How many boxes fit on a pallet measuring 1.00 x 1.20 m

A 60 x 40 cm box on a 1.00 x 1.20 m pallet. Dividing the areas says 5. The obvious layout, with all the boxes facing the same way, gives 4. If that box arrives bulged out to 61 x 41 cm, 3 fit. Knowing how many boxes fit on a pallet takes a drawing, and here are the results of drawing it for 12 sizes.

How many boxes fit on a pallet of 1.00 x 1.20 m?

The table is a Target Robotics calculation with these assumptions: outside dimensions of the filled box, zero overhang, identical boxes that can rotate 90 degrees in plan view, and no clearance between them. Each maximum came from an exhaustive search of layouts, and we checked separately that no box overlapped another or hung off the pallet. The literature calls this the pallet loading problem (Birgin, Lobato and Morabito, 2010). If palletizing, stacking and pelletizing get mixed up in your plant, here is the difference.

“Mixed 6+4” means six boxes one way and four turned. With 40 x 30 cm it goes like this: four turned boxes fill the 1.20 m side at 30 cm each and take up 40 cm of depth; the 60 cm left over holds two rows of three.

The sizes are examples. The 60 x 40, 40 x 30 and 30 x 20 cm boxes come from the ISO 3394 module described by the FAO, the 49.5 x 33 cm box is the one the Rochester Institute of Technology tested in 2021, and the rest are round numbers. We found no public catalog of the most used box sizes in Mexico, and for that reason we avoid calling these “the most common.”

Why does dividing areas give the wrong number?

Division gives a ceiling. A 30 x 30 cm box fits 13.3 times into the area, but the 1.00 m side takes 3 boxes and the 1.20 m side takes 4: that makes 12, and the exhaustive search confirms that 13 is impossible. The same thing happens with 40 x 40 cm: division promises 7 and 6 fit.

Keeping all the boxes facing the same way falls short too. In 5 of the 12 sizes, turning some of them gives more. A mixed layer puts more product on the same pallet when the box size divides both sides badly. The 42 x 32 cm box goes from 6 to 8 per layer, a third more on the same pallet.

Check the last column as well. An 80% area use, as with 40 x 40 cm, means a fifth of the pallet travels empty.

A four-step method for your box

1. Measure the box full and closed, from the outside. The ISO 3394 modular series is measured that way, bulge included, and only allows tolerance on the low side, up to 10 mm (FAO, checked November 3, 2026).
2. Confirm the pallet and decide whether you accept overhang. Ask whoever is going to receive it for the size.
3. Find the layer pattern. The cases per pallet calculator tries column stack, interlocked and pinwheel, and draws the alternate layer.
4. Work out the layers. Subtract the pallet height from the maximum height, divide by the box height, round down and multiply by the boxes in each layer.

Boxes per pallet table by box height

Maximum height set for this table: 1.80 m total, with a 15 cm pallet, which leaves 1.65 m of product. That is our assumption and it matches the calculator’s starting value. Change it to what your customer, your rack or your trailer requires. The totals are a Target Robotics calculation with those assumptions.

Box height works in jumps. At 33 cm, 5 layers fit; at 34 cm, 4. That one centimeter takes a whole layer off the pallet, 20% of the load. Before approving a box design, it pays to check its height against the usable height of the pallet.

What size is the standard pallet in Mexico?

In our search on November 3, 2026, we did not locate a NOM or an NMX, Mexico’s official and voluntary standards, that sets a single size, so treat “standard” as a sales word until your customer puts it in writing. Two sizes carry the most weight. The 1,200 x 1,000 mm pallet appears as ISO 6780 in the list from GS1, the global supply chain standards body (2026), and the FAO counts it among the most common. GS1 describes the 1,219 x 1,016 mm pallet, 48 x 40 inches, as used mainly in the Americas. Neither of those two sources is Mexican. The pallet and stacking guide brings together sizes and weights.

Between one and the other there are 19 and 16 mm. With the 12 sizes above it makes no difference: the same number per layer on both. With boxes sized in inches it changes. The 16 x 12 inch box (40.6 x 30.5 cm) gives 8 per layer on the 1.00 x 1.20 m pallet and 10 on the 48 x 40; the 18 x 12 inch box (45.7 x 30.5 cm) gives 7 and 8.

What happens if the box measures one centimeter more?

We added 1 cm to the length and 1 cm to the width, about 5 mm of bulge per wall. Target Robotics calculation, same pallet, zero overhang.

A box that fills the pallet completely has no margin left when the first bulge shows up. The 42 x 32 cm box uses 90% of the area and absorbs the extra centimeter without losing a box.

The calculation is strict. On the floor, plants tolerate a few millimeters of overhang, and that tolerance costs strength: Virginia Tech measured 0 to 40% compression loss from overhang, against the 20 to 40% estimated by the Fibre Box Handbook (Molina and Horvath, 2024). How to palletize boxes covers what each pattern loses.

What limits height before geometry does

NOM-006-STPS-2023 (DOF, Mexico’s official gazette, March 7, 2024) is the standard from Mexico’s labor ministry, the STPS, on storing and handling materials. It applies wherever material is stored and handled with machinery, and it requires setting the maximum stack height based on the mechanical strength, shape and dimensions of the materials and packaging, and on how they are placed (section 9.4(b)). The standard gives no figure.

The load math is short. A 40 x 30 x 26 cm box at 12 kg gives 10 per layer, 6 layers, 60 boxes and 720 kg of product, and each box on the bottom carries 5 x 12 = 60 kg for as long as the pallet stays built (Target Robotics calculation with those assumptions). For stability, Spain’s INSST, the national occupational safety institute, recommends not going past 3:1 between height and base on unsupported stacks (NTP 1112, 2018); 1.80 m on the 1.00 m side gives 1.8:1.

If that pattern is going to run on 3 shifts, the case palletizer robot page explains what box data is needed. To lock it in, ask in writing for the pallet size your customer receives, the maximum height of their warehouse and the BCT of your box, which is its compression strength in a lab test.