Soil Bag Calculator

This soil bag calculator converts any volume of soil into the number of bags to buy, in every common US bag size, and tells you whether bags or bulk delivery will cost less. Enter the amount of soil in cubic yards or cubic feet, choose the bag size you plan to buy, and add your bag price, bulk price and delivery fee. The calculator shows the bag count for each size, the total cost both ways, the effective price per cubic yard of bagged soil, and the point at which bulk becomes the cheaper option.

If you do not yet know how much soil you need, start with the soil calculator or the raised bed soil calculator, then bring the volume here.

How to use the soil bag calculator

1. Enter the amount of soil and choose cubic yards or cubic feet.
2. Choose the bag size you plan to buy. Check the bag itself; sizes vary by brand.
3. Enter the price per bag for that size.
4. Enter a bulk price per cubic yard and a delivery fee from a local landscape supplier, if you want to compare.
5. Read the results. The headline is the number of bags. The table compares bagged and bulk costs and shows the break-even point.

Bags per cubic yard

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. That makes converting between yards and bags straightforward:

Bags = volume (cu ft) ÷ bag size (cu ft), rounded up
Cubic feet = cubic yards × 27

Reading soil bag labels

Bag labels are not always easy to compare. A few things to watch for:

• Cubic feet versus quarts. Potting mixes are often sold by dry quarts or liters rather than cubic feet. One cubic foot is about 25.7 dry quarts, or about 28.3 liters. An 8-quart bag of potting mix is only about a third of a cubic foot.
• Weight versus volume. Some topsoil and compost is labeled by weight, such as 40 pounds. Weight varies with moisture, so always check for the cubic feet printed on the bag and count by volume.
• Compressed products. Peat moss and coco coir are often sold compressed in bales or bricks that expand to a larger volume. Use the expanded volume printed on the label.
• Similar-looking bags. A 1.5 cubic foot bag and a 2 cubic foot bag can look almost identical on a pallet. Read the label before you load the cart.

Bags or bulk: how to decide

The fair way to compare is price per cubic yard. To find the bagged price per yard, divide the bag price by the bag size and multiply by 27. A 1.5 cubic foot bag at $8 works out to about $144 per cubic yard. Compare that with the bulk price per yard, and remember that bulk usually comes with a delivery fee.

With the default inputs in the calculator, bagged soil at $8 per 1.5 cubic foot bag costs $144 per yard, and bulk soil costs $50 per yard plus $75 delivery. For one cubic yard, bulk is about $19 cheaper overall. The break-even point is about 0.8 cubic yards: below that, bags win; above it, bulk wins, and the gap grows quickly with every additional yard.

When bags make sense

• Small jobs under roughly half a cubic yard, such as a single small raised bed or a few containers.
• No space for a pile, or no easy way to move bulk soil from the driveway to the garden.
• Specialty mixes such as potting mix or seed-starting mix, which are rarely sold in bulk.
• Staggered projects where you only need a little at a time.

When bulk makes sense

• Larger jobs of a cubic yard or more, such as filling several raised beds or topdressing a lawn.
• Cost per yard matters. Bulk is often a fraction of the price of bagged soil per yard.
• Less waste. No plastic bags to dispose of.
• Consistency. One load of the same material, rather than bags that may vary.

Types of bagged soil

The product matters as much as the amount. Common bagged soils include:

• Topsoil: the cheapest bagged soil, usually screened native soil. Good for filling holes, leveling and building up lawns. Often too dense on its own for raised beds or containers.
• Garden soil: topsoil blended with organic matter. A good choice for improving in-ground beds.
• Raised bed mix: a lighter blend designed to drain well in raised beds, usually soil, compost and an aerating ingredient.
• Potting mix: a soilless blend of peat or coir, bark and perlite for containers. Too light and expensive to fill large beds on its own.
• Compost and composted manure: soil amendments rather than soil. Mix them into beds or spread them on top. The compost calculator works out how much you need.

