Cubic Yard Calculator
Enter the length, width and depth of the area in whatever units you have, and the calculator returns the volume in cubic yards, cubic feet and cubic meters, with the weight in US tons for gravel, sand, topsoil, mulch, concrete or asphalt. It handles several identical areas at once and lets you add a percentage on top for the material you will lose to compaction or settling.
- Cubic yards
- 0.93
- Cubic feet
- 25.0
- Cubic meters
- 0.71
- US tons
- 1.30
27 cubic feet make one cubic yard. Weights use typical loose densities and vary with moisture and grading; confirm the figure your supplier quotes before ordering by the ton.
What a cubic yard actually is
A cubic yard is a cube that measures one yard, or 3 feet, on every side. Three feet long, three feet wide and three feet tall is 3 x 3 x 3, which is 27 cubic feet. Almost everything bulky in construction and landscaping is sold by that unit: ready-mix concrete, gravel and crushed stone, screened topsoil, fill dirt, sand, bark mulch, compost. A pickup bed holds about half a cubic yard of soil before the suspension complains, and a single-axle dump truck carries roughly 5 to 7 cubic yards, so the unit also happens to be the scale of a real delivery.
The confusion starts because nobody measures a job in yards. You measure a bed in feet and its depth in inches, and the supplier wants the answer in yards. The whole job of this page is that conversion.
The formula, in the units you measured
Multiply the three dimensions together to get a volume, then convert that volume to cubic yards. Which conversion you apply depends on what you measured in.
| You measured | Formula for cubic yards |
|---|---|
| Length ft x width ft x depth ft | divide the product by 27 |
| Length ft x width ft x depth in | divide the product by 324 |
| Length in x width in x depth in | divide the product by 46,656 |
| Length m x width m x depth m | divide the product by 0.7646 |
The 324 shortcut is the one worth remembering, because feet-by-feet-by-inches is how every patio, bed, pad and driveway gets described. It is simply 27 x 12: converting inches to feet and cubic feet to cubic yards in one step. For a circle, use the diameter: area is pi x (diameter / 2) squared, then multiply by depth the same way.
A 10 x 10 ft area, 3 inches deep
10 x 10 x 3 = 300. Divide by 324 and you get 0.93 cubic yards, which is 25 cubic feet. A supplier will sell that as one yard, and the leftover goes into low spots. If it is gravel at 1.4 tons per cubic yard, it weighs about 1.3 tons; if it is topsoil at 1.1 tons per yard, about 1.0 tons.
Three raised beds, 4 x 8 ft and 12 inches deep
One bed is 4 x 8 x 12 = 384, divided by 324 is 1.19 cubic yards. Three beds are 3.56 cubic yards, or 96 cubic feet. Set the “how many areas” field to 3 and the calculator does the multiplication for you. Filled with a soil blend at 1.1 tons per yard that is close to 3.9 tons, which is more than a half-ton pickup should carry in one trip and comfortably inside a single bulk delivery.
Ten post holes, 12 inches across and 3 feet deep
Switch the shape to a circle. One hole is pi x 0.5 ft squared x 3 ft, which is 2.36 cubic feet. Ten of them are 23.6 cubic feet, or 0.87 cubic yards. That is the number to carry into the concrete calculator for a bag count, since bagged mix is sold by yield rather than by the yard.
Converting between cubic yards, feet and meters
| Cubic yards | Cubic feet | Cubic meters |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | 13.5 | 0.38 |
| 1 | 27 | 0.76 |
| 2 | 54 | 1.53 |
| 3 | 81 | 2.29 |
| 5 | 135 | 3.82 |
| 10 | 270 | 7.65 |
| 20 | 540 | 15.29 |
One cubic yard is 0.7646 cubic meters, because a yard is exactly 0.9144 meters and 0.9144 cubed is 0.7646. Going the other way, one cubic meter is 1.308 cubic yards. If you are working from a metric drawing, enter the dimensions in meters or centimeters directly and skip the hand conversion; the construction unit conversions guide covers the rest of the units the trades mix together.
From volume to weight
Gravel, sand and stone are priced and delivered by the ton, so the volume you calculated has to be turned into weight before you order. The multiplier is the material’s loose density in tons per cubic yard, and it varies more than people expect.
| Material | Typical tons per cubic yard | Pounds per cubic yard |
|---|---|---|
| Wood mulch, dry | 0.4 to 0.5 | 800 to 1,000 |
| Topsoil, screened | 1.0 to 1.2 | 2,000 to 2,400 |
| Sand, damp | 1.3 to 1.5 | 2,600 to 3,000 |
| Gravel and crushed stone | 1.3 to 1.5 | 2,600 to 3,000 |
| Hot-mix asphalt | about 2.0 | about 3,900 |
| Concrete | about 2.0 | about 4,000 |
The calculator’s presets use the middle of each range, and they are the same defaults the gravel calculator and topsoil calculator use, so the numbers agree from page to page. Moisture is the big variable: topsoil after a week of rain can weigh 20 percent more than the same pile in August, which is why a supplier may quote a different conversion than the one here. The cubic yards to tons guide lists more materials and the ranges behind them.
