Gravel Calculator

How to use

1. 1Pick units (Feet, inches, tons or Meters, cm, tonnes), then pick the material that matches what your supplier sells. The density used in the weight calculation updates with your choice.
2. 2Tap a depth preset for the job you are pricing (driveway, walkway, paver base, drainage layer, French drain, decorative bed), or type your own depth in inches or centimeters.
3. 3Add one area for each section you need to cover. Pick a shape (rectangle, circle, triangle, ring), enter dimensions, and use Count for repeated identical areas like a row of pads or a set of tree wells.
4. 4Set the compaction / waste allowance percent. 10 percent is a sensible default; raise it for very loose stone or a long driveway, lower it for a tight matched-quantity job.
5. 5Optional: turn on Estimate total cost, pick whether you are priced per ton, per cubic yard, or per cubic meter, then enter your supplier price and currency.
6. 6Read the headline weight to order and the headline volume to order, plus tons, tonnes, cubic yards, cubic meters, cubic feet, truckloads, and bag counts. Use Copy summary to send the order to a contractor, your notes app, or a hardware store list.

About this tool

Gravel Calculator estimates how much gravel, crushed stone, river rock, sand and gravel mix, road base, or paver bedding sand you need to cover one or more areas at a chosen depth, then converts the answer into the units quarries, yards, and home centers actually sell: US short tons, metric tonnes, cubic yards, cubic meters, cubic feet, and the equivalent number of 0.5 cu ft and 1 cu ft retail bags. Pick from seven common materials including pea gravel at 1.68 t/m^3, 3/4 inch crushed stone at 1.68 t/m^3, quarry process with fines at 1.84 t/m^3, river rock at 1.6 t/m^3, sand and gravel mix at 1.8 t/m^3, dense graded road base at 1.85 t/m^3, and washed paver sand at 1.68 t/m^3, so the weight calculation uses a credible bulk density for your real-world material instead of a generic average. Six depth presets cover the jobs most people are actually pricing: driveway top layer at 4 in, walkway or path at 2 in, paver and patio base at 4 in, drainage layer at 3 in, French drain at 6 in, and decorative bed at 2 in. Areas can be rectangles for driveways and paths, circles for fire pits and round patios, triangles for corner fills, or rings (an outer diameter minus an inner diameter) for tree wells, planter borders, and the space around a manhole or post, and any area can be repeated with a count multiplier so four identical tree wells or a row of ten gravel pads only need to be entered once. Each area can override the global depth in inches or centimeters when a single section of the job needs more or less material. A compaction and waste allowance percent rounds the order up to cover the 10 to 20 percent that gravel typically loses to compaction, plus over-spread and trim, with a sensible 10 percent default that you can change or set to zero for exact-match math. An optional cost panel adds an estimate from one of three pricing modes: per ton or tonne (the most common quarry quote), per cubic yard (US bulk yards), or per cubic meter (metric bulk delivery), with twelve currencies formatted by your browser's Intl.NumberFormat. Results show the headline weight to order in tons or tonnes, the headline volume in cubic yards or cubic meters, total covered area in both unit systems, raw and adjusted volumes side by side, an approximate truckload count based on a typical 10-ton tandem delivery, and bag counts for the common 0.5 and 1 cubic foot retail bag sizes. When you have more than one area the panel adds a per-area breakdown table with shape, count, area, effective depth, and volume so you can verify each part of the job. A Copy summary button packages every number into a clean text block you can send to a contractor, drop into your shopping list, or paste into a quote request. Math runs locally in your browser; bed dimensions, prices, and totals you enter are never uploaded, stored, or sent to any server. Bulk densities are typical figures for delivered material; real weight varies with moisture, gradation, and source, so round the final order up and confirm with your supplier before delivery.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.