cube | 12,032 × 2,350 × 2,700 mm | 76.3 CBM | 3,900 kg | 28,600 kg |
| 45' High Cube | 13,556 × 2,352 × 2,700 mm | 86.0 CBM | 4,800 kg | 27,700 kg |
Why we say nine pallets in a 20ft, not ten
Almost every guide online says a 20-foot container holds ten standard 48×40 pallets. Work the geometry and it does not.
A 20ft container is about 92.6 inches wide inside. Two pallets sitting side by side with their 48-inch faces across need 96 inches. They do not fit. So pallets go in 40-inch face across — two per row, 80 inches used — and each row consumes 48 inches of the container's 232 inches of length. That is four full rows, or eight pallets, with about 40 inches of length left over. One more pallet fits in that leftover strip turned sideways. Nine.
The tenth pallet only appears if the pallets overhang, if they are slightly undersized, or if the guide simply repeated a rule of thumb. Euro pallets are a different story: at 1200×800 mm they genuinely do fit eleven in a 20ft, and the calculator will show you that if you press the EUR1 preset.
This matters because booking a 20ft on the assumption of ten pallets and turning up with ten is how cargo gets rolled.
Which limit binds
Three constraints compete, and knowing which one is active tells you what to change:
- Floor space — the usual binding limit for dense freight that cannot be stacked. Fix it by stacking, or by changing the pallet footprint.
- Height — tick the stacking box and the calculator adds tiers up to the internal height. A high cube buys you 305 mm, which is often exactly one more tier.
- Payload — dense cargo hits the weight ceiling with the container half empty. Nothing about packing fixes that; you need more containers or lighter loading.
One caveat the calculator cannot know: road legal weight limits often bind before the container's payload rating does. A container legally loaded to 28 tonnes at sea may be undeliverable by truck at the destination. Ask your forwarder for the road limit on the specific lane before you load to the plate.