Gravel Calculator
Turn an area and a depth into gravel volume, weight and cost.
Sixteen gravel types, metric and imperial units, and twenty currencies.
Updated October 21, 2026
Introduction
Gravel is ordered by weight and spread by depth, and this page connects the two. Enter the area you are covering and the thickness of the layer, choose the material, and you get the volume to order, the weight that volume becomes on a truck, and the cost at the price your supplier quoted.
The material row changes the answer more than anything else you type. A cubic meter of the dry 1/4 - 2 inch gravel the page opens on is about 1.68 metric tons; the wet version of the same size is about 2.02, and the lightest row gives 1.346 for the same cubic meter. At the two ends of the table, ten cubic meters is 13.46 metric tons of one material and 20.98 metric tons of another — a 7.52 metric ton spread on a volume that looks identical on paper.
It also runs the other way. Give it a load you already have and the area it should cover, and it reports the depth that load will fill; give it a budget and the price, and it reports the weight the budget buys. That covers the three questions that usually arrive together: how much to order, how deep it will go, and what it will cost. Prices can be entered per metric ton or per cubic meter, in any of twenty currencies.
40 m²
A 10 m × 4 m drive at 6 cm needs 2.4 m³, or 4.03 t
16 rows
Bulk densities from 1,346 to 2,098 kg/m³, or your own
20 currencies
For the price per metric ton, the price per cubic meter and the total
Quick start
Choose the closest material first
The menu sets the bulk density that every weight and cost below depends on, so start here rather than with the tape measure. Pick the row that matches what will actually be delivered: dry or wet, pit-run or screened, pea gravel, crushed stone or one of the named decorative gravels. The matching density is applied for you.
If your supplier states a density, or you have weighed a sample yourself, choose the last row and type it in. The number stays yours and the rest of the page follows it.
Measure the area you are covering
Length and width of the rectangle, or the area itself if you already know it. An L-shaped bed, a drive that widens at the gate or a curved border can still be handled: work out the area in pieces, add them up and put the total into the area box. The calculator only needs the area, not the outline.
Measuring errors grow with the length of the edge. On a 10 m boundary, being 10 cm out is 1 m² on the total, which at a 6 cm layer is 0.06 m³ more gravel — about 100 kg at the default density.
Set the depth you intend to build
Depth is the finished thickness of the layer, not the size of the stones in it. A layer that is half as deep uses half the material, and the coverage doubles, so this is the single number with the most leverage on the bill. Measure against the board or rail you will screed to rather than estimating by eye, and measure where the layer will end up thinnest, not where the pile will be deepest.
Add the quote you were given
Enter the price per metric ton or the price per cubic meter — whichever your supplier uses — and the page shows the equivalent in the other unit through the bulk density. Leave both empty if you only need quantities. If the budget is the fixed number, type it into the total cost: with the price filled in, the page reports the weight and volume that budget buys, and if the dimensions are already filled in, it re-solves one of them, so glance at the boxes afterwards to see what changed.
Read the chain on a real drive
A 10 m by 4 m drive, 6 cm deep, in the default dry 1/4 - 2 inch gravel at 32 per metric ton:
Area
Volume needed
Weight needed
Total cost
shown as 129.02 in the total, which is rounded to cents; the price per cubic meter works out at 32 × 1.68 = 53.76.
Four numbers, one purchase order
The volume is what the supplier loads in a loose skip, the weight is what the truck carries and the invoice charges, the total is the bill, and the second price is the same quote seen from the other side. If they disagree with the supplier's figures, the bulk density is the first thing to check.
How the numbers are built
Every result is a product of two numbers you can see, and every product can be read from either end. That is what makes the page work in both directions: fill in a result and the page solves one of its inputs instead.
Area from the two sides
Give the area itself and the page finds a missing side instead.
Volume from area and depth
Give a volume and the page finds the area or the depth that produces it.
Weight from volume and bulk density
With the density held by the material row, a weight comes back to a volume.
The two ways of quoting a price
The price per cubic meter is the price per metric ton multiplied by the bulk density.
Total cost from weight and price
A budget typed into the total comes back to a weight, or to the price it allows.
The density is deliberately left out of the list of things the page will solve. It is a property of the material you chose, so a weight you type can never quietly rewrite it and leave you comparing two different piles. If you have measured a weight and a volume of the same material and want the density they imply, the cubic yards to tons calculator works in that direction.
Units are converted before they multiply
Each box converts its number to one base unit first — meters, square meters, cubic meters, kilograms, and a price in the base currency — so a length in feet, a depth in inches and a price in pounds per short ton still multiply into one correct total. A price is normalised with the unit it is quoted in and the currency rate for the day:
Here is the number of kilograms in the mass unit of the price menu — 1,000 for a metric ton, 0.45359237 for a pound — and is how many units of that currency one US dollar buys. The total is converted back the same way, which is why it can be read in a different currency from either price box.
Worked examples
Two situations that the quick start does not cover: working from a load you already have, and comparing two quotes that are written in different units.
One metric ton, and a bed that would take more
Situation: You already have one metric ton of the default dry 1/4 - 2 inch gravel and a 20 m² bed to top up. How deep will that load spread?
Inputs
Result
In practice: Just under 3 cm, which is short of a 5 cm layer. At 5 cm the same 20 m² needs 1 m³, or 1.68 metric tons. The honest choices are a second metric ton, or a deliberately thinner layer.
Two quotes, two different units
Situation: One supplier quotes 42 per metric ton of dry 1/4 - 2 inch gravel and another 68 per cubic meter. Which one is cheaper for the same bed?
