Cubic Yard Calculator & Area Designer
Draw your project to scale — squares, circles, curves, any shape — name each area, set its material and depth, and get the cubic yards, bags or tons, and cost for concrete, mulch, gravel, topsoil, sand, or anything you buy by the yard. Move, resize, combine, price per material, and save your designs.
How to Use
- Set the scale — how many feet each grid square represents (default 5 ft).
- Pick a tool (Rectangle, Circle, Polygon, or Freehand) and draw an area. Or use “Add exact size” to type a width and length.
- Switch to the Select tool to drag a shape to move it, drag its handles to resize, name it, or type exact dimensions.
- Set each area’s material and depth, and a price per cubic yard for each material under Prices.
- If shapes overlap, click “Combine overlapping” so the shared area is only counted once.
- Read the totals (square footage, cubic yards, bags/tons, and cost per material), and Save the design to your browser to reload later.
Add exact size
Prices ($/yd³)
Designs
Areas
Totals
- Total cubic yards
- 0 yd³
- Total area
- 0 ft²
Worked Example
A back garden: a 20 × 12 ft concrete patio 4 in thick, a 20 × 4 ft mulch bed and a 6 ft tree ring mulched 3 in deep, and a 3 × 24 ft gravel path 2 in deep (the first example design above).
Patio: 240 ft² × 4/12 ft = 80 ft³ = 2.96 yd³ of concrete. Bed: 80 ft² × 0.25 ft = 20 ft³ = 0.74 yd³, and tree ring: π × 3² = 28.3 ft² × 0.25 = 7.07 ft³ = 0.26 yd³, so 1.00 yd³ of mulch. Path: 72 ft² × 2/12 = 12 ft³ = 0.44 yd³ of gravel. In all 4.41 yd³, and with 10% for waste 4.85 yd³: 3.26 of concrete, 1.10 of mulch and 0.49 of gravel.
The common mistake: adding overlapping areas twice. If the tree ring sits inside a bed, drawing both counts the overlap twice. Select the shapes and use Combine overlapping, and the shared area is measured once.
Show Work
Formulas
Measuring Odd Shapes
Real projects are rarely one rectangle. The traditional way to measure a curved bed or an irregular lot is to split it into rectangles, triangles and circles and add them up. Drawing the outline and letting the shoelace formula measure it does the same thing exactly: any closed outline of straight segments, however many, has an area that can be found from its corner coordinates alone, a result surveyors have used since the 18th and 19th centuries.
The grid sets the scale. With 5 ft per square, a shape 4 squares by 2 is 20 × 10 ft. Change the scale to fit your project, from a 1 ft grid for a planter to 10 ft for a whole yard; every area is re-measured from it.
About This Calculator
This tool lets you draw a project to scale with rectangles, circles, polygons and freehand outlines, give each area its own material and depth, combine overlapping shapes, and total the cubic yards, bags, tons and cost per material, with a waste allowance. Designs can be saved in your browser or exported as a file.
Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. For single shapes, the dedicated calculators below add bag sizes, compaction and metric units.
Related calculators: Concrete Calculator, Mulch Calculator, and Gravel Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate cubic yards?
Cubic yards = area in square feet × depth in feet ÷ 27 (since one cubic yard is 27 cubic feet). This tool measures the area of every shape you draw from the scale you set, multiplies by each area's depth, and totals it up — so you don't have to do the geometry by hand for circles and curves.
Can I move and resize shapes after drawing them?
Yes — switch to the Select tool, then drag a shape to reposition it or drag the square handles on a rectangle or circle to resize it. You can also type exact dimensions for the selected shape, and give each area a name like “driveway” or “front bed.”
Can each material have its own price?
Yes. Enter a price per cubic yard for concrete, mulch, gravel, topsoil, sand, or your custom material under Prices, and the totals show the cost for each material plus a grand total — so a mixed plan prices correctly.
What does Combine do, and will I lose work if I close the page?
Combine merges overlapping shapes and measures the true union area so the overlap isn't double-counted. To keep a plan, click Save — it stores the design in your browser (nothing is uploaded), and you can reload or export it later.
How much waste should I add?
10% is a common allowance for spillage, uneven subgrade, over-excavation, and compaction — bump it to 15% for irregular shapes, lots of edges, or sloped ground. The tool applies your waste percentage to the cubic-yard totals so the order quantity already includes it.
How do I use the Cubic Yard Calculator & Area Designer?
Just type your numbers. The answer shows up right away — there is no button to press. Change anything and it updates by itself.
Do I need to install or sign up for anything?
Not at all — it runs in the browser with nothing to install and no account. After it loads once, it even works without an internet connection.
Is my information private?
Yes. Everything happens in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved anywhere.
Common Use Cases
Landscaping a yard
Lay out named mulch beds, gravel paths, and sod areas with curves and circles, and get each material's yardage and cost in one plan.
Pouring concrete
Draw a patio, driveway, or oddly-shaped slab and read the cubic yards and bag count at your chosen thickness.
Ordering bulk material
Turn a whole project into a single order list — yards, tons, bags, and price per material — so you buy once.
Quoting a job
Price a design with per-material rates and a waste allowance, then save it to revisit or revise later.
Planning raised beds & fill
Size topsoil or sand fill for garden beds and sandboxes by drawing them to scale or typing exact dimensions.
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