The dimension library

Pallet sizes, drawn to scale and argued about properly.

Q: What is the standard pallet size?

In North America the standard pallet size is 48 inches by 40 inches, known as the GMA footprint (1219 x 1016 mm). In Europe the standard is the 1200 x 800 mm Euro pallet.

Q: How tall is a standard pallet?

A standard 48x40 GMA stringer pallet is 5.5 inches tall. A Euro block pallet is 144 mm, about 5.67 inches.

Q: How many pallets fit on a 53-foot trailer?

Twenty-six 48x40 pallets fit on the floor of a 53-foot dry van, or approximately 330 empty pallets stacked two high in stacks of 15.

Every footprint in commercial use in North America, with real load ratings, real deck layouts and the trailer arithmetic that decides whether a size is affordable. Twenty-two of them, and a strong opinion about which one you should probably use.

Warehouse aisle lined on both sides with tall stacks of used wood pallets on a polished concrete floor, roof lights overhead — Inside the buildingThe sort aisle at half past seven. Graded stock on the left, waiting to be worked on the right.

Need a size we have not listed?

Put the dimensions in the message field. If it exists, we can usually find it; if it does not, we can build it.

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Loads from 100 pallets to full 53' trailers
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Warehouse interior with pallets sorted by type — natural wood, blue pooled units, black plastic and EPAL stamped stacks

Segregation

Sorted by type, not by convenience. Pooled units go back to the pool; plastic runs a separate stream entirely.

That said, the constraint is often real. Product that does not tessellate onto a 40-inch width, racking inherited from an acquisition, drums that need a square, a customer’s automated system that will only accept one thing — these are the situations where the size question actually matters, and where getting it wrong is expensive for a decade.

This page holds everything we know about the trade-offs. The interactive explorer below draws each footprint from its real dimensions and calculates how many fit in the equipment you actually use. Below that, the full comparison table, the international standards, and the questions we get asked most.

If you are considering a non-standard footprint, read the custom sizing guide first. It is the most expensive decision on this page.

Interactive

Pick a footprint. Watch it draw itself.

Every drawing is generated from the actual dimensions, deck board count and stringer count — not a stock image. Change the equipment to see the loading maths update.

Filter

North American

48" × 40"

1219 × 1016 mm · 5.5″ tall · 45 lb

Roughly a third of every new pallet built in North America. Fits two-across in a 53-foot trailer with room to breathe.

Static load: 6,000 lb
Dynamic load: 3,000 lb
Racked load: 2,100 lb
Top deck boards: 7
Stringers: 3
Bottom boards: 3

Typically carries grocery, cpg, beverage, general freight.

How many fit

Stacked

60 pallets — 30 on the floor, 2 high, loaded turned.

Floor count only. Real loads depend on product overhang, load height and whether the receiver will take a stacked pallet.

Full page on 48" × 40"Need something else?

The full table

All twenty-two footprints.

Sorted by family. Load ratings are indicative for a sound recycled unit with a uniformly distributed load.

Sizes with a link have a dedicated page. Everything else we can source or build.
Size	Millimetres	Family	Static	Dynamic	Racked	Weight	Typical use
[48" × 40"](/pallet-sizes/48x40-gma)	1219 × 1016	North American	6,000 lb	3,000 lb	2,100 lb	45 lb	Grocery, CPG, beverage, general freight
[42" × 42"](/pallet-sizes/42x42)	1067 × 1067	North American	6,000 lb	3,000 lb	2,000 lb	48 lb	Telecom, paint, 55-gallon drums
[48" × 48"](/pallet-sizes/48x48)	1219 × 1219	North American	7,000 lb	3,500 lb	2,400 lb	56 lb	Four-drum loads, chemicals, wide industrial parts
[36" × 36"](/pallet-sizes/36x36)	914 × 914	Retail & display	4,500 lb	2,200 lb	1,500 lb	34 lb	Beverage, club store displays, floor-ready retail
[1200 × 800 mm](/pallet-sizes/euro-1200x800)	1200 × 800	International	8,800 lb	3,300 lb	2,200 lb	55 lb	European export, automotive, pharmaceutical
[48" × 45"](/pallet-sizes/48x45-automotive)	1219 × 1143	Industry-specific	6,500 lb	3,200 lb	2,200 lb	50 lb	Tier-1 and Tier-2 automotive suppliers
48" × 42"	1219 × 1067	Industry-specific	6,000 lb	3,000 lb	2,100 lb	47 lb	Chemicals, paint, converted paper
40" × 48"	1016 × 1219	North American	6,000 lb	3,000 lb	2,000 lb	45 lb	Racking systems built for 40-inch stringer runs
48" × 36"	1219 × 914	Industry-specific	5,500 lb	2,800 lb	1,900 lb	42 lb	Beverage, shingles, dense building product
40" × 40"	1016 × 1016	North American	5,200 lb	2,600 lb	1,800 lb	40 lb	Dairy, cheese, mixed food distribution
44" × 44"	1118 × 1118	Industry-specific	6,500 lb	3,200 lb	2,200 lb	50 lb	Drums, chemicals, petroleum products
36" × 48"	914 × 1219	Retail & display	5,500 lb	2,800 lb	1,900 lb	42 lb	Retail display, seasonal goods
45" × 45"	1143 × 1143	Industry-specific	6,000 lb	3,000 lb	2,000 lb	48 lb	Automotive, appliance
24" × 40"	610 × 1016	Retail & display	3,000 lb	1,500 lb	1,000 lb	24 lb	In-store displays, small-format retail
20" × 48"	508 × 1219	Retail & display	2,400 lb	1,200 lb	800 lb	20 lb	Aisle displays, promotional builds
1200 × 1000 mm	1200 × 1000	International	8,800 lb	3,300 lb	2,200 lb	62 lb	European chemical and industrial export
1140 × 1140 mm	1140 × 1140	International	8,800 lb	4,400 lb	2,200 lb	66 lb	Australia and New Zealand export lanes
1100 × 1100 mm	1100 × 1100	International	8,800 lb	3,300 lb	2,200 lb	58 lb	Japan, Korea and much of Southeast Asia
35" × 45.5"	889 × 1156	Industry-specific	5,000 lb	2,500 lb	1,700 lb	40 lb	Defence contractors, air freight prep
48" × 20"	1219 × 508	Retail & display	2,400 lb	1,200 lb	800 lb	22 lb	Narrow product, tubing, extrusions
60" × 48"	1524 × 1219	Industry-specific	9,000 lb	4,500 lb	3,000 lb	78 lb	Machinery, glass, oversized crates
32" × 30"	813 × 762	Retail & display	3,200 lb	1,600 lb	1,100 lb	26 lb	Bakery, produce, small-format distribution