When to add extra, and how much
The volume you calculated is the finished, in-place volume. Several things make the ordered quantity larger:
- Compaction. Crushed stone compacts by about 10 to 15 percent when it is plate-tamped in a driveway or under pavers. Order the compacted depth plus that margin, or you will finish an inch low.
- Settling. Fresh topsoil and compost settle over the first season. For a bed you intend to plant immediately, 10 percent extra is normal.
- Spillage and uneven subgrade. A bed that was dug “about 4 inches” is 5 inches in places. Small areas are proportionally worse.
- Nothing, for mulch. Mulch is spread to its finished depth and decomposes rather than compacting. Buy what the calculator says.
Enter the percentage in the “extra to order” field and the calculator shows both figures, so you can see the geometric volume and the order quantity side by side.
Bags or bulk
Bagged material is sold by the cubic foot, and the label states the volume. Divide 27 by that figure to see how many bags make a yard.
| Bag on the label | Per cubic yard | Per half yard | Typical product |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cu ft | 9 | 5 | bark nuggets, compost |
| 2 cu ft | 14 (13.5 exact) | 7 | most bagged mulch |
| 1.5 cu ft | 18 | 9 | garden soil, mulch |
| 1 cu ft | 27 | 14 | potting mix |
| 0.75 cu ft | 36 | 18 | topsoil, sand |
| 0.5 cu ft | 54 | 27 | paver sand, pea gravel |
Under about half a cubic yard, bags are convenient and the premium does not matter much. Above that, bulk delivery wins on price and on your back: a cubic yard of mulch is fourteen bags carried from the car, and a cubic yard of topsoil in 0.75 cubic foot bags is thirty-six of them. The mulch calculator turns an area straight into a bag count if that is how you are buying.
Ordering from a supplier
Yards sell in half-yard or full-yard increments, and many set a minimum of a yard or two for delivery. Round up to the next increment the supplier actually sells rather than to the nearest whole number, and ask whether the price includes delivery. If you are ordering by the ton, give the supplier the cubic yards too; they know their material’s density better than any table does and will convert it for you. For anything placed under load, such as a driveway or a shed base, use the compacted depth plus the margin above when you order.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many cubic feet are in a cubic yard?
- 27. A cubic yard is a cube 3 feet on each side, and 3 x 3 x 3 is 27. That single number drives every conversion on this page: divide cubic feet by 27 to get yards, or multiply yards by 27 to get back to feet. In inches, a cubic yard is 46,656 cubic inches.
- How many square feet does a cubic yard cover?
- It depends entirely on depth. Spread 3 inches deep, one cubic yard covers 108 square feet; at 2 inches it covers 162 square feet, at 4 inches 81, and at 6 inches 54. The rule is 324 divided by the depth in inches. A thin decorative layer goes a long way; a load-bearing base does not.
- How much does a cubic yard weigh?
- Anywhere from roughly 900 pounds for dry wood mulch to about 4,000 pounds for concrete, with gravel near 2,800 pounds and topsoil near 2,200. That is why aggregate suppliers quote by the ton while mulch yards quote by the yard: a yard of stone is more than three times the weight of a yard of mulch.
- How many bags of mulch or soil make a cubic yard?
- Divide 27 by the bag volume printed on the label. A 2 cubic foot bag of mulch goes 13.5 to the yard, so buy 14. A 1.5 cubic foot bag goes 18 to the yard, a 1 cubic foot bag 27, and a 0.75 cubic foot bag of topsoil 36. Past about half a yard, bulk delivery is nearly always cheaper per yard than bags.
- How many wheelbarrow loads are in a cubic yard?
- A typical 6 cubic foot contractor wheelbarrow holds about 4.5 struck-level loads per cubic yard, and most people move it in 5 or 6 loads because a heaped barrow of stone is heavy. A smaller 4 cubic foot garden barrow needs about 7 loads. These are typical capacities; check the stamp on the tray of yours.
Volumes on this page are geometric. Weights use typical loose densities and real material varies with moisture, grading and how it was loaded, so order by the ton only after your supplier confirms the conversion they use.
Last updated:
Written by: The CubedCalc Team. We research and fact-check every calculator using manufacturer specs, building codes, and industry references. We are not licensed contractors or engineers; always verify structural or code-critical numbers with a qualified professional.
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