How many cubic feet are in a cubic yard?

One cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, since a yard is 3 feet on each side and 3 x 3 x 3 = 27. That means 1 cubic foot is about 0.037 cubic yards. This calculator handles the conversion for any shape automatically once you enter your dimensions and choose your output unit.

How do I calculate cubic yards from feet?

Multiply length x width x depth in feet to get cubic feet, then divide by 27 to get cubic yards. For example, an area 10 ft x 10 ft x 0.25 ft (3 in) deep is 25 cubic feet, or 25 / 27 = 0.93 cubic yards before any waste allowance. For non-box shapes (cylinders, cones, pyramids), the base-area formula changes but the final conversion — divide cubic feet by 27 — stays the same.

How many cubic yards of gravel or mulch do I need?

It depends on the area you're covering and the depth you want — multiply the area by the depth (converted to the same unit) to get volume, then convert to cubic yards and add a waste allowance, typically around 10%. This calculator does that full calculation for box, circular and irregular areas alike, and gives you a rounded purchase figure ready to order.

How many cubic yards are in a typical dump truck load?

It varies by truck size, but a standard full-size dump truck commonly hauls 10-18 cubic yards of loose material like gravel or mulch, while a smaller pickup-truck-bed load (a common DIY reference point) holds roughly 2-3 cubic yards. Check your supplier's minimum order quantity, since many yards charge extra for partial loads.

Cubic Yard Calculator — Convert Volume to Cubic Yards

Cubic Yard Calculator: Volume for Gravel, Mulch, Soil and Concrete

Gravel, mulch, topsoil, sand and ready-mix concrete are almost always ordered by the cubic yard, but very few projects start out measured that way — you know a bed is 10 ft by 8 ft, or a footing is 18 in across, not how many cubic yards that works out to. Get the conversion wrong and you either run short on delivery day or pay for a truck's worth of material you didn't need. This cubic yard calculator takes the actual shape of what you're filling or pouring and turns it straight into a cubic yard figure you can hand to a supplier.

It covers nine shapes rather than just a plain box: rectangular box, cube, cylinder, hollow cylinder (pipe), hollow rectangular tube, cone, pyramid, hemisphere, and an "other shape" mode for anything you've already measured the base area of. Each shape swaps in the right dimensions — length/width/depth for a box, radius and depth for a cylinder, inner and outer radius for a pipe — and applies the correct geometric formula behind the scenes, including the 1/3 factor for cones and pyramids that's the single easiest step to forget doing by hand.

Enter your dimensions in whatever unit you actually measured in (inches, feet, yards, centimetres or metres), set a waste allowance to cover compaction and spillage, and choose cubic yards, cubic feet or cubic metres as your output. The calculator also multiplies the final purchase volume by a material price per unit volume you can adjust, so you get a real delivered-cost estimate alongside the number to order.

How to Use the Cubic Yard Calculator

Pick your shape: box, cube, cylinder, hollow cylinder, hollow rectangular tube, cone, pyramid, hemisphere, or "other" if you already know the base area.
Enter the dimensions that shape needs — length and width for a box, radius for a cylinder, inner and outer radius for a hollow cylinder, or wall/border width for a hollow rectangular tube — choosing the unit each field was measured in.
Enter the depth or height (not needed for a hemisphere, which uses radius alone).
For the "other" mode, enter your already-measured base area and mark whether the shape tapers to a point (pyramid-like) or stays constant top to bottom (prism-like).
Set the waste allowance percentage — 10% is the default, adjustable 0–25%, to cover compaction, spillage and uneven excavation edges.
Choose your output volume unit: cubic yards, cubic feet or cubic metres.
Enter a material price per unit volume if you want a cost estimate, adjusted to your local supplier's quote.
Read off the raw volume, the waste-adjusted purchase volume — the number to actually order — and the estimated material cost.

The Math Behind the Calculation

For "prism-like" shapes (box, cube, cylinder, hollow cylinder, hollow rectangular tube), volume is simply base area x depth — a box's base area is length x width, a cylinder's is pi x radius^2, and a hollow shape's is the outer base area minus the inner one. For "pyramid-like" shapes that taper to a point or edge (cone, pyramid, and "other" in pyramid mode), volume is 1/3 x base area x depth — that 1/3 factor is the step most people forget when estimating by hand. A hemisphere is a special case: volume = 2/3 x pi x radius^3.

Once the raw volume is found, it converts cleanly between units: 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet = 46,656 cubic inches = 0.764555 cubic metres. A waste allowance (commonly 10% for bulk fill materials, to cover compaction and spillage) is then applied on top of the converted volume to give the purchase volume — the figure you should actually order.

Worked example: a mulch bed 10 ft long, 10 ft wide and 3 in deep — the calculator's own default box dimensions. First convert depth to feet: 3 in / 12 = 0.25 ft. Volume = 10 x 10 x 0.25 = 25 cubic feet. Converting to cubic yards: 25 / 27 = 0.926 yd³. Applying a 10% waste allowance: 0.926 x 1.10 = 1.019, so you'd order about 1 cubic yard of mulch, not the 0.93 yd³ the raw geometry alone suggests.

A pyramid-like example shows why the 1/3 factor matters: a conical gravel pile with a 4 ft radius base and 3 ft height has a base area of pi x 4^2 = 50.27 ft², so its volume is 1/3 x 50.27 x 3 = 50.27 ft³ (2.79 yd³) — not the 150.8 ft³ you'd get by treating it as a cylinder and forgetting the taper.

US Bulk Material Delivery Conventions

Landscape supply yards and aggregate dealers typically deliver by the dump-truck load, commonly 10-18 cubic yards per full load, and many yards set a minimum delivery quantity (often 2-3 yd³) below which a small-load surcharge applies — source: general US landscape-supply and aggregate-yard trade practice.
Mulch, topsoil, sand and gravel are usually sold and priced per cubic yard rather than by weight, in contrast to some other markets where bulk aggregate is priced per ton.

Pro Tips and Common Mistakes

At a typical material cost of around $45 per cubic yard for delivered gravel, mulch or topsoil, a 10 ft x 10 ft mulch bed at 3 in deep — 0.93 yd³ raw, about 1.02 yd³ once a 10% waste allowance is added — costs roughly $46 in material, before any delivery surcharge for a load under the yard's minimum.

Bulk materials typically sell by the half or full cubic yard, and delivery trucks often have a minimum load — round your final purchase volume up to a sensible order increment, not just to the nearest decimal.
The 1/3 factor for cones, pyramids and tapered "other" shapes is the most commonly forgotten step in hand calculations — this calculator applies it automatically whenever you mark a shape as pyramid-like.
For hollow shapes (pipe fill, planter borders, retaining-wall cores), remember the volume is the outer shape minus the inner one, not the outer dimensions alone — skipping this step overstates the material you need.
Depth is the dimension most often entered in the wrong unit — a mulch depth of 3 inches mistaken for 3 feet inflates the answer by a factor of 12. Double-check that field specifically.
For genuinely irregular real-world areas (an odd-shaped garden bed, an excavation that isn't a clean geometric shape), use "other shape" mode with a base area you've measured directly, rather than forcing it into a box or cylinder.
A 10% waste allowance is a reasonable default for gravel, mulch and topsoil; for ready-mix concrete, many suppliers recommend closer to 5-10% depending on subgrade and formwork quality.