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Freight Class Calculator
This freight class calculator works out the density of an LTL shipment in pounds per cubic foot and matches it to the 13-class NMFC density scale that took effect on July 19, 2025. Enter each pallet, crate, carton or drum with its quantity, dimensions and weight, in inches or centimeters and pounds or kilograms, and it gives the estimated class for every line and for the whole shipment.
- Multiple pallets and line items
- Inches or cm, lb or kg
- Save, share or export to CSV
Freight class calculator
One line per size or product. Density and estimated class update as you type.
Freight class chart: the 13 density classes since July 19, 2025
If the class chart taped above your desk still lists 77.5, 110 or 150 against a density range, it predates July 19, 2025. That is the day NMFC Docket 2025-1 took effect, and since then items classed by density rate on one scale of 13 steps, numbered as subs 1 to 13. This is the scale the calculator above uses, row for row.
| Sub | Pounds per cubic foot | Class |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Under 1 | 400 |
| 2 | 1 to under 2 | 300 |
| 3 | 2 to under 4 | 250 |
| 4 | 4 to under 6 | 175 |
| 5 | 6 to under 8 | 125 |
| 6 | 8 to under 10 | 100 |
| 7 | 10 to under 12 | 92.5 |
| 8 | 12 to under 15 | 85 |
| 9 | 15 to under 22.5 | 70 |
| 10 | 22.5 to under 30 | 65 |
| 11 | 30 to under 35 | 60 |
| 12 | 35 to under 50 | 55 |
| 13 | 50 or more | 50 |
Read it from the top and every step down is freight that weighs more for the space it fills, which costs less per pound to haul. The 2025 change mostly landed at the dense end. Density classing used to stop at class 60 for anything 30 pounds per cubic foot or heavier; the scale now carries on to class 55 between 35 and 50, and class 50 at 50 or more.
The NMFC still has 18 freight classes, from 50 to 500. The density scale reaches 13 of them, so 77.5, 110, 150, 200 and 500 have not gone anywhere. They just cannot come out of a tape measure any more: freight lands in one of those only through its own NMFC item.
How to calculate freight class by hand
The arithmetic takes a minute. The measuring is where shippers lose money, because the number that counts is the shipping unit as the carrier will see it on the dock, not the product dimensions in a catalog.
- Measure each piece at its widest points: length, width, and height from the floor, with the pallet deck included. A carton hanging over the edge of the pallet makes the pallet that much longer.
- Multiply length × width × height in inches to get cubic inches, then divide by 1,728 (12 × 12 × 12) for cubic feet.
- Weigh it with the pallet and the packaging. Adding up product weights from a spec sheet leaves both out.
- Divide pounds by cubic feet. That is the density in pounds per cubic foot, often written pcf, and the chart above turns it into a class.
Those four steps are all any freight density calculator does. The LTL freight class calculator at the top of this page runs them on every line at once, in whichever units you measured in, and keeps the shipment total honest.
A pallet
A 48 × 40 pallet stacked to 52 inches, deck included, weighs 790 pounds. 48 × 40 × 52 is 99,840 cubic inches, or 57.78 cubic feet. 790 ÷ 57.78 is 13.67 pounds per cubic foot, which sits in the 12-to-15 band: class 85. Run the same pallet through a pre-2025 chart and it comes out 77.5, the first place the old and new scales part company.
A single carton
A 24 × 18 × 16 inch carton at 45 pounds is 6,912 cubic inches, exactly 4 cubic feet, and 11.25 pounds per cubic foot. Class 92.5. Three more pounds in the same box, or the same contents in a box one inch shorter, would put it at 12 pounds per cubic foot and class 85.
Drums, rolls and other cylinders
A cylinder is measured as the square it takes up on the floor: diameter × diameter × height. Estes Express describes cylindrical freight the same way. A drum 23 inches across and 35 inches tall weighing 480 pounds is 23 × 23 × 35 = 18,515 cubic inches, 10.71 cubic feet and 44.80 pounds per cubic foot: class 55. Choose Cylinder on a line in the calculator and it asks for a diameter instead of a length and a width.
Metric measurements
The method does not change in centimeters and kilograms, only the conversion: 2.54 centimeters to the inch and 0.45359237 kilograms to the pound. Switch the units at the top of the calculator and it converts as you type, showing cubic meters and kilograms per cubic meter beside the US figures. The class is still read off the pounds-per-cubic-foot scale, because that is the unit the NMFC writes it in.
