Cubic Yard Calculator
Enter your area and depth — get the volume in cubic feet, cubic yards, and cubic meters, plus an optional weight in tons for any material.
What a cubic yard is.
A cubic yard is the volume of a cube three feet on every side — 3 ft wide, 3 ft long, and 3 ft tall. Multiply those out and you get 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard. Bulk landscaping and building materials — soil, gravel, sand, mulch, concrete — are sold by the cubic yard because it is a tidy way to price a loose pile no matter what shape the area is.
To find how many yards a job needs, you always start from volume. Measure the area, choose a depth, and the calculator multiplies them into cubic feet, then divides by 27 for cubic yards. Enter the dimensions in feet, inches, or yards and it normalizes the units for you.
Cubic feet, yards, and meters.
The three volume units are fixed ratios, so converting is just multiplication. There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, and one cubic yard equals about 0.765 cubic meters (one cubic foot is 0.0283 cubic meters). The calculator shows all three at once so you can match whatever unit your supplier quotes.
Depth is where most mistakes happen, because it is usually given in inches while length and width are in feet. The fix is to divide the depth in inches by 12 before multiplying. A common shortcut for slabs and beds is length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (in) ÷ 324, which folds the ÷12 and ÷27 into one step.
Why a yard isn't a weight.
A cubic yard measures space, not mass, so it has no single weight — a yard of mulch and a yard of gravel are nowhere near the same on a scale. To turn volume into tons you need the material's density. Pick a material above and the calculator multiplies your cubic feet by that density and divides by 2,000 to give US tons.
Density is also why suppliers quote some materials by the ton and others by the yard. A loose dry yard of compost weighs roughly half a ton, garden soil a little over a ton, and most gravels around 1.4 tons. Moisture and compaction push these up, so treat the tonnage as a planning figure and confirm the exact density with your supplier before you order.
How much to actually order.
The calculator gives the bare geometric volume. For most real projects you order a little more to cover spillage, uneven ground, and settling. A common rule of thumb is 5–10% extra for slabs, around 10% for soil and gravel beds, and a bit more for material that will be compacted, since packing it down shrinks the volume it fills.
Going deeper than the job needs is the easiest way to overspend, because every extra inch of depth is more cubic yards. When in doubt, measure twice, pick the shallowest depth that does the job, and round up to the nearest part-yard your supplier will sell.
What a cubic yard weighs.
Typical loose-dry weight of one cubic yard of common landscaping materials. Moisture and compaction raise these — confirm with your supplier.
| Material | ~ lbs / yd³ | ~ Tons / yd³ | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mulch (wood / bark) | ~810 | ~0.4 | Lightest — varies with moisture |
| Compost | ~1,000 | ~0.5 | Wetter compost weighs more |
| Topsoil / garden soil | ~2,240 | ~1.12 | Screened, loose |
| River rock | ~2,700 | ~1.35 | Rounded decorative stone |
| Fill dirt | ~2,700 | ~1.35 | Denser; more clay and rock |
| Gravel / crushed stone | ~2,835 | ~1.42 | Heaviest of the common landscape stone |
Weights are typical loose-dry densities from the references below and vary by source, moisture, and compaction. Concrete and other building materials are heavier — use the custom-density field with your supplier's figure.
Frequently asked questions.
How many cubic feet are in a cubic yard?
There are 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard, because a cubic yard is a cube 3 feet on each side and 3 × 3 × 3 = 27. To go from cubic feet to cubic yards, divide by 27; to go the other way, multiply by 27.
How do I calculate cubic yards?
Multiply length by width to get the area in square feet, multiply by the depth in feet to get cubic feet, then divide by 27. If your depth is in inches, divide it by 12 first. A handy one-step version for a rectangle is length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (in) ÷ 324. The calculator does this for any of the six shapes automatically, and our guide on how to calculate mulch walks through the same formula step by step, including circles and L-shaped beds.
How do I convert cubic yards to tons?
Multiply the cubic yards by the material's density in tons per cubic yard. There is no single conversion factor because density depends on the material — gravel is roughly 1.4 tons per yard, soil about 1.1, compost about 0.5, and mulch about 0.4. Pick a material above (or enter a custom density) and the calculator returns the weight in US tons.
How much does a cubic yard weigh?
It depends entirely on what is in it. As loose dry material, a cubic yard of mulch weighs roughly 800 lbs, compost about 1,000 lbs, topsoil around 2,200 lbs, and gravel close to 2,800 lbs. Wet or compacted material weighs more. The table above lists typical figures, and the calculator gives the tonnage for your chosen material.
How many cubic meters are in a cubic yard?
One cubic yard equals about 0.765 cubic meters (0.764555 to be exact). To convert cubic yards to cubic meters, multiply by 0.7646; to convert cubic meters to cubic yards, multiply by 1.308. The calculator shows the cubic-meter figure alongside cubic feet and yards.
Methodology & sources
Volumes are standard geometry: the area is multiplied by the depth for cubic feet, divided by 27 for cubic yards, and multiplied by 0.0283168466 for cubic meters. Weight is cubic feet × density (lb/ft³) ÷ 2,000 for US tons. Density presets are typical loose-dry values that sit inside published bulk-density ranges; the custom-density field accepts a supplier's figure for anything else. All arithmetic was verified with Python's Decimal to avoid floating-point drift.
Density references (.edu / .gov):
- Penn State Extension — soil bulk density: 1.33 g/cm³ (about 83 lb/ft³) is the standard value used for mineral soil, close to a silt loam; USDA NRCS gives the same 1.33 g/cm³ for a medium-textured soil — link
- University of New Hampshire Extension & Oregon State University Extension (EM 9217) — compost bulk density (~1,000 lb/yd³ for screened compost) — link
- Pennsylvania State University — Aggregate Technician Certification Program (aggregate bulk density / unit weight, AASHTO T19) — link
Unit conversions (27 cu ft = 1 cu yd; 1 cu ft = 0.0283168466 m³) are exact definitions. Material weights are loose-dry estimates and vary with moisture and compaction — confirm density with your supplier before ordering.
Last methodology review: July 2026.
Independence: Sources are cited for reference only. The universities, agencies and retailers named on this page do not sponsor or endorse MaterialCalcs, and we are not affiliated with them. Retail prices were checked by hand and vary by store and region.