Cubic Feet to Cubic Yards Converter

Enter any volume in cubic feet and instantly get the exact cubic yards — plus cubic meters, liters, and US gallons. The conversion contractors actually use when ordering ready-mix concrete.

Free to use No sign-up required Exact mathematical conversion Imperial & metric outputs

✓ Cubic yards (yd³) output ✓ Cubic meters & liters included ✓ Results update as you type ✓ Last verified May 2026

Reviewed by the AllConcreteCalculator.com editorial team — conversion factor verified against NIST standards, May 2026.

Enter Volume in Cubic Feet

Volume in Cubic Feet (ft³)

Enter any volume — ft³, yd³, m³, or liters. The converter works in any direction. Please enter a valid volume greater than 0.

Quick-select common volumes

Results appear instantly. No sign-up required.

Conversion Result

Converted Volume

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Cubic Yards (yd³)

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Cubic Meters (m³)

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Liters (L)

— Cubic Feet (ft³)

— US Gallons

— 80 lb Bags (equiv.)

Cubic Yards = Cubic Feet ÷ 27
Cubic Meters = Cubic Feet × 0.0283168
Liters = Cubic Feet × 28.3168
US Gallons = Cubic Feet × 7.48052

1 cubic yard = exactly 27 cubic feet (3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft)
This is an exact conversion — no rounding error at source.

How to Use This Cubic Feet to Cubic Yards Converter

Calculate or look up your volume in cubic feet. If you're working from a slab or footing calculation, you'll typically have a ft³ result. If you've used a dimension calculator, note the cubic feet output before coming here. You can also type in cubic yards, cubic meters, or liters directly — use the unit dropdown next to the input field.
Type the volume into the input field and hit Convert. The converter updates automatically 300ms after you stop typing — you don't even need to click the button. Use the quick-select buttons at the bottom of the input section to jump to common values like a single 80 lb bag (0.60 ft³) or 1 cubic yard (27 ft³).
Read the cubic yards result for your concrete order. Ready-mix concrete suppliers quote and deliver by the cubic yard. This is the number you give your dispatcher or enter on an order form. The cubic meters result is useful for metric drawings or when working with European suppliers. The liters result is helpful for smaller poured-in-place elements or grout work.
Use the 80 lb bag equivalent as a gut check. The summary row shows how many 80 lb bags of premix would fill the same volume. If that number looks unrealistically high, go back and check your ft³ figure — the most common error is leaving a dimension in feet when it should be in inches, which inflates the volume by a factor of 12.

⚠ Pro Tip: Ready-mix plants price and track every pour in cubic yards. Your slab calculator gives cubic feet. Confusing the two is the single most common ordering mistake in residential concrete work — contractors have underpoured foundations and overpaid for surplus loads because of it. Bookmark this converter and use it every time you translate a ft³ estimate into a truck order.

The Cubic Feet to Cubic Yards Formula

The conversion is geometrically exact: one cubic yard is a cube with 3-foot sides (3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft = 27 ft³). There is no rounding or approximation in this definition — it is an exact relationship in the US customary system.

Step	Formula	Example (54 ft³)
1. Start with cubic feet	Given	54 ft³
2. Convert to cubic yards	ft³ ÷ 27	54 ÷ 27 = 2.000 yd³
3. Convert to cubic meters	ft³ × 0.0283168	54 × 0.0283168 = 1.529 m³
4. Convert to liters	ft³ × 28.3168	54 × 28.3168 = 1,529.1 L
5. Convert to US gallons	ft³ × 7.48052	54 × 7.48052 = 403.9 gal

Quick Conversion Reference Table — Common ft³ Values

Pre-calculated conversions for the most common concrete and construction volumes.
Cubic Feet (ft³)	Cubic Yards (yd³)	Cubic Meters (m³)	Liters (L)	80 lb Bags
0.45	0.017	0.013	12.7	1
0.60	0.022	0.017	17.0	1
1	0.037	0.028	28.3	2
5	0.185	0.142	141.6	9
10	0.370	0.283	283.2	17
27	1.000	0.765	764.6	45
54	2.000	1.529	1,529.1	90
100	3.704	2.832	2,831.7	167
135	5.000	3.823	3,822.8	225
270	10.000	7.646	7,645.5	450
405	15.000	11.468	11,468.3	675
540	20.000	15.291	15,291.0	900

80 lb bag counts rounded up to the nearest whole bag (0.60 ft³ yield per bag). Always add a waste factor when ordering.

