20 GMA pallets. A 40 ft container takes 20 standard 48 × 40 in GMA pallets floor-loaded in a single layer, and a 20 ft container takes 10. Enter your pallet count below to see which container and how many you need. Building the pallets themselves is the pallet calculator.
Counts assume GMA 48 × 40 in pallets, no overhang, single layer, floor-loaded. Add a height to check double-stacking.
Cases sit inside the pallet footprint and pallets sit on the floor: rows two across the 2,350 mm width, with pinwheeled sections (pallets turned against each other) filling the length. That arrangement gives ten in a 20 ft and twenty in a 40 ft.
20 ft: 5,896 × 2,350 × 2,393 mm. 40 ft: 12,032 × 2,350 mm, at 2,393 mm high or 2,697 mm for high cube. Other carriers' boxes differ by a few centimeters.
A 40 ft container's max payload is about 28,800 kg. Twenty pallets at 1,500 kg each weigh 30,000 kg, over the limit before the floor space runs out. Check payload alongside count.
10 GMA 48 × 40 in pallets, floor-loaded in a single layer with no overhang, by Maersk's internal dimensions (5,896 mm long). Counts of 9 usually assume a different loading pattern or clearance at the door.
If the freight allows it and the stacked height stays under the internal height (2,393 mm, about 94.2 in; 2,697 mm in a high cube), yes. Two 48 in pallets stack to 96 in, over the standard container's 94.2 in internal height; two 44 in pallets stack to 88 in and fit.
Because the assumptions differ: pallet footprint, overhang, pinwheeling, clearance at the door, and whether the count is floor-loaded or double-stacked. This page states its assumptions with the answer; pages that give a bare number are not comparable.
Rules last checked November 12, 2026 · How we check every figure