Chargeable weight calculator
Multi-piece air, courier and road freight: gross weight against volumetric weight, compared the way your carrier actually does it — per shipment or per piece.
Shipment pieces
Gross (actual) weight
170.00kg
2 pieces
Volumetric weight
288.00kg
÷6000
Chargeable weight
288.00kg
288.00 kg · 634.93 lb
Volume is driving your rate. The shipment measures 288.00 kg volumetric against 170.00 kg on the scale, so you are paying for air. Denser packing or a smaller carton footprint is worth real money here.
Divisor 6000 cm³/kg · Air freight — IATA ÷6000 · compared across the whole shipment. Source ↗
How chargeable weight works
Freight is sold against two constraints at once. A pallet of paper fills the payload of a truck long before it fills the deck; a pallet of pillows does the opposite. Rather than price two products, carriers convert space into weight using a divisor and bill whichever number is larger.
- 1
Add every piece
One row per piece type, with dimensions, weight each and how many. Mixed shipments are the point — a single dense crate among light cartons is exactly where the two calculation methods diverge.
- 2
Set the mode and divisor
Air freight is 6,000 cm³/kg under IATA general cargo. Express couriers use 5,000. Some economy and regional services use 4,000, which produces a higher chargeable weight.
- 3
Choose the comparison basis
IATA air compares shipment totals. Couriers compare each piece and add up the results. The calculator warns you when the two produce different answers.
volumetric per piece = (L × W × H) ÷ divisor
shipment basis: chargeable = max(Σ gross, Σ volumetric)
piece basis: chargeable = Σ max(gross, volumetric) per piece
then round up to the next 0.5 kg (or whole lb)
Why the comparison basis changes the invoice
This is the difference no other calculator surfaces, and on mixed shipments it is worth real money. Compare a shipment on both bases:
Two pieces, one dense and one light
Piece A: 100 × 80 × 60 cm, 250 kg. Piece B: 100 × 80 × 60 cm, 20 kg. Air freight, divisor 6,000.
volumetric each = 480,000 ÷ 6,000 = 80 kg
shipment basis: max(270 gross, 160 volumetric) = 270 kg
piece basis: max(250, 80) + max(20, 80) = 250 + 80 = 330 kg
Sixty kilograms of difference — around 22% — on identical cargo. The dense piece cannot subsidise the light one under the per-piece method, which is precisely why couriers use it and why an air consolidator's quote can look so much better than a courier's until you read how it is computed.
Ask which basis a quote uses
When two freight quotes disagree by 15–25% on the same cargo, the basis is the first thing to check — before the rate, the fuel surcharge or the lane. Quotes are rarely wrong; they are frequently computed differently.
Divisors by mode
| Mode | Divisor (cm³/kg) | 1 CBM equals | Typical comparison basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air freight — IATA general cargo | 6,000 | 167 kg | Whole shipment |
| Express courier — DHL, UPS, FedEx | 5,000 | 200 kg | Per piece, then summed |
| Economy / regional (parts of Asia) | 4,000 | 250 kg | Per piece, then summed |
| Road freight (Europe, LTL) | 3,000–4,000 typical | 250–333 kg | Per shipment, often with a loading-metre rule |
| Sea freight (LCL) | n/a — revenue ton | 1,000 kg | Whole shipment |
Divisors are contractual: a negotiated rate frequently carries a different one, and it is one of the more valuable things to ask for. Reviewed annually and at rate changes.
Road freight adds a wrinkle worth knowing about. European LTL carriers often bill on loading metres — the length of trailer floor your pallets occupy — rather than volume, because a pallet that cannot be stacked on blocks the full height above it. If your cargo is non-stackable, say so when quoting; discovering it at the terminal is an expensive way to find out.
Air, sea and courier compared
- Air converts a cubic metre to 167 kg. Anything lighter than that per CBM pays for space. Fast, and by far the most sensitive to bulky packing.
- Courier converts a cubic metre to 200 kg and compares per piece, so it is the least forgiving method of all — but it is door-to-door with customs included.
- Sea converts a cubic metre to 1,000 kg, which is why almost all consumer-goods freight is a volume shipment at sea and why the mode is so much cheaper for light cargo. Use the CBM calculator for the revenue-ton comparison.
Accuracy
Estimates only. Carriers and customs authorities determine the final figure — confirm with your carrier before you ship.
How we source and maintain this data
The divisors are industry standards published by IATA and the major integrators. The comparison-basis behaviour is the part that is documented least clearly anywhere, so we model both explicitly and show the gap between them rather than picking one and hoping it matches your carrier.
The road-freight divisor range is deliberately shown as a range: it is genuinely carrier-specific across Europe, and presenting a single figure would be a false precision we cannot support.
Review cadence: Reviewed annually and at IATA or carrier rate changes. Last reviewed August 2026. This tool is built and maintained by the ParcelTracking team, who run multi-carrier tracking across 3,000+ carriers.
Primary sources
Chargeable weight FAQ
The weight your shipment is actually billed on: the greater of its gross (actual) weight and its volumetric weight. Carriers price this way because aircraft and trailers run out of space before they run out of payload, so whichever constraint your cargo hits first is the one you pay for.
IATA general cargo uses 6,000 cm³ per kilogram, which is the same as saying one cubic metre equals 167 kg. Some airlines and consolidators apply 5,000 on specific lanes or products, and express air products almost always do. Your air waybill or rate sheet is the authority.
Both conventions exist and they produce different invoices. IATA air cargo compares the shipment's total volumetric weight against its total gross weight. Express couriers compare each piece individually, take the greater in each case, and sum the results — which is always equal to or higher than the shipment-total method. This calculator supports both and flags the difference when it matters.
Volumetric weight is one of the two inputs — the weight implied by the space the cargo occupies. Chargeable weight is the output: the larger of volumetric and actual, after rounding. People use the terms interchangeably, but a quote based on the wrong one of the two is a quote that will not match the invoice.
Because a smaller divisor means a higher volumetric weight. A 4,000 divisor produces 25% more chargeable weight than a 5,000 divisor on identical cargo. For light, bulky freight the divisor can swamp the rate difference entirely, so the cheaper-looking service ends up billing more.
Air freight conventionally rounds up to the next 0.5 kg, and many carriers round to the next whole kilogram above a certain weight. Imperial services round up to the next whole pound. Rounding is applied after the comparison, not before it, and it is applied per piece where the carrier bills per piece.
It uses the same idea with different units. Sea freight compares tonnes against cubic metres and charges per revenue ton — the greater of the two — at 1 CBM to 1,000 kg. Our CBM calculator does that comparison.
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