Where Does the Number 27 Come From?

Every concrete professional knows the magic number: divide cubic feet by 27 to get cubic yards. But many people can't explain why — and not understanding it leads to unit errors on the jobsite.

One yard equals 3 feet. A cubic yard is a cube with 3-foot sides. Volume of that cube = 3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft = 27 cubic feet. It's that simple — and because it's exact, the conversion never needs a correction factor or rounding.

Common scenarios where the ft³ ÷ 27 conversion is used — and the right way to apply it.
Scenario	What You Have	What You Need	Operation
Ordering ready-mix concrete	ft³ from slab calculator	yd³ for the dispatcher	÷ 27
Buying bagged concrete	yd³ from an estimate	ft³ to count bags	× 27
Checking a supplier quote	yd³ price × ft³ volume	Correct cost	Convert ft³ → yd³ first
Reading European drawings	m³ on the plan	yd³ for US supplier	m³ × 1.30795
Grout or fill volume	ft³ from hole dimensions	Liters for product label	ft³ × 28.3168
Comparing truck sizes	Drum capacity in ft³	yd³ usable load	÷ 27 (typically 7–10 yd³)
Soil or gravel delivery	ft³ from excavation volume	yd³ for landscaping quote	÷ 27

If you're confused by a volume number that seems way too big or small, the culprit is almost always a unit mismatch. A 10 ft × 10 ft × 4-inch slab is 33.3 ft³ — not 33.3 yd³ (which would be enough concrete for a small swimming pool). Run the number through this converter as a sanity check before placing an order.

