Calculate volume of any 3D shape — cube, sphere, cylinder, cone and more.
Volume is the measure of three-dimensional space occupied by an object or enclosed within a container. It is expressed in cubic units — cubic meters (m³), cubic feet (ft³), cubic centimeters (cm³), liters, or gallons. Our volume calculator online computes the volume of all common 3D shapes including cubes, cylinders, spheres, cones, and rectangular prisms.
Aquarium sizing: Calculate water volume to determine filter capacity and stocking levels. Swimming pool volume: Essential for calculating chemical dosages. Concrete calculation: Volume of concrete needed for foundations and slabs. Tank capacity: Water tanks, fuel tanks, and storage containers. Cooking and baking: Converting between measurement units for recipes. Shipping: Volumetric weight calculations for courier charges.
1 Liter = 1,000 milliliters = 1 cubic decimeter. 1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters. 1 US gallon = 3.785 liters. 1 UK gallon = 4.546 liters. 1 cubic foot = 28.317 liters. 1 cubic inch = 16.387 ml. These conversions are essential when working with different measurement systems, especially for import/export, cooking with foreign recipes, and engineering specifications.
Archimedes' Principle: An object submerged in fluid displaces a volume of fluid equal to the object's own volume. This is how ships float despite being made of metal — the ship's hull encloses a large air volume, making its average density less than water. Volume calculation is also fundamental in fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and understanding pressure-volume relationships in gases (Boyle's Law).
Volume formulas differ significantly by shape — a rectangular box multiplies length, width, and height; a cylinder multiplies the circular base area by height; a sphere uses four-thirds pi times radius cubed; and a cone uses one-third of the equivalent cylinder's volume. Using the wrong formula for a given shape, or misidentifying which measurement represents height versus radius versus diameter, is the most common source of volume calculation errors across these different shape types.
Volume calculations are essential for practical tasks like estimating how much material (concrete, soil, mulch, water) is needed to fill a given space, determining shipping container or package capacity, calculating liquid capacity for tanks and containers, and determining appropriate packaging size for products with known dimensions.
Volume can be expressed in numerous different unit systems depending on context — cubic units (cubic feet, cubic meters) for solid materials and large spaces, and liquid volume units (liters, gallons, fluid ounces) for liquids specifically, and converting between these two families of units requires knowing the specific density or standard conversion factor relevant to the substance involved, since a cubic foot of water and a cubic foot of feathers occupy the same volume but represent very different actual liquid or dry-measure equivalents.
Real-world containers are rarely perfect geometric shapes, and estimating volume for irregular objects often involves breaking the shape into several simpler geometric components, calculating each separately, and summing the results — a practical approach similar to the technique used for calculating irregular floor area, applied instead to three-dimensional volume estimation.
Volume is the amount of 3D space occupied by an object, measured in cubic units like cm³, m³, liters, or gallons.
Volume of cylinder = π × r² × h, where r is the radius of the base and h is the height.
Volume of sphere = (4/3) × π × r³, where r is the radius of the sphere.
Volume is the space an object occupies. Capacity is the amount a container can hold. A container's capacity equals its internal volume.
A cube tank with a 3 m side has a volume of 27 cubic meters, which equals 27,000 liters (1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters). Enter the side length above to get this conversion automatically.
