Sand Calculator

Use this sand calculator to work out how much sand to order for a paver base, a sandbox, a pool base, a fish tank or a plain fill. Enter the size and depth of each area and it gives you cubic yards, tons and bags. Sand is sold by weight, and wet sand weighs a lot more than dry sand. So the tons come as a range, and one figure from your supplier turns the range into a single number.

About the sand calculator

The volume of sand is plain geometry. The part most tools hide is the next step: turning cubic yards into tons. Published weights run from 1.2 tons per cubic yard for dry sand to 1.7 for wet sand. That’s a gap of more than 40% for the same pile. A tool that picks one figure and prints “1.2 tons” is guessing for you.

• Tons as a range. Pick dry sand, damp or wet sand, or “not sure”. You see the low and the high.
• One number when you have one. Type the tons per cubic yard your supplier quotes and the range collapses.
• Bags counted by weight. Bagged sand is labeled in pounds, so the sand calculator counts 40, 50 or 60 lb bags from the weight, not from the volume.
• Several areas in one order. Up to 20 rows, each with its own shape and depth. A patio and a path go in one estimate.
• Five shapes. Rectangle, circle, triangle, ring, or an area you already know.
• Cost and metric. A price per ton or per cubic yard, and metric tonnes beside US tons.

It runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.

How to use the sand calculator

1. Choose your units. Feet with depth in inches, or metres with depth in centimetres.
2. Pick the sand. Dry, damp or wet, or not sure. Choose “Other” if your supplier gave you a weight per cubic yard.
3. Pick the shape and enter the measurements and the depth of sand you want.
4. Add more areas if you have them. Use “How many” for identical areas.
5. Add extras. A waste percentage, a bag weight and a price are all optional.
6. Read the result. The headline is tons. Cubic yards, tonnes, bags and cost sit below it.

The sand calculator formula

There are two steps.

1. Volume: cubic yards = square feet x depth in inches / 324

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, and a foot is 12 inches, so 27 x 12 = 324. For a rectangle, square feet is length times width. For a circle it’s 3.1416 times half the diameter, squared.

2. Weight: tons = cubic yards x tons per cubic yard

The second number is the one that moves. The sand calculator runs the sum twice, once with the lightest published weight and once with the heaviest.

Take the default: 10 ft by 10 ft, 2 inches deep. That’s 200 / 324 = 0.62 cubic yards. In dry sand it weighs 0.74 to 0.93 tons, which is 1,481 to 1,852 lb.

How much a cubic yard of sand weighs

These are the figures behind each choice, in US tons (2,000 lb) per cubic yard.

We read the Gravelshop, Omni and Inch Calculator figures on October 6, 2026, and the Caterpillar table on October 3, 2026.

Water is the reason for the spread. It fills the gaps between grains and adds weight without adding volume. Sand that has sat in the rain at the yard can weigh 40% more per scoop than the same sand in August. Grain size and how tightly the sand is packed shift the number too, but less.

Here’s the default area in each condition:

Paver sand: the bedding layer

Pavers sit on a thin layer of coarse sand over a compacted gravel base. The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute’s construction guidance gives the bedding sand thickness as a nominal 1 inch. It’s a setting bed, not a leveling fill. A thicker layer lets the pavers settle unevenly, so fix dips in the base, not with extra sand.

To use this as a paver sand calculator, enter the patio size and a depth of 1 inch.

Example: a 20 ft by 12 ft patio.

1. Area: 20 x 12 = 240 square feet.
2. Volume: 240 x 1 / 324 = 0.74 cubic yards.
3. With 10% extra: 0.81 cubic yards.
4. Weight in dry sand: 0.98 to 1.22 tons, or 1,956 to 2,444 lb.
5. At $45 a ton: $44 to $55.

That’s about a ton. Ask the yard how the sand has been stored, since a wet pile gives you less volume per ton. The gravel base under the sand is a separate order. Our rock calculator covers crushed stone.

Polymeric sand goes by the bag chart, not by volume

Polymeric sand is swept into the joints between pavers and hardens when wetted. How much you need depends on the joint width, the paver thickness and the paver size, so manufacturers publish coverage per bag. Two examples from product listings:

• Alliance Gator Maxx G2: a 50 lb bag covers 65 to 85 square feet with narrow joints (1/8 to 3/8 inch) and 22 to 42 square feet with wide joints.
• Sakrete Paver Polymeric Sand: a 40 lb bag covers 56 square feet at a 1/4 inch joint.

For the same 240 square foot patio with narrow joints, the Gator figures give 240 / 85 = 2.8 to 240 / 65 = 3.7, so 3 to 4 bags. With wide joints it’s 6 to 11 bags. That spread is why we don’t offer a one-number polymeric sand calculator here. Read the chart on the bag you’re buying. It’s written for that product.

Sandbox and play sand

For a sandbox, measure the inside of the frame and decide how deep you want the sand. Leave a few inches of board above it so the sand stays in.

Example: an 8 ft by 8 ft sandbox, 6 inches of sand. That’s 384 / 324 = 1.19 cubic yards. In dry sand it weighs 1.42 to 1.78 tons, or 2,844 to 3,556 lb. In 50 lb bags, that’s 57 to 72 bags. At that size, bulk delivery saves a lot of lifting.

