Cargo TEU Calculator
Enter how many 20-, 40-, and 45-foot boxes you have and read the total in TEU and FEU, the physical container count, and — with a capacity — how full the ship or terminal is.
Why the box world counts in TEU
The twenty-foot equivalent unit gave containerisation a single currency. A stow plan mixes 20-, 40-, and 45-foot boxes, standard and high-cube, reefer and dry — but expressed in TEU they all reduce to one comparable number, which is how a 24,000-TEU megaship and a small feeder can be measured on the same scale. Terminal throughput, trade-lane volumes, and charter rates all lean on the same convention.
TEU is about slots, not weight. To weigh up the other half of a ship’s capacity, use the Ship Tonnage Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a TEU?
A TEU is a twenty-foot equivalent unit — the industry's standard measure of container capacity. One 20-foot box is 1 TEU, so a ship that can carry 10,000 TEU can carry the equivalent of ten thousand twenty-foot boxes. Because most boxes on the water are actually 40 feet long, TEU is a common denominator that lets you compare ships, terminals, and trade volumes on one scale.
How many TEU is a 40-foot or 45-foot container?
A 40-foot box is 2 TEU and a 45-foot box is conventionally counted as 2.25 TEU. A 40-foot high-cube is taller than a standard 40-foot but the same length, so it is still 2 TEU — the TEU factor follows length, not height or weight. This calculator applies 1, 2, and 2.25 to your 20-, 40-, and 45-foot counts respectively.
What is an FEU, and how does it relate to TEU?
An FEU is a forty-foot equivalent unit — one 40-foot box. Since a 40-foot box is 2 TEU, FEU is simply TEU divided by two. Carriers often quote rates and volumes in FEU because the 40-foot box is the workhorse of the trade, while capacity and throughput headlines are almost always in TEU.
Does TEU tell me how much weight the ship can carry?
No. TEU counts container slots, not tonnes. A ship can run out of weight (its deadweight limit) before it runs out of slots, especially with heavy boxes, or run out of slots before weight with light ones. For the weight side of a ship's capacity, look at deadweight and displacement with the Ship Tonnage Calculator.
Standard TEU factors (1 / 2 / 2.25) for planning and learning. A ship’s actual intake depends on its stow plan, weight distribution, and stability — always defer to the approved loading calculation.