It is the combined footprint of the boxes actually placed on one layer, divided by the pallet footprint. Four 480×380mm boxes on a 1,100×1,100mm pallet give (4 × 480 × 380) ÷ (1,100 × 1,100) = 60.3%. Clearance gaps between boxes are not area the boxes occupy, so they are excluded.

The T11 is a 1,100×1,100mm square pallet, the Korean and Japanese standard, while the Euro pallet (EPAL) is a 1,200×800mm rectangle, the European standard. Being square, the T11 lets you rotate boxes 90° freely, which favours interlocking and pinwheel patterns. The Euro pallet is sized to European truck and container widths for transport efficiency.

Column stacking places every layer in the same orientation, so box corners line up vertically for the highest compression strength — but the layers are not tied together and topple more easily. Interlocking alternates the arrangement between odd and even layers so they key into each other, reducing collapse in transit, though misaligned corners lower compression strength somewhat.

Real cartons often come out a few millimetres larger than their nominal size because of board thickness, joint tolerance and content bulge. Allowing a 3–5mm gap prevents the case where boxes fit on paper but not on the floor. The gap is applied when checking whether a layout fits, but is not counted in the area occupancy.

It applies when the box length plus width is less than or equal to one side of the pallet. A 620×440mm box on a 1,100×1,100mm pallet gives 620+440=1,060 ≤ 1,100, so four boxes can be rotated into a pinwheel. It leaves a hole in the centre but often loads more boxes than a plain grid.

Take the lowest of your container interior height, warehouse rack clearance and forklift specification. A 40ft standard container is about 2,390mm inside. Always check whether the pallet’s own height (typically 150mm) counts toward that limit — the “Include pallet height in total limit” option controls this.

It depends on how the box footprint divides into the pallet, not on volume. On a 1,100 x 1,100 mm T11 pallet a 400 x 300 mm box fits 9 per layer with almost no waste, while a 450 x 350 mm box, only slightly bigger, fits 6. Enter your box and pallet size above and the tool tries grid, pinwheel and mixed-block patterns and reports the best one.

Overhang is when boxes extend past the pallet edge. It is best avoided: even 25 mm can cut box compression strength by around a third, because the corners carrying the load are unsupported. Some operations accept a little overhang to gain a row, but the stack becomes weaker and more prone to transit damage. This tool never places a box past the pallet edge.

A standard wooden pallet handles roughly 1,000 kg of evenly distributed static load, though racking and transport rules are often stricter. In practice the real ceiling is usually the bottom carton compression strength rather than the pallet itself. Enter the box weight and the load limit above and the tool caps the layer count so the limit is never exceeded.

A 20ft container takes about 10 standard pallets in a single layer, a 40ft about 20 to 21. Euro pallets (1,200 x 800) load differently from 1,100 x 1,100 pallets because the container interior is only about 2,350 mm wide. Multiply the boxes-per-pallet figure from this tool by those numbers for a container estimate.

Because fit is decided by whole divisions, not by area. A 600 mm side divides into 1,200 mm exactly twice; a 610 mm side also divides only twice but wastes 380 mm. Rotating changes which dimension faces which pallet edge, and that can turn a wasted strip into another full row. This is why the tool tests every orientation instead of trusting the raw footprint.

Common limits are 1,650 mm including the pallet for warehouse racking, and roughly 2,200 to 2,390 mm for a standard shipping container. Airfreight is usually much lower. Set your own limit above and tick whether the pallet height counts toward it: that single checkbox often changes the layer count by one.