Free tool · for homeowners, landscapers and contractors
Gravel Calculator: Cubic Yards and Tons for Driveways, Paths and Pads
Add every area, choose a depth and the material, and get cubic yards, tons, bags and cost for gravel, crushed stone or road base, with extra for compaction.
Gravel Calculator
- Area 1500 sq ft
Weights from a US stone supplier: clean crushed stone about 2,700–2,800 lb per cubic yard (1.35–1.4 tons), crusher run or road base up to 3,000 lb (1.5 tons). Wet or fine material weighs more; ask your supplier for the product’s weight per yard.
How Much Gravel Do I Need?
Multiply the length and width in feet by the depth in inches and divide by 324 to get cubic yards, then multiply by about 1.4 for tons of crushed stone. A 50 by 10-foot driveway 4 inches deep needs about 6.2 cubic yards, or roughly 8.6 tons, before extra for compaction.
Checked against the sources below · How we build and test our calculators
Gravel Needed for Common Projects
Crushed stone at 1.4 tons per cubic yard, before extra for compaction.
| Project | Size | Depth | Cubic yards | Tons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden path | 30 × 3 ft | 2 in | 0.56 | 0.78 |
| Shed pad | 10 × 12 ft | 4 in | 1.48 | 2.07 |
| Patio base | 12 × 16 ft | 4 in | 2.37 | 3.32 |
| Single driveway | 50 × 10 ft | 4 in | 6.17 | 8.64 |
| Double driveway | 50 × 20 ft | 4 in | 12.35 | 17.28 |
How to Calculate Gravel in Tons
- Area: length × width in feet.
- Volume: area × depth in inches ÷ 324 = cubic yards.
- Weight: cubic yards × tons per yard (about 1.4 for crushed stone).
- Extra: add about 10% for compaction.
Yards to Tons at a Glance
| 1 cu yd | 1.4 tons stone | 1.5 tons road base |
|---|---|---|
| 2 cu yd | 2.8 tons stone | 3 tons road base |
| 5 cu yd | 7 tons stone | 7.5 tons road base |
| 10 cu yd | 14 tons stone | 15 tons road base |
| 15 cu yd | 21 tons stone | 22.5 tons road base |
| 20 cu yd | 28 tons stone | 30 tons road base |
Add This Calculator to Your Website, Free
Quarries, landscape yards and paving contractors: let customers size their order on your site, in your colors, with a button to order delivery.
Paste it into any page of your website as an “HTML” or “embed” block. It’s free, needs no account and collects no visitor data.
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Questions
How much gravel do I need?
Multiply length × width in feet × depth in inches, divide by 324 for cubic yards, then multiply by about 1.4 to get tons of crushed stone. A 50 × 10-foot driveway 4 inches deep needs about 6.2 cubic yards, or roughly 8.6 tons.
How many tons are in a cubic yard of gravel?
About 1.35 to 1.4 tons for clean crushed stone (2,700 to 2,800 pounds) and up to 1.5 tons for crusher run or road base, which has fines that fill the gaps. Wet material weighs more.
How many square feet does a ton of gravel cover?
At 1.4 tons per cubic yard, one ton is about 0.71 cubic yards, which covers roughly 58 sq ft at 4 inches deep or 77 sq ft at 3 inches.
Should I order gravel by the ton or by the yard?
Quarries usually sell by the ton and landscape yards often by the yard. Use both numbers from the calculator and ask the supplier for the weight per yard of the exact product.
How much extra gravel should I order?
Add about 10% because gravel compacts when you roll or tamp it, and the ground is rarely perfectly level.
How many bags of gravel make a yard?
Fifty-four bags of 0.5 cubic feet make one cubic yard (27 cubic feet). For more than about one yard, bulk delivery is usually cheaper.