Getting bags home

Bagged soil is heavy. A 0.75 cubic foot bag of topsoil commonly weighs around 40 pounds, and larger bags of garden soil or raised bed mix can weigh 40 to 60 pounds or more, depending on moisture. Twenty bags can easily weigh half a ton or more, which is a lot for a small car’s suspension.

• Check your vehicle’s payload rating before loading a large order.
• Line the trunk or truck bed with a tarp to catch spills.
• Ask whether the store offers delivery for large bag orders. It is sometimes cheaper than you expect.
• Use a hand truck or wheelbarrow to move bags from the car to the garden.

Ordering bulk soil

If the comparison favors bulk, a few tips make delivery go smoothly:

1. Ask what the soil is. Screened topsoil, a garden blend or a raised bed mix? Where does it come from, and is it tested?
2. Ask about minimum orders and delivery fees. Some suppliers charge the same delivery fee for one yard as for several, which makes ordering a little extra worthwhile.
3. Choose the drop spot carefully. A driveway is easiest for the truck. A lawn can be rutted by a heavy truck, especially when wet.
4. Put down a tarp where the pile will go, to make cleanup easier.
5. Cover the pile if rain is forecast and you cannot move it all at once.
6. Plan the moving. A wheelbarrow holds about 4 to 6 cubic feet, so each yard is roughly five to seven loads.

Worked examples

One 4 by 8 raised bed

An 11-inch-deep 4-by-8-foot bed needs about 34 cubic feet including settling, roughly 1.25 cubic yards. That is 23 bags of 1.5 cubic feet or 17 bags of 2 cubic feet. At typical prices, bulk delivery is usually cheaper at this size, especially if you are filling more than one bed.

A few containers

Five large containers holding about 2 cubic feet each need 10 cubic feet of potting mix, about 7 bags of 1.5 cubic feet. Bags are the clear choice here, because potting mix is rarely sold in bulk and the volume is small.

Lawn topdressing

Topdressing 1,000 square feet at half an inch needs about 42 cubic feet, roughly 1.5 cubic yards. That is 28 bags of 1.5 cubic feet. Bulk is almost always cheaper and easier here.

Reducing waste

Plastic soil bags add up quickly on a large project. If you do use bags, buy only what you need, keep leftover bags sealed and stored flat in a dry place so the soil does not dry out or grow weeds, and check whether local stores or recycling programs accept the empty bags. For large projects, bulk delivery avoids the plastic entirely.

Bags needed for common projects

These quick figures cover the projects people ask about most, including an allowance for settling where soil fills a bed.

For other sizes, the soil calculator works out the volume, and this calculator turns it into bags.

Mixing your own blend from bags

Many gardeners fill raised beds by mixing several bagged products rather than buying a single premixed product. A common blend is about 60 percent topsoil or garden soil, 30 percent compost and 10 percent perlite or another aerating material. To buy it in bags, work out the total volume, multiply by each percentage to get the cubic feet of each ingredient, then divide by the bag size of each product. The raised bed soil calculator does the split for you.

Mix the ingredients on a tarp or directly in the bed, in layers, turning them together with a shovel or garden fork. Water each layer as you go to help it settle. Mixing your own blend often costs less than premium bagged raised bed mixes, and you control exactly what goes in.

Common mistakes when buying bagged soil

• Buying by eye. A pallet of bags looks like a lot, but 20 bags of 1.5 cubic feet is only about 1.1 cubic yards, enough for one 4-by-8 raised bed.
• Mixing up sizes. Picking up some 1.5 and some 2 cubic foot bags without noticing throws the count off.
• Ignoring settling. New beds sink as soil settles. Add 10 to 20 percent to the volume before converting to bags.
• Using potting mix for beds. It is light, drains fast and costs much more per cubic foot than garden soil or raised bed mix.
• Forgetting the delivery fee when comparing with bulk, or forgetting that bulk delivery is sometimes cheaper than several car trips.

Frequently asked questions