⚖ Free Shipping Tool
Volumetric Weight Calculator
Calculate the chargeable weight of your China-to-Americas air freight or express shipment in seconds. Free, instant, and built for importers shipping from China to the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil & South America.
Enter Your Package Details
Fill in your carton dimensions and actual weight. We will compute the volumetric weight and show you exactly what carriers will bill.
Your Chargeable Weight
- Total Volume (CBM)
- 0
- Volumetric Weight
- 0 kg
- Actual Weight
- 0 kg
- Chargeable Weight
- 0 kg
Chargeable weight = the higher of actual and volumetric weight. This is what carriers bill for.
Now estimate your shipping cost →How Volumetric Weight Works
Airlines and express couriers rarely bill by gross weight alone. When a carton is light but bulky — pillows, clothing, plastic goods — it occupies cargo space that could have carried heavy freight. To keep pricing fair, carriers compare your actual weight against the volumetric (dimensional) weight and bill the higher of the two.
Volumetric Weight (kg) = Length × Width × Height (cm) × Number of Cartons ÷ Divisor
- Air Freight ÷ 6000 — the standard airline cargo divisor for freight-forwarder bookings.
- Sea Freight LCL ÷ 1000 — the 1 CBM = 1,000 kg conversion used in less-than-container-load (LCL) consolidation.
- Express Courier ÷ 5000 — the dimensional factor used by DHL, FedEx and UPS for door-to-door courier shipments.
Total volume (CBM) = Length × Width × Height (cm) × Cartons ÷ 1,000,000. One cubic meter equals 1,000,000 cm³.
PRO TIP
Light, bulky cargo (pillows, garments, plastic products) is billed by volumetric weight — a 100 kg carton of clothes can easily bill at 250 kg. Vacuum-compress soft goods before packing: it shrinks the volume, lowers the dimensional weight, and can cut your air freight cost by 30–50%.
Worked Example
A 60 × 40 × 50 cm carton with an actual weight of 15 kg:
Volumetric weight = 60 × 40 × 50 ÷ 6000 = 20 kg
20 kg > 15 kg, so the carrier bills 20 kg (volumetric weight). The same carton on express courier (÷ 5000) would bill at 24 kg.
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