Total Shipment Volume Calculator (Multi-Carton)
Sum up overall shipment volume in CBM and CFT across different carton sizes for commercial shipping manifests.
Total volume is the first number a forwarder asks for, because it decides the container size, the sea freight quote, and whether a shipment fits the booked space at all. Get one carton size wrong and the whole booking is wrong, so this tool adds up every carton size in the consignment instead of assuming one uniform carton. Use it together with the Container Loading Estimator to turn the total volume into a container plan.
What is Total Shipment Volume?
Total shipment volume is the combined cubic space of every carton in a consignment, expressed in cubic metres (CBM) and cubic feet (CFT). One CBM is one cubic metre, and one CBM equals 35.3147 CFT, which is the conversion this calculator uses. Freight forwarders, shipping lines and customs paperwork all describe cargo size in these units, so the total is the common language between a factory, its forwarder and its buyer.
Real garment shipments rarely use one carton size. A single order may pack small sizes in one carton, large sizes in another, and a different style in a third, and each size contributes its own volume. Adding rows per carton size, rather than averaging sizes, keeps the total honest: a bigger carton contributes more volume per piece, and averaging would hide exactly the cartons that cause a container to overflow.
Formula
Row CBM = (Length cm × Width cm × Height cm / 1,000,000) × Carton count Total CBM = Sum of all row CBM values Total CFT = Total CBM × 35.3147
- Length, Width, Height: outside dimensions of the packed carton, in centimetres. Must be positive numbers.
- Carton count: number of cartons of that exact size in the shipment. Must be a positive number.
- 1,000,000: cubic centimetres in one cubic metre, converting a carton volume from cm³ to m³.
- 35.3147: cubic feet in one cubic metre, converting the total from CBM to CFT.
- Results: total CBM shown to three decimals, total CFT to two decimals, and the total carton count as a whole number.
How to Calculate
- Measure the outside length, width and height of each packed carton size in centimetres, after sealing, not before packing.
- Group the cartons by size. Enter the first size as row one, with its carton count.
- Add another row for each further carton size, and enter its dimensions and count.
- Read the grand totals: total CBM, total CFT and total carton count. Check the carton count against your packing list before using the volume.
- Compare the total CBM with container usable space before booking, using the Container Loading Estimator, so a shipment is not booked into a container it cannot fit.
Example
Take the illustrative shipment used across this batch of commercial tools: 500 cartons in two sizes. Row A is 60 × 40 × 30 cm with 300 cartons. One carton is 60 × 40 × 30 / 1,000,000 = 0.072 CBM, so row A contributes 0.072 × 300 = 21.6 CBM. Row B is 50 × 40 × 40 cm with 200 cartons. One carton is 50 × 40 × 40 / 1,000,000 = 0.08 CBM, so row B contributes 0.08 × 200 = 16.0 CBM. The grand total is 21.6 + 16.0 = 37.6 CBM, which converts to 37.6 × 35.3147 = 1,327.83 CFT for 500 cartons in total.
The same numbers show why mixed sizes must be added row by row. If every carton were the smaller 60 × 40 × 30 cm size, 500 cartons would total only 500 × 0.072 = 36.0 CBM, understating the real shipment by 1.6 CBM. For booking, 37.6 CBM is more than the 28 CBM usable space of a 20-foot container, so this shipment needs a 40-foot container at 58 CBM usable or a 40-foot High Cube at 68 CBM usable, as the Container Loading Estimator confirms.
Assumptions
This calculation assumes the entered dimensions are the outside dimensions of packed, sealed cartons, and that every carton of a given size is identical. It assumes cartons are shipped loose, not on pallets: palletised cargo occupies the pallet footprint as well, so measure palletised loads by pallet dimensions instead. It is a volume total only, not a container plan and not a weight: gross weight, volumetric weight and payload limits are handled by the Carton Weight Calculator and the Container Loading Estimator. Rounding follows the tool: CBM to three decimals and CFT to two decimals.