Freight class calculator for multiple pallets
Give each size or product its own line and use the quantity for identical pieces. Every line gets its own density and class, and the shipment gets one combined figure: total weight over total cube. It is not an average of the line densities, and the difference matters.
| Line | Cube | Weight | Density | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 pallets, 48 × 40 × 50 in, 600 lb each | 111.11 ft³ | 1,200 lb | 10.80 | 92.5 |
| 1 pallet, 48 × 40 × 30 in, 900 lb | 33.33 ft³ | 900 lb | 27.00 | 65 |
| Shipment | 144.44 ft³ | 2,100 lb | 14.54 | 85 |
Average the two line densities and you get 18.90, which is class 70: two classes better than the freight deserves, and the kind of figure a reweigh corrects. Which of the real numbers applies depends on how the bill of lading describes the freight. If all three pallets are one product on one line, that line is classed on the combined 14.54 pounds per cubic foot, class 85. If they are two products on two lines, each line keeps its own class, 92.5 and 65.
Different products stacked on the same pallet are a separate case. FedEx Freight's rule is that the pallet defaults to the highest class of the items on it; its own example puts class 60 car accessories on a pallet with class 100 car covers, and the whole pallet rates 100. When the lines in the calculator land in different classes it flags it, so you can check how they are actually going to be built and billed. The FedEx bill of lading guide covers what else their paperwork needs.
The "Try an example" button under the calculator loads this exact shipment if you want to see it worked through.
Why another calculator gave you class 110
A good number of the free calculators online, some on carrier and broker sites, still look density up on one of two older charts. One is the 18-step guide that runs from class 500 under 1 pound per cubic foot down to class 50 above 50, with stops at 77.5, 110, 150 and 200 along the way. The other is the 11-step density scale that ended at class 60 for anything 30 pounds per cubic foot or denser.
Feed the same freight to both and the answers drift. At 8.5 pounds per cubic foot the old guide says 110 and the current scale says 100. At 13.67, the pallet above, it is 77.5 against 85. A dense pallet at 40 pounds per cubic foot rates class 60 on the 11-step scale and class 55 today. When two calculators disagree, find out which chart each one is using before you trust either.
Density is one of four factors
What is freight class, exactly? It is the number from 50 to 500 that the NMFC gives a commodity to reflect how hard it is to carry, and LTL carriers price on it: the lower the class, the lower the rate per pound.
Every class a calculator gives you is an estimate, this one's included. NMFC classes rest on four transportation characteristics: density, stowability, handling and liability. Density is the one you can measure with a tape and a scale. The other three come from the commodity: whether it can be stacked or loaded alongside other freight, whether it needs special equipment or care to move, and how likely it is to be stolen, damaged, or to damage what is next to it. Some commodities have an NMFC item that fixes their class whatever their density. FedEx Freight says the same of its own calculator: the class that applies is based on the commodity's demonstrated transportation characteristics.
To determine freight class for certain, find the NMFC item that covers your product: ask your carrier, or look it up in ClassIT+, which NMFTA launched in July 2025 as the home of NMFC data.
What a wrong class costs
Carriers check. A missing or understated class is usually caught when the shipment is inspected, reweighed or remeasured, and the bill is corrected to the class the freight supports. FedEx Freight warns that incorrect classification may add fees, and sends shippers to items 980 and 981 of its 100 Series Rules Tariff; other carriers publish their own rules tariffs. For a broker or a 3PL the rebill is only half of it, since the rate already quoted to the customer was built on the wrong class.
Two habits head off most of it. Weigh the built pallet on a real scale rather than adding up product weights, and measure the finished pallet rather than the carton sizes on the purchase order.
Getting a shipment into a lower class
Under the result, the calculator shows what would move the shipment one class in each direction: how many more pounds on the same cube would reach the next lower class, how much weight it can lose before it rises a class, and for a single line, the same in inches of height. Freight sitting a few pounds from a break is the freight that gets rebilled, so a thin margin is a prompt to weigh it again, not a reason to round.
The height figure is usually the one worth acting on. Pallets with air at the top, or a half-empty final layer, are a common reason freight rates a class higher than its contents need. The 790-pound pallet above, rebuilt to 47.4 inches instead of 52 with the same weight, reaches 15 pounds per cubic foot and class 70.
