How many Standard pallets fit in a shipping container?
A 20ft container takes 10 Standard pallets on the floor, a 40ft and a 40ft High Cube take 21 and a 45ft High Cube takes 24. Stacked two high, each number doubles for pallets up to 1.17 m tall in a 20ft or 40ft and up to 1.32 m tall in a 40ft High Cube or 45ft High Cube (height including the pallet).
Standard pallet footprint: 1200 × 1000 mm. Counts are single-layer floor positions with the loading clearance a forklift needs: 50 mm at the doors and 25 mm along the walls.
| Container | On the floor | Two high | Max height, two high | Floor used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20ft | 10 | 20 | 1.17 m | 86.6% |
| 40ft | 2122 on paper | 42 | 1.17 m | 89.1% |
| 40ft High Cube | 2122 on paper | 42 | 1.32 m | 89.1% |
| 45ft High Cube | 24 | 48 | 1.32 m | 90.3% |
| 45ft Pallet-wideEuropean short-sea and rail | 26 | 52 | 1.32 m | 94.4% |
Every count is proven optimal: no floor layout fits one more pallet of this size. Two high assumes the pallets can carry the weight above them.
On paper, using the exact inside dimensions with no clearance at all, a 40ft and a 40ft High Cube take 22. Forklifts need a little room at the doors and along the walls, so plan with the practical figure; the extra pallets only go in when everything is perfectly square.
Floor plans: how to load them
Seen from above, front wall on the left and doors on the right, all drawn to the same scale. Load from the front wall in the order given.
20ft: 10 Standard pallets
5.80 m loaded from the front wall · 0.10 m free at the doors
- Pallet, long side along the container
- Pallet, long side across
- 1. 5 pallets crosswise + 5 pallets lengthwise (0.00 m to 5.80 m from the front wall)
40ft: 21 Standard pallets
11.80 m loaded from the front wall · 0.23 m free at the doors
- Pallet, long side along the container
- Pallet, long side across
- 1. 6 pallets crosswise + 5 pallets lengthwise (0.00 m to 6.00 m from the front wall)
- 2. 5 pallets crosswise + 5 pallets lengthwise (6.00 m to 11.80 m from the front wall)
40ft High Cube: 21 Standard pallets
11.80 m loaded from the front wall · 0.23 m free at the doors
- Pallet, long side along the container
- Pallet, long side across
- 1. 6 pallets crosswise + 5 pallets lengthwise (0.00 m to 6.00 m from the front wall)
- 2. 5 pallets crosswise + 5 pallets lengthwise (6.00 m to 11.80 m from the front wall)
45ft High Cube: 24 Standard pallets
13.20 m loaded from the front wall · 0.36 m free at the doors
- Pallet, long side along the container
- Pallet, long side across
- 1. 2 pallets lengthwise (0.00 m to 1.20 m from the front wall)
- 2. 12 pallets crosswise + 10 pallets lengthwise (1.20 m to 13.20 m from the front wall)
45ft Pallet-wide: 26 Standard pallets
13.00 m loaded from the front wall · 0.56 m free at the doors
- Pallet, long side along the container
- Pallet, long side across
- 1. 26 pallets crosswise (0.00 m to 13.00 m from the front wall)
Height, weight and the doors
A loaded pallet must pass under the door header on the forks, which limits a single pallet to 2.22 m in a 20ft or 40ft standard and 2.53 m in a 40ft High Cube. On heavy goods the weight limit can be reached before the floor is full: a 20ft carries up to 28.2 t, a 40ft 26.7 t and a 40ft High Cube 28.2 t.
Enter your carton and quantity to see how many pallets you build and which container takes them, by weight too.
Other pallets
- How many EUR pallets fit in a container (24 in a 40ft)
- How many US 48×40 pallets fit in a container (21 in a 40ft)
- How many cartons fit on a Standard pallet
Container sizes
- 20ft container dimensions
- 40ft container dimensions
- 40ft High Cube container dimensions
- 45ft High Cube container dimensions
- 45ft Pallet-wide container dimensions
Computed by the PalletTool engine, the same deterministic solver behind the free calculator. Published by Eastwest Medico ApS, Copenhagen, a company that loads real pallets for humanitarian shipments. Not AI-written text, every number on this page comes from the computation above.
Last computed: November 10, 2026