Container sizes and dimensions

Shipping container sizes in metres and feet

Standard container width and height

Every container built to ISO 668, the standard that sets these sizes, is 2,438 mm (8 ft) wide, whatever its length. Most boxes in service come in two heights: 2,591 mm (8 ft 6 in) for a standard box and 2,896 mm (9 ft 6 in) for a high cube, also written HC or HQ, one foot taller. ISO 668 also lists boxes 8 ft high and lower, such as half height containers, 1,295 mm (4 ft 3 in) high, for dense cargo such as ore or scrap metal; our tables leave them out. Each common size has its own guide: 20 feet container size, 40 feet container size and 40 HC container dimensions.

Container length: 10, 20, 40 and 45 ft

• 10 ft: 2,991 mm, the smallest length in ISO 668.
• 20 ft: 6,058 mm, 38 mm short of a true 20 ft (6,096 mm).
• 40 ft: 12,192 mm, exactly 40 ft.
• 45 ft: 13,716 mm; the 45 ft boxes of our tables are high cubes (45 ft container).

The lengths add up, and so do the corner fitting positions: two 20 ft boxes with a gap of 76 mm between them make the 12,192 mm of a 40 ft box, and four 10 ft boxes with three such gaps do the same. ISO 668 also lists a 30 ft length. Since the rule 93 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules was amended in 2020, a tractor and semi-trailer may be 18.75 m long in India, up from 18 m, so that 45 ft containers can travel.

What is the smallest container size?

The 10 ft box is the smallest size in ISO 668, which lists it 8 ft high or lower. The 10 ft boxes in the data sheets we read are 8 ft 6 in high: they carry the code 12G1, but that height is outside the standard’s list. Boxes of 8 or 6 ft are built outside the ISO sizes altogether and have no length code. See the used 10 ft container for its price.

Container height on a truck in India

A vehicle carrying an ISO container may stand 4.52 m tall overall, against 4 m otherwise (rule 93, as amended in 2020). With a 2,896 mm high cube on board, the trailer deck may stand no more than about 1.6 m off the road. Check gates, cables and bridges on the way to your site, as site preparation and unloading explains.

Container inner dimensions, door size and capacity

Inside, a box loses the thickness of its corrugated walls, its floor and its roof. The door is the tightest point (door dimensions): 2,340 × 2,280 mm in a standard box and 2,585 mm high in a high cube, so measure your tallest load against the door rather than the inside height.

Capacity. A 20 ft box holds 33.2 m³ (CBM) and 11 Euro pallets on its floor; a 40 ft box 67.7 m³ and 23 pallets; a 40 ft high cube 76.4 m³ on the same floor. All three carry about 28 tonnes.

Some guides give 5,867 × 2,330 × 2,350 mm for the inside of a 20 ft box and 2,286 × 2,261 mm for its door. Those are the minimums ISO 668 allows, not the size of a typical box: the 9 data sheets we read give a median of 5,900 × 2,352 × 2,393 mm inside.

Weight of each container size, in short

• Tare, the weight of the empty box: 2,230 kg for a typical 20 ft box, with data sheets ranging from 2,120 to 2,350 kg; 3,700 kg for a 40 ft and 3,865 kg for a 40 ft high cube. It decides the crane or side-lifter needed on delivery.
• Maximum gross weight, the box and its load together. Since its 2022 amendment, ISO 668 rates every size at up to 36,000 kg, except the 10 ft box (10,160 kg); the 20 ft boxes in the data sheets are rated 30,480 or 32,500 kg. Each box’s own rating is on its CSC safety approval plate and painted on its doors with its tare; the payload is often painted too.
• Payload, what the box may carry: the maximum gross minus the tare; the data sheets give 28,260 kg for a typical 20 ft box.

So one container weighs about 2,230 kg empty for a 20 ft and 3,700 kg for a 40 ft, and up to its rating when loaded. Flat racks are the exception: built for machines, some are rated far above the ISO figure, up to 58,600 kg in the sheets we read, and a load that heavy needs more than an ordinary semi-trailer. Container weight gives the tare, maximum gross and payload of every type, checks a container number and works out the weight of a loaded box.

Before a packed box is loaded on a ship, the shipper declares its verified gross mass (VGM), and on Indian roads a tractor with its semi-trailer and load may weigh at most 55 tonnes: container weight explains both, with a VGM calculator.

Container types and sizes

• Standard, or dry (20 GP, 40 GP): a closed steel box with doors at one end, the most common type.
• High cube: one foot taller, 76.4 m³ in a 40 ft; the 20 ft high cube is rare.
• Reefer: insulated, with a refrigeration unit at one end; see the reefer container guide.
• Open top: a removable tarpaulin roof, for loads lowered by crane; see open top container dimensions.
• Flat rack: a floor and two end walls, fixed or folding, for machines and oversized loads; see flat rack container dimensions.

Open side and double door containers

An open side container has doors along one side as well as at the end, for loading pallets from the side: on the 20 ft data sheets we read, the side opening runs almost the whole length of the box, about 5.7 to 5.8 m long and 2.15 to 2.19 m high, while the end door is 2,170 × 2,169 mm. The extra doors make it heavier, 3,190 kg empty for a 20 ft. A double door, or tunnel, container has doors at both ends, so goods can go in at one end and out at the other; it keeps almost the inside of a standard box, 32.9 m³ in a 20 ft.

Container size and type code: 22G1, 42G1, 45G1

The four characters painted next to the container number, set by ISO 6346, give its size and type:

• the first is the length: 1 for 10 ft, 2 for 20 ft, 4 for 40 ft and L for 45 ft; the registrar of container codes now gives 5 for 45 ft, under the 2022 edition of the standard, and boxes marked before keep their code;
• the second is the height: 0 for 8 ft, 2 for 8 ft 6 in, 5 for 9 ft 6 in;
• the last two are the type: G for a general purpose box (G1 with vents, G2 or G3 with side openings), R for a reefer, U for an open top, P for a flat rack.

So 22G1 is a standard 20 ft box, 42G1 a standard 40 ft, 45G1 a 40 ft high cube rather than a 45 ft box, and L5G1 a 45 ft high cube. How to inspect a used container shows where to read the code and the CSC plate on the box.

TEU container: how containers are counted

Ports and shipping lines count containers in TEU, twenty-foot equivalent units: a 20 ft box is 1 TEU and a 40 ft box 2 TEU, high cube or not, sometimes called one FEU. The European glossary for transport statistics counts a box longer than 40 ft, such as the 45 ft, as 2.25 TEU.

20 ft or 40 ft container: which size?

A 40 ft box holds about twice the volume of a 20 ft one, and a 40 ft high cube 76.4 m³, but all three carry about the same weight: 28,260 kg for a 20 ft, 28,780 kg for a 40 ft. Choose by what you load and by the room on your plot for the trailer; 20 ft and 40 ft compared goes through the differences.

Container sizes and prices

These are the prices of our survey of 20 October 2026, before delivery: “Price from” is near the low end of sellers’ asking prices and “Typical price” their median; most listings do not say whether GST is included. Asia Containers does not sell containers: partner sellers reply to a quote request. Container price explains the figures, size by size and condition by condition.

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