How Big Is a 20 ft Shipping Container?
Inside: about 19.4 ft long, 7.7 ft wide and 7.8 ft high, 33 cubic meters. See it to scale below.
Drag to turn. The figure is a 5 ft 9 in person.
20 ft shipping container in numbers
- Inside size drawn: 19.33 ft long × 7.67 ft wide × 7.83 ft high
- Volume: 1,161 cubic feet · 43.0 cubic yards · 32.9 m³ · 8,684 gallons
- Medium moving boxes (18 x 18 x 16 in): about 388 by volume
- Full contractor bags (42 gallon, about 5.6 cu ft): about 153 by volume
- 3-seat sofas (84 x 36 x 34 in): about 20 by volume
- Queen mattresses (60 x 80 x 10 in): about 42 by volume
- Refrigerators (36 in wide, kept upright): about 24 by volume
- Washing machines (27 in wide, kept upright): about 72 by volume
- Cubic yards of dirt or mulch (3 x 3 x 3 ft): about 43 by volume
"By volume" is total space divided by item size. Real loads leave gaps; the 3D view above counts how many fit when packed tightly.
A standard 20 foot shipping container is 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8.5 feet high outside. Inside it is about 19 feet 4 inches long, 7 feet 8 inches wide and 7 feet 10 inches high, around 1,160 cubic feet or 33 cubic meters.
Shipping counts capacity in TEU, twenty-foot equivalent units, and this container is one TEU. Its floor is close to 150 square feet, a little smaller than a parking space.
As storage or a backyard office it is the most common size. Compare it with the 40 foot container, which is exactly two of these end to end in cargo terms.