A smaller 4 ft by 4 ft box at the same depth needs a quarter of that: about 15 to 18 bags.

Sand under an above-ground pool

A layer of sand is often used to cushion the liner of an above-ground pool. Check the pool maker’s instructions for the depth, since they differ and some forbid sand under the frame.

Example: a 15 ft round pool with a 2 inch layer. Pick the circle shape and enter 15 ft across. The volume is 1.09 cubic yards. If you don’t know how wet the sand will be, choose “not sure”: 1.31 to 1.85 tons. Once the pool is filled, our pool salt calculator handles the water side for a salt system.

Aquarium sand

The sand calculator works for a fish tank too. It only needs the footprint in feet. Divide inches by 12.

Example: a tank with a 48 inch by 13 inch footprint and 2 inches of sand. Enter 4 ft by 1.083 ft and a depth of 2 inches. The volume is 0.72 cubic feet, which is 64 to 80 lb of dry sand.

Aquarium sands vary more than builder’s sand. Some are lighter, and specialty substrates aren’t sand at all. If the bag lists a weight per volume, choose “Other” and use that. Treat the result here as a starting point for ordinary silica sand.

How much area a ton of sand covers

Coverage is the formula turned around: square feet = 324 / depth in inches / tons per cubic yard.

Bags or bulk?

Bagged sand is sold by weight. A ton is 50 bags of 40 lb, 40 bags of 50 lb, or 34 bags of 60 lb. Pick a bag weight in the sand calculator and it gives the count at both ends of the range, rounded up.

Bags suit small jobs: a fish tank, a small sandbox, sweeping joints. They’re dry, clean and easy to carry through a gate. Bulk suits anything near a ton or more. Compare for yourself: the price of one bag times the bags in a ton, against the delivered price per ton from a local yard.

Bagged sand is kept dry, so use the dry setting for bags. Bulk sand from an open pile is often damp. If you’re ordering by the ton after rain, the wet setting is closer.

Reading your result

• Tons. The headline, as a range. The low end is the lightest published weight for the sand you picked. The high end is the heaviest.
• Cubic yards. One number, because it’s geometry. If your supplier sells by the yard, this is all you need.
• Metric tonnes. One US ton is 0.907 tonnes.
• Bags. A low and a high count for the bag weight you chose.
• Cost. A range when the price is per ton. One number when it’s per cubic yard.
• Area by area. One line per row, so a typing mistake stands out.

Open “Show the working” to see each step. If your figure and the supplier’s differ, the working shows which weight per yard explains it.

Ordering by the yard or by the ton

Ask how your supplier sells. If they sell by the cubic yard, the weight doesn’t matter for the order and you can ignore the range. If they sell by the ton, ask for their tons per cubic yard. Choose “Other”, type it in, and the sand calculator gives you one number that matches their scale.

Weight still matters for hauling. A cubic yard of sand is 2,400 to 3,400 lb, which is more than many pickup trucks are rated to carry. Check the payload sticker inside the driver’s door before you ask the yard to load you.

Which sand for which job

Names vary by region, so describe the job to your supplier and let them match the product. The type changes the weight less than moisture does.

Common mistakes

• Leaving depth in inches in a feet formula. Two inches is 0.167 ft. The sand calculator takes inches so you don’t convert.
• Treating a cubic yard as a ton. A yard of sand is 1.2 to 1.7 tons.
• Using a dry weight for wet sand. You’d come up short on weight-based orders, or overload a trailer.
• Making the paver bed too deep. One inch is the standard. More causes settling.
• Working out polymeric sand by volume. Use the coverage chart on the bag.
• Using the radius as the diameter. The circle shape wants the full width across.

What the sand calculator can’t tell you

• Your sand’s exact weight. The ranges cover typical builder’s sand. Only your supplier’s figure is exact.
• Compaction. Sand packs down when tamped. Add a waste percentage to allow for it. Gravelshop adds 15% to its fill sand estimates.
• Uneven depth. The depth is treated as uniform. For a dip or a slope, measure in a few places and use the average.
• Specialty sands. Aquarium substrates, polymeric sand and colored craft sand have their own weights and coverage.

More project calculators

For soil where the pile is bigger than the hole, the dirt calculator handles swell and truckloads. For lawns and beds there’s the topsoil calculator. For concrete or mulch by volume alone, use the cubic yard calculator.

Sources

• Caterpillar, “Material Density Tables to Help Estimate Earthwork Volumes”: dry and wet sand, loose weight per cubic yard. Read October 3, 2026.
• Gravelshop fill sand calculator: 2,410 lb per cubic yard and the 15% compression allowance.
• Omni Calculator, sand calculator: default density 1,601.95 kg/m³.
• Inch Calculator, sand calculator: dry sand 1.3 to 1.5 and wet sand 1.5 to 1.7 tons per cubic yard.
• Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute construction guidance: nominal 1 inch bedding sand.
• Alliance Gator Maxx G2 technical data and the Sakrete Paver Polymeric Sand listing: coverage per bag.