Saving, sharing and exporting a calculation
- Copy results puts a plain-text summary on your clipboard, every line plus the shipment total, ready for an email or a load note.
- Share link copies a link that carries the whole calculation. Whoever opens it sees the same lines and units. The calculation lives in the link itself, after the #, so nothing is stored on our server.
- Save in this browser keeps named calculations on this device for the lanes you quote every week. They are not uploaded, and they will not follow you to another computer.
- Download CSV gives a spreadsheet with every line's cube, density and class and the shipment total. It opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Print prints the calculator with its results.
Once you have a class, it goes on the freight lines of the bill of lading. The bill of lading template has a class column on every line, and how to fill out a bill of lading covers the NMFC item number that sits beside it.
Freight class questions
How do you calculate freight class?
Measure the shipping unit in inches at its widest points, pallet included, and multiply length × width × height. Divide by 1,728 to get cubic feet. Divide the gross weight in pounds, pallet and packaging included, by the cubic feet to get density in pounds per cubic foot. Then find that density on the 13-step NMFC density scale: 13.67 lb/ft³, for example, falls between 12 and 15 and is class 85.
What freight class is 70?
On the density scale, class 70 covers freight from 15 up to, but not including, 22.5 pounds per cubic foot. A 48 × 40 pallet built to 48 inches is 53.33 cubic feet, so on that footprint class 70 runs from 800 pounds to just under 1,200. Lighter than 800 and it rates class 85; 1,200 or heavier and it moves down to class 65.
What does freight class 300 mean?
Class 300 is the second-lightest step on the density scale: 1 up to, but not including, 2 pounds per cubic foot. It is freight that takes up a lot of trailer for very little weight. A 48 × 40 × 48 inch pallet rates class 300 at roughly 53 to 106 pounds. Only freight under 1 pound per cubic foot rates higher, at class 400.
What is a 250 freight class?
Class 250 is freight with a density of 2 up to, but not including, 4 pounds per cubic foot. It is light for its size and costs more per pound to move than anything denser. On a 48 × 40 pallet built to 48 inches, that is roughly 107 to 213 pounds. Four pounds per cubic foot or more takes it to class 175.
What is a class 55 freight?
Class 55 is freight from 35 up to, but not including, 50 pounds per cubic foot. It is one of the two dense steps added when NMFC Docket 2025-1 took effect on July 19, 2025; before that, density classing stopped at class 60 for anything 30 pounds per cubic foot or heavier. A 48 × 40 × 48 inch pallet rates class 55 at roughly 1,867 to 2,666 pounds.
What does freight class 77.5 mean?
Class 77.5 is still one of the NMFC's 18 classes, but the density scale no longer produces it. Since July 19, 2025 the scale steps straight from class 85 (12 to under 15 lb/ft³) to class 70 (15 to under 22.5). Freight rates 77.5 only when its own NMFC item says so. A calculator that answers 77.5 from dimensions and weight is using the older chart, where 13.5 to 15 lb/ft³ meant 77.5.
What freight class is a pallet?
A pallet has no class of its own. The class comes from what is on it: the commodity's NMFC item, and for density-rated freight, the weight of the built pallet divided by the space it takes. The same 48 × 40 footprint can rate anywhere from class 400 to class 50 depending on how high it is stacked and how much it weighs, which is why measuring the finished pallet matters more than knowing the product.
What happens if my freight class is wrong?
Usually the carrier finds it. A shipment with a missing or wrong class tends to be caught when it is inspected, reweighed or remeasured, and the bill is corrected to the class the freight actually supports. FedEx Freight warns that incorrect classification may add fees and points shippers to items 980 and 981 of its 100 Series Rules Tariff; other carriers publish their own rules. Measuring the built pallet and weighing it on a real scale prevents most corrections.
Is freight class based only on weight and size?
No. NMFC classes rest on four transportation characteristics: density, stowability, handling and liability. Weight and size give you density, which is why every freight class calculator, this one included, works from them. Stowability, handling and liability come from the commodity itself, and some commodities have an NMFC item that sets their class whatever their density. Treat any calculator result as an estimate until the commodity's NMFC item confirms it.
Which freight class do I use for multiple items shipped together?
Put each different product on its own line of the bill of lading, and each line carries its own class. Pieces of the same product on one line are classed on that line's combined weight and cube, not on an average of piece densities. Different products stacked on the same pallet are another matter: FedEx Freight's rule is that the pallet defaults to the highest class of the items on it.