🪨How much gravel do you need in tons?

✓ Tested & verified Updated: Aug 6, 2026 How we calculate this

Gravel calculator

Length ft

Width ft

Depth

Material

Bag size

4.4 cubic yards≈ 6 tons

= 120 cu ft · about 240 bags (0.5 cu ft)

Weight, dry: 12,000 lb
Loads in a half-ton pickup: 7
One cubic yard covers: 81 sq ft at this depth

Switch the material and the tonnage changes — river rock is 300 lb a yard heavier than pea gravel.

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How much gravel do you need in tons?

Work out the volume first, then multiply by the material’s weight per cubic yard: a 30 × 12 ft driveway apron at the 4-inch minimum is 120 cubic feet — 4.4 cubic yards, or 6 tons of #57 crushed stone. Most landscape stone runs 1.25 to 1.45 tons per cubic yard, so a yard and a ton are never the same thing.

Depth is set by the job, not by taste. Two to three inches for decorative beds and paths over fabric, a 4-inch minimum for any surface a car drives on — and a proper driveway is a 4-inch base course of larger angular stone plus a 2 to 3 inch top course — and 6 to 12 inches in a French drain trench, because the stone surrounds the pipe on every side.

Buying by weight is not a supplier’s trick. Stone is loaded by the bucket and weighed on a truck scale, which is far more accurate than judging a heaped yard by eye. One ton of #57 covers about 120 sq ft at 2 inches and 80 sq ft at 3.

Gravel is the material where the unit changes halfway through the transaction. You measure a patio in square feet, you calculate in cubic yards, and the yard sells you tons off a weighbridge. Density is the only thing connecting the three, and it is different for every stone on the pile.

Use the table to convert once you have the volume — or just switch the material in the calculator above and read the tonnage straight off.

Material	lb per cubic yard	Tons per yard	Yards per ton	Covers per ton at 3 in
Pea gravel	2,500	1.25	0.80	86 sq ft
Crushed stone #57	2,700	1.35	0.74	80 sq ft
Sand	2,700	1.35	0.74	80 sq ft
River rock 1–3 in	2,800	1.40	0.71	77 sq ft
Decomposed granite	2,900	1.45	0.69	74 sq ft

Order in the unit your supplier quotes in and check the other one before the truck leaves. A yard short is a return trip; a ton over is stone you will be raking into the border for years.

Frequently asked questions

How many tons is a cubic yard of gravel?

Between 1.25 and 1.45 tons for the materials on this site: pea gravel 1.25, crushed stone and sand 1.35, river rock 1.40, decomposed granite 1.45. Turn that around and a ton is 0.69 to 0.80 cubic yards. Wet stone weighs a few percent more, which is why a rained-on load measures short.

What size gravel is best for a driveway?

An angular crushed stone that locks together, not a rounded one that rolls. A #57 (3/4 in) top course over a #3 or #4 base is the standard build; on a light-use drive, 4 inches of #57 over compacted subgrade works. Pea gravel and river rock look good and drive badly — they migrate into ruts within a season without firm edging.

How deep should decorative gravel be?

Two inches over landscape fabric is enough to cover it, three if you want to stop seeing fabric through the gaps or if the stone is larger than about an inch. Deeper than three inches and walking on it becomes tiring, because your foot sinks rather than the stone bridging.

How much gravel do I need for a French drain?

More than the trench looks. A 12-inch-wide trench 18 inches deep is 1.5 cubic feet per running foot, so 50 feet of drain is 75 cubic feet — 2.8 cubic yards, or about 3.8 tons of #57. Use washed angular stone; anything with fines in it silts the drain up.

Should I put fabric under gravel?

Under decorative gravel, yes — a woven geotextile stops the stone working down into soil and cuts weeds through the first seasons. Under a driveway, use a proper separation geotextile rather than a garden weed membrane; the light stuff shreds under traffic and does nothing for load spreading.

How much does a ton of gravel cover?

About 120 sq ft at 2 inches deep, 80 sq ft at 3 inches and 60 sq ft at 4, for crushed stone at 2,700 lb per cubic yard. Lighter pea gravel covers a little more per ton and heavier river rock a little less — the calculator above adjusts for whichever material you pick.

How we calculate this

Volume is area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27; circles use π × radius² and triangles base × height ÷ 2. Tons are volume in cubic yards × the material’s pounds per cubic yard ÷ 2,000, using our density table: crushed stone 2,700 lb, pea gravel 2,500, river rock 2,800, sand 2,700 and decomposed granite 2,900 lb per cubic yard, each the working figure inside a published range. Coverage per ton is 2,000 ÷ density × 27 ÷ depth in feet. Depths follow standard aggregate practice — a 4-inch minimum for vehicle surfaces, 2–3 inches decorative, 6–12 inches for drainage trenches — and are held in our depth preset table.

Worked example

With Length ft 30, Width ft 12, Diameter ft 12, Base ft 20, Height ft 12, Area sq ft 300, Ring diameter ft 6, Gap around trunk (in) 4, Depth 4, Material Crushed stone (#57, 3/4 in), Bag size 0.5 cu ft — Pea gravel, river rock, paver sand, this page works out 4.4 cubic yards ≈ 6 tons. = 120 cu ft · about 240 bags ( 0.5 cu ft )

Weight, dry12,000 lb
Loads in a half-ton pickup7
One cubic yard covers81 sq ft at this depth

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