Chargeable Weight & CBM Calculator

What chargeable weight actually means

Aircraft and containers run out of space long before they run out of lift. A pallet of pillows and a pallet of ball bearings occupy the same slot, so carriers price on whichever measure — weight or space — costs them more. That figure is the chargeable weight, and it is the single number your rate per kilo is multiplied by.

The inputs are always the same: outer carton dimensions (length, width, height of the packed piece, including the pallet if the goods travel palletised), the piece count, and the gross weight per piece. Net weight of the goods is not what gets billed — packaging, pallets, dunnage, and shrink wrap all ride along on the gross.

Air freight: volumetric weight and the 1:6000 divisor

For general air cargo the industry standard converts volume to weight at 6,000 cubic centimetres per kilogram — one cubic metre equals about 167 kg. Multiply length × width × height in centimetres, divide by 6,000, and you have the volumetric weight of that piece in kilograms.

Express and courier services usually apply a tighter 5,000 divisor, which values a cubic metre at 200 kg and therefore charges more for the same low-density carton. Switch the divisor in the calculator to see how a shipment prices under each. Airlines then compare the total volumetric weight against the total actual gross weight and bill the higher of the two, normally rounded up to the next half kilo.

The break-even density is easy to remember: at the 6,000 divisor, anything lighter than roughly 167 kg per cubic metre will bill on volume; anything denser bills on actual weight. The calculator shows your loaded density so you can see which side of the line you sit on and whether re-packing into a smaller carton would change the bill.

Ocean LCL: revenue tons and the W/M rule

Less than container load consolidations are billed per revenue ton on a W/M basis — "weight or measurement". One revenue ton is the greater of one cubic metre and one metric ton (1,000 kg). A 3 CBM shipment weighing 1,800 kg is billed on 3 revenue tons; the same 3 CBM weighing 4,200 kg is billed on 4.2.

That means the break-even density for ocean LCL is 1,000 kg per cubic metre — six times denser than the air freight threshold. Most consumer goods, furniture, and textiles bill on measurement; stone, tiles, machinery parts, and liquids often bill on weight. Consolidators also apply a minimum, typically one revenue ton, so very small shipments pay as if they were a full cubic metre.

Once a shipment grows past roughly 13–15 CBM it is usually worth pricing a 20′ container against the LCL alternative, because a full container is priced per box rather than per cubic metre and moves with less handling.

FCL: the one mode where chargeable weight does not apply

A full container load is priced per container, not per kilo or per cubic metre, so chargeable weight is irrelevant — what matters instead is whether your cargo fits inside the box and stays under its payload limit. Use the container load calculator for that, and keep an eye on road weight limits at both ends, which frequently bind before the container’s own payload does.

Measuring and rounding rules that move the number

Measure the outer bulge, not the design dimension. Cartons stuffed tight, shrink-wrapped pallets, and anything strapped to a skid measure larger than the spec sheet says, and the airline or CFS measures what actually arrives — commonly with a dimensioning scanner that rounds each side up to the next centimetre.

Palletised air cargo carries the pallet in both the volume and the gross weight: a standard wooden pallet adds roughly 15–25 kg and around 12–15 cm of height before the first carton goes on. Overhang beyond the pallet footprint is measured too.

If a re-measure at origin comes back larger than your booking, the correction flows through to the invoice. Sending accurate dimensions with the booking request is the cheapest way to avoid that.