Six pages worth reading

The footprints that matter most.

Footprint01

48″ × 40″ GMA

The North American standard, and why it is 48 by 40.

Open Footprint02

42″ × 42″

Square, for drums and anything round.

Open Footprint03

48″ × 48″

Four drums, and a heavier build to carry them.

Open Footprint04

36″ × 36″

The retail display footprint the shopper sees.

Open Footprint05

Euro 1200 × 800

Block construction and a stamp with teeth.

Open Footprint06

48″ × 45″ automotive

Written into supplier manuals, scarce as cores.

Open

International standards

ISO recognises six. The world uses about forty.

ISO 6780 recognises six pallet footprints, which is a polite fiction. In practice each major economy standardised around whatever fitted its trucks and rail wagons in the 1960s, and those decisions have proved almost impossible to unwind.

The practical consequence for exporters: your pallet almost certainly does not fit the destination’s racking. Most international shipments therefore either transfer product at the port, or use a one-way pallet sized for the destination rather than the origin.

Region	Standard	Millimetres	Inches
North America	GMA 48 × 40	1219 × 1016	48.0 × 40.0
Europe	EPAL EUR 1	1200 × 800	47.24 × 31.50
Europe (industrial)	EUR 2 / ISO	1200 × 1000	47.24 × 39.37
Asia	T11 / Asian	1100 × 1100	43.30 × 43.30
Australia	Australian standard	1165 × 1165	45.87 × 45.87
ISO 6780	Also recognised	1067 × 1067	42.00 × 42.00

Questions

Sizing, answered.

What is the standard pallet size?

In North America, 48 inches by 40 inches — the GMA footprint, 1219 × 1016 mm. It accounts for roughly a third of pallets in circulation, and considerably more of the used market. In Europe the equivalent is the 1200 × 800 mm Euro pallet.

Which number is the length?

Convention puts the stringer dimension first. A 48 × 40 pallet has 48-inch stringers running under a 40-inch-wide deck. This matters structurally: the stringers are the load-bearing members, so racking a pallet the wrong way round can halve its effective capacity. More in load capacity explained.

How tall is a standard pallet?

5½ inches for a GMA stringer pallet, 144 mm (about 5⅔ inches) for a Euro block pallet. Overall loaded height is usually the constraint that matters — most warehouses plan around 48 to 60 inches of product on top.

How many pallets fit on a 53-foot trailer?

Twenty-six 48 × 40 pallets on the floor, or about 330 stacked two high in stacks of 15. Weight rarely limits a load of empty pallets; cube always does. The explorer above computes this for any footprint.

Can I mix pallet sizes in one operation?

You can, and many operations do, but every mixed footprint adds a sorting step, a racking exception and a purchasing line. Our honest advice is to consolidate to one primary size and treat anything else as a deliberate exception with a named reason.

Is a bigger pallet always better value?

No. Bigger pallets cost more, weigh more, and frequently waste trailer cube because they tessellate badly. The right footprint is the smallest one your product genuinely fits on without overhang.

A note on overhang

Product overhanging the pallet edge loses a disproportionate amount of compression strength — commonly cited figures put a one-inch overhang at around a 30% loss in stack strength for corrugated cases. If your cases hang over, the pallet is the wrong size, and no amount of stretch wrap fixes it.

A note on underhang

The opposite problem is just as expensive. A load that sits two inches inside the deck on every side is paying to ship air, and in a rack it concentrates weight toward the middle of the deck where a pallet is weakest.