Shipping & logistics

Dimensional weight,
without the spreadsheets.

Carriers charge by whichever is greater — actual weight or dimensional weight. Pick a carrier, enter your dimensions, see your true chargeable weight and estimated cost, with each carrier’s whole-inch rounding applied by default.

Rules verified 22 Sep 2026Divisors, rounding and size limits checked against the carriers’ own documents: USPS DMM 223 (Priority Mail: DIM weight, cubic, nonstandard fees) · USPS DMM 133 (Ground Advantage — Retail) · USPS DMM 101 (maximum size and weight) · UPS 2026 Rate and Service Guide (Daily Rates) · UPS 2026 Rate and Service Guide (Retail Rates) · FedEx Service Guide 2026 · FedEx 2026 surcharge and fee changes. Carriers change these rules, usually each January and July — see what changed and when, and confirm against your own rate sheet or account.

View mode

Box dimensions

Length

Width

Height

Actual weight (for chargeable comparison)

⚙ Advanced options

Round dimensions up Round each dimension up to the next whole inch (whole centimetre for international) before calculating, as FedEx, UPS and USPS all instruct. Turn off to see the unrounded figure.

Custom DIM divisor — from your carrier contract

Leave blank to use the carrier’s published divisor. Pick the unit your contract uses: 1 in³/lb = 36.127 cm³/kg (so 139 in³/lb ≈ 5,022 cm³/kg, 166 ≈ 5,997).

Your shipping rate ($/kg) — for cost estimate

Optional — your average shipping cost per kg. Used to estimate the cost for this package.

Carrier preset

Formula in use: —

Result summary

Chargeable weight

—

max(actual, dimensional)

Dimensional weight

—kg

computed from volume

Actual weight

—

what you entered

Volume

—

l × w × h

Length + girth

—

L + 2(W + H)

From our network

Deeper DIM weight calculations.

Need carrier rate sheets, historical divisor changes, or batch DIM weight processing for a spreadsheet of packages? Our sister site dimweightcalc.com goes deeper on carrier-by-carrier nuance — useful when you're modeling shipping costs for a whole catalog.

Visit dimweightcalc.com →

What is dimensional weight?

Carriers bill the bigger number.

Dimensional weight — also called "DIM weight" or "volumetric weight" — is how shippers price low-density packages. A box full of pillows weighs almost nothing, but it takes up the same trailer space as a heavy box. So carriers compute a weight from the volume, and charge you whichever is greater: actual or dimensional.

The formula is simple: DIM weight = (L × W × H) ÷ divisor. Each carrier publishes its own divisor — and different ones for domestic vs international, air vs ground. This calculator uses the current published values:

Published divisors

FedEx (US & intl, inches)	139 in³/lb
UPS Daily Rates (US)	139 in³/lb
UPS Retail Rates (US)	166 in³/lb
FedEx / UPS (metric, intl)	5,000 cm³/kg
USPS Priority & Ground Advantage parcels over 1 ft³ only	139 in³/lb
DHL Express (from the US)	139 in³/lb
Parcelforce Worldwide (intl)	5,000 cm³/kg
Air freight (1:6 ratio)	6,000 cm³/kg

FedEx, UPS and USPS figures verified 22 Sep 2026 against the sources listed above the calculator. DHL Express: DHL US Service & Rate Guide 2026 (outside the US DHL publishes 5,000 cm³/kg: DHL). Parcelforce: Parcelforce. Air freight ratio: DHL Global Forwarding. DHL is rounded up to whole pounds, matching its US rate-table steps; Parcelforce and air-freight results are shown unrounded because those pages don’t state a rounding step.

Rules verified 22 Sep 2026 · sources: FedEx Service Guide 2026 · UPS 2026 Rate and Service Guide (Daily Rates) · UPS 2026 Rate and Service Guide (Retail Rates) · USPS DMM 223 (Priority Mail: DIM weight, cubic, nonstandard fees) · DHL Express US Service & Rate Guide 2026 · DHL — How to calculate volumetric weight · Parcelforce — measuring international parcels · DHL Global Forwarding — calculating chargeable weights