Inputs
Result
Converted one quote at a time, so the two never have to be entered together:
In practice: Compare in one unit at the density that will actually be delivered. At the wet density of 2,020 kg/m³ the 42 per metric ton quote becomes 84.84 per cubic meter, so the gap widens from 2.56 to 16.84 per cubic meter — which is why the material row matters as much as the price.
Bulk density and the gravel menu
Bulk density is the weight of the material as it is shoveled, air gaps included. It is not the density of the stone itself, and that gap is why the menu asks which gravel you are buying rather than assuming one number for all of them.
A solid piece of the same rock is roughly 2.6 to 2.7 times as dense as water, but a loose pile is not: a large share of its volume is the air between the pieces. That is why the rows sit between about 1,350 and 2,100 kg/m³ instead of at 2,600 to 2,700. Compact the pile, or fill the gaps with water or sand, and the same volume gets heavier without any new stone arriving.
Why dry and wet rows exist for the same size
Water sits in the gaps. The dry 1/4 - 2 inch row is 1,680 kg/m³ and the wet row for the same size is 2,020 — about a fifth more weight in the same bucket. Neither is wrong; they describe different states of the same pile. Material stored outside, or delivered in the rain, will sit closer to the wet end, which changes the weight of a fixed volume and the volume a fixed budget buys.
Why the row can move the order by metric tons
The lightest row is regular gravel at 1,346 kg/m³; the heaviest is a decorative row at 2,098. Ten cubic meters is 13.46 metric tons of the first and 20.98 metric tons of the second — the same volume, a 7.52 metric ton difference in what the truck carries and what the invoice says. That is not a rounding detail; it is the difference between one delivery and two.
Getting a density you can trust
The rows are typical values, not a measurement of your pile. Ask the supplier for the bulk density they invoice against, or weigh a known volume: fill a straight-sided container you have measured, level it off, weigh it, subtract the container, and divide by the volume. A 10 liter container holds 0.01 m³, so every kilogram you weigh is 100 kg/m³:
Repeat it with a second sample if the first one looks wet or segregated; a difference of a few percent between samples is normal, a difference of 20 percent usually means water or a different product.
When a density looks wrong, the page says so
The density box expects kilograms per cubic meter. A specific gravity such as 1.68, or a density written in g/cm³, has to be multiplied by 1,000 first: 1.68 becomes 1,680 kg/m³. Left as it is, the number is a thousand times too small, and values below 400 or above 3,500 kg/m³ raise a warning next to the box. The calculation still runs so you can see the effect; read the warning before you order.
Ordering advice
The arithmetic is the easy part. These are the practical points that decide whether the delivery matches the plan.
Add five to ten percent
A delivered pile does not spread itself perfectly. Five to ten percent extra covers the low spots, the trips that spill, and the edge that needs building up. Two cubic meters becomes 2.2 at ten percent, which is 3.7 metric tons instead of 3.36 at the default density.
Check the payload, not just the price
The weight on the page is the material alone. For 2.4 m³ of the default gravel that is 4.03 metric tons before the trailer is counted. Check the plate on the vehicle and the trailer rather than the towing figure, and split the load if it is close.
Measure the depth where it is thinnest
A drive that falls towards a drain is never the same thickness everywhere. Work from the thinnest point you can accept, so no part of the layer ends up below the depth you planned, or measure three or four points and use the average if the surface is uneven.
Record the density you ordered at
Write the row and the density on the order. A repeat order three months later that lands on a different row — dry instead of wet, or a different decorative gravel — will weigh differently for the same volume, and the budget will not match.
If the space is not a rectangle, work out the area first with the square footage calculator and type the result into the area box here. For a round bed, a conical pile or a trench with sloped sides, the cubic yard calculator gives the volume by shape; bring that volume back here to see its weight and cost, or to work out the depth it fills over a known area.
Questions
How many cubic meters is a metric ton of gravel?
It depends on the bulk density, which is exactly why the material row comes first. At the default 1,680 kg/m³ one metric ton is 0.595 m³. At the lightest row (1,346 kg/m³) it is 0.743 m³, and at the heaviest (2,098 kg/m³) only 0.477 m³. To see it for your material, type 1 into the weight box and read the volume.
Why did the page warn about the density I typed?
The custom density box reads kilograms per cubic meter. A specific gravity of 1.68, or a density in g/cm³, needs to be multiplied by 1,000 before it belongs in that box: 1.68 becomes 1,680 kg/m³. Values below 400 or above 3,500 kg/m³ are outside any loose aggregate and get the warning; the number is kept so you can see the effect of fixing it.
Can I use this for a sub-base or structural fill?
For quantities and budget, yes. For the build-up itself, no: a sub-base is specified by grading, layer thickness, compaction and bearing capacity, and those come from the material supplier, a ground investigation or your local road authority — not from a volume. This page assumes a loose, level layer on a prepared surface; it does not model drainage, geotextile, edging or compaction.
How far the number goes
- The densities are typical values, not your pile. Moisture, compaction and grading move the real bulk density by several percent, and a few percent of density is a few percent of the weight and the bill. A supplier's own figure beats any table.
- The layer is treated as a level, uncompacted rectangle. Sloping ground, a crowned drive, edge build-up and a soft base that swallows material are all outside the model. Add for them, or measure a cross-section you trust.
- The total is material only. Delivery, minimum order charges, haulage and tax are not included, and a total shown in another currency follows a daily reference rate rather than the rate your card or bank will use.
- It is a quantity tool, not a specification. For anything that carries traffic or load, get the layer thicknesses, grading and compaction from the supplier or a qualified engineer, and check the local rules before the material is ordered.
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