Pallet Calculator Guide: Cases Per Pallet & Loading
A pallet calculator answers one question: how many cases fit on a pallet, and how they stack. It works in Ti×Hi — cases per layer (Ti) times layers high (Hi). A standard GMA pallet is 48×40 inches; divide that footprint by your case footprint for the layer count, then divide the height you have by the case height for the layers. Here’s how the math works, the height and weight limits that cap it, and how the finished pallets fill a truck — with the free calculator one click away.
How a pallet calculator works: Ti-Hi
Everything comes down to Ti×Hi. Ti (tier) is how many cases fit in one layer; Hi (high) is how many layers you stack. Multiply them for cases per pallet: a 10×5 pattern is ten per layer, five layers high, 50 cases. It’s the two-number shorthand warehouses and buyers use to describe a pallet.
The full breakdown of the term is in how many boxes fit on a pallet.
A pallet is sold by its footprint. Fill the footprint efficiently and you fill the truck.
Cases per layer: filling the footprint
The layer count is geometry. Take the pallet footprint — 48×40 in for a GMA pallet, 1200×800 mm for a Euro pallet — and see how many case footprints fit. Case orientation matters: turning a box 90° often fits more, so a good calculator tries both ways and keeps the better one. Overhang past the pallet edge invites damage and carrier rejection, so the honest count stays inside the deck. Layout patterns are covered in pallet configuration.
Height and weight both cap the stack
Two limits decide how high you go. Height is the obvious one — your dock door, a rack opening, or the 100 in of usable trailer height. But weight can cap it first: a crush-sensitive product or a rack beam rated to a set load means fewer layers than height alone allows. A good pallet plan honors whichever limit is reached first, so the pattern you draw is one the freight can actually survive.
From pallet to truckload
Once you know cases per pallet, the next question is how many pallets fit the truck. A 53′ dry van holds about 26 standard pallets on the floor (up to 52 double-stacked); a 20′ ocean container about 10–11. That’s covered in how many pallets fit in a truck or container, and the Pallets per Truckload tool does the count for you.