Common Mistakes with Cubic Feet and Cubic Yards

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Giving the supplier cubic feet when they want cubic yards. Ready-mix dispatchers work exclusively in cubic yards. If you call and say "I need 54 cubic feet of concrete," a sharp dispatcher will catch it — but not always. The result is either a massive over-delivery or a pour that runs short. Always convert to yd³ before you call.
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Calculating volume in mixed units without converting first. Multiplying a 10-foot length × 12-foot width × 4-inch thickness without converting the 4 inches to feet first is one of the most common errors. The thickness must be divided by 12 before multiplying — otherwise you get an answer 12 times too large. This converter accepts the correct ft³ result, so get your dimensions right upstream.
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Dividing by 3 instead of 27. Because one yard equals 3 feet, it seems intuitive to divide cubic feet by 3. But volume is three-dimensional — you need to divide by 3³ = 27. Dividing by 3 gives you a number nine times too large. This is the most common mental arithmetic error in concrete estimation.
🔢
Using cubic yards when a product label specifies cubic feet. Bagged concrete, sand, gravel, mulch, and many pre-packaged materials list coverage in cubic feet — not cubic yards. If you have your volume in cubic yards and try to buy bags without converting back to ft³, you'll buy about 1/27th of what you need. Multiply your yd³ figure by 27 to get back to ft³ before counting bags.
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Forgetting that waste factor applies before converting, not after. Add your waste percentage to the raw ft³ volume first, then convert to cubic yards. If you convert first and then try to mentally add 10%, you're doing the rounding in the wrong order and may end up slightly short. The correct sequence: raw ft³ → add waste → divide by 27 → round up to the nearest 0.25 yd³ for your order.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are exactly 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard. This is because one yard equals three feet, and a cubic yard is a cube with three-foot sides: 3 × 3 × 3 = 27. This is an exact definition in the US customary system — no rounding involved. To convert cubic feet to cubic yards, divide by 27. To convert cubic yards back to cubic feet, multiply by 27.
Ready-mix concrete trucks carry roughly 7 to 10 cubic yards per load. Using cubic yards keeps order quantities as manageable two-digit numbers rather than three-digit cubic foot figures. It's also a convention standardized across the US concrete industry — ready-mix plants, suppliers, and estimating software all use cubic yards so there's a common language from the estimator's office to the dispatch desk to the driver's manifest. Bagged concrete products, however, often list yield in cubic feet because the smaller unit is more intuitive for small DIY jobs.
Divide the cubic feet number by 27. For round numbers: 27 ft³ = 1 yd³, 54 ft³ = 2 yd³, 81 ft³ = 3 yd³. For odd numbers, use a shortcut: divide by 30 to get a quick estimate that's about 10% on the high side — useful as a gut check on the jobsite. For exact figures, use this converter. Never divide by 3 — that gives cubic yards only if you're converting linear yards, not volumetric ones.
1 cubic foot equals 0.037037 cubic yards (1 ÷ 27 = 0.037037, repeating). In practical terms, one cubic foot is about 1/27th of a cubic yard — a small amount. One 80 lb bag of premixed concrete yields 0.60 ft³, so you'd need 45 bags to fill one cubic yard. For any pour larger than a fence post or small footing, ready-mix delivery is almost always more cost-effective than bagging.
Half a cubic yard equals 13.5 cubic feet (27 ÷ 2 = 13.5). That's the volume of a cube roughly 2.38 feet on each side. In concrete terms, a half-yard will cover about 40 square feet at 4 inches thick — roughly a small patio section or a set of two or three steps. Many ready-mix plants have a minimum order of 1 yard and charge a short-load fee for orders below their minimum, so always check before ordering less than a full yard.
Multiply cubic meters by 1.30795 to get cubic yards. For example, 2 m³ × 1.30795 = 2.616 yd³. To go the other direction, multiply cubic yards by 0.764555 to get cubic meters. This converter accepts cubic meters as an input unit — just switch the dropdown from ft³ to m³ and type your value. This is useful when working with Canadian or European engineering drawings that specify volumes in metric.
Yes. The conversion factor (÷ 27) is exact — not an approximation — so the mathematical result is perfectly accurate. The practical accuracy of your concrete order, however, depends on how accurately you measured your dimensions and whether you added a sufficient waste factor. Ready-mix is typically sold and billed to the nearest quarter-yard (0.25 yd³), so your supplier will round your order up to the nearest 0.25 yd³ automatically. Always add at least 10% overage to your calculated volume before converting, so your order covers subgrade variations, spills, and form inconsistencies.
The conversion is the same for any material — 27 cubic feet equals 1 cubic yard. Mulch and soil are commonly sold by the cubic yard in bulk (delivered by truck), but retail bags are labeled in cubic feet. A typical 2-cubic-foot bag of mulch takes about 13 to 14 bags to make one cubic yard. For large landscaping jobs, bulk delivery by the yard is almost always cheaper per unit volume than bagged material. Use this same converter regardless of whether you're dealing with concrete, mulch, topsoil, gravel, or sand.
It takes 45 bags of 80 lb premixed concrete to make one cubic yard. Each 80 lb bag yields approximately 0.60 cubic feet when mixed to the manufacturer's water ratio. Since one cubic yard = 27 cubic feet, you divide 27 by 0.60 and get exactly 45 bags. For 60 lb bags (0.45 ft³ yield), you need 60 bags per cubic yard. For 40 lb bags (0.30 ft³ yield), you need 90 bags. At current hardware store prices, bagged concrete costs 3 to 5 times more per cubic yard than ready-mix, so bags are only cost-effective for jobs under about half a cubic yard.
Yes. Switch the input unit dropdown from ft³ to yd³ and type your cubic yards value. The converter will show the equivalent cubic feet in the summary row and all other output units will update accordingly. For example, entering 3 yd³ with the yd³ unit selected will output 81 ft³, 2.294 m³, 2,294.5 liters, and 605.2 US gallons. The converter accepts cubic feet, cubic yards, cubic meters, or liters as input — all four unit options are in the dropdown.