🫘How much pea gravel does your patio or path need?

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

Pea gravel calculator

Length ft

Width ft

Depth

Bag size

0.7 cubic yards≈ 0.9 tons

= 20 cu ft · about 40 bags (0.5 cu ft)

Weight, dry: 1,852 lb
Loads in a half-ton pickup: 2
One cubic yard covers: 162 sq ft at this depth

Bagged pea gravel is normally 0.5 cu ft — 54 bags to a cubic yard, and each one weighs about 50 lb.

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How much pea gravel do you need?

A 12 × 10 ft pea gravel patio laid 2 inches deep takes 20 cubic feet — 0.7 cubic yards, about 1,850 lb, or 40 of the 0.5 cu ft bags. Area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, then multiply the yards by 2,500 lb to get the weight.

Stay at 2 to 3 inches. Pea gravel is rounded, so it does not lock together the way crushed stone does; every extra inch of depth is an extra inch your foot sinks into, and a 4-inch pea gravel path is genuinely tiring to walk. Two inches over compacted ground and geotextile is the standard build for a patio, three where you want the fabric fully hidden.

Budget for edging in the same order. Without a hard edge — steel, aluminium, timber or a paver soldier course — rounded stone migrates into the lawn and the beds continuously, and you will be buying the same gravel again in three years.

Pea gravel is bought in bags far more often than any other bulk stone, because a small patio looks like a small job right up until you price 54 bags to the cubic yard. Knowing the bag count before you leave the house is the whole point of this page.

The figures below are at 2 inches, the depth that keeps a rounded-stone surface walkable.

Area	Cubic yards	0.5 cu ft bags	Weight
50 sq ft	0.31	17	772 lb
100 sq ft	0.62	34	1,543 lb
150 sq ft	0.93	50	2,315 lb
200 sq ft	1.23	67	3,086 lb
300 sq ft	1.85	100	4,630 lb

Read the weight column before the bag column. A hundred square feet is already three quarters of a ton, which is a full load for a sedan and a real one for an SUV.

Frequently asked questions

How many bags of pea gravel in a cubic yard?

Fifty-four of the 0.5 cu ft bags, which is the size almost all bagged stone comes in. Each weighs about 50 lb, because pea gravel runs 2,500 lb per cubic yard and 2,500 ÷ 54 is 46 — call it a 50 lb bag as labelled. Fifty-four bags is 2,500 lb of lifting for one yard of stone, which is why bulk wins here sooner than it does with mulch.

How deep should pea gravel be for a patio?

Two inches over a compacted base, three at most. Depth does not add stability with rounded stone — it removes it. If the surface feels unstable, the answer is a better compacted base of crushed stone underneath and firm edging, not more pea gravel on top.

Does pea gravel need a base layer?

For a path over firm soil, geotextile and 2 inches of pea gravel is enough. For a patio with furniture on it, put down 3 to 4 inches of compacted crushed stone first and top with an inch or two of pea gravel — otherwise chair legs and table feet punch straight through to soil.

What size is pea gravel?

Roughly 3/8 inch, naturally rounded and water-worn, in mixed tan, brown and grey. Larger rounded stone is sold as river rock, and anything angular in that size band is a crushed stone screening. The rounding is what makes it comfortable underfoot and unstable underwheel.

Can you drive on pea gravel?

Not well. Rounded stone rolls under tyres, forms ruts at the turning points and throws up onto the lawn. If a drive must be pea gravel for looks, build it as 4 inches of compacted angular base with a 1-inch pea gravel wearing course and accept an annual rake and top-up.

How much does pea gravel cost?

Bulk runs about $30 to $55 a cubic yard delivered before the drop fee, and bags $4 to $7 for 0.5 cu ft — which is $216 to $378 a cubic yard, four to twelve times the bulk price. Bagged stone only makes sense below about a quarter of a yard, or where a truck genuinely cannot reach.

How we calculate this

Volume is area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, so one cubic yard covers 162 sq ft at 2 inches and 108 sq ft at 3. Weight uses 2,500 lb per cubic yard for pea gravel from our density table, the working figure inside a published 2,400–2,700 lb range; that is 1.25 US tons per cubic yard, or 0.80 cubic yards to the ton. Bag counts use the 0.5 cu ft retail size — 54 to the cubic yard — and always round up. Depth guidance of 2–3 inches for rounded decorative stone comes from our depth preset table; it is a walkability limit rather than a structural one.

Worked example

With Length ft 12, Width ft 10, Diameter ft 12, Base ft 20, Height ft 12, Area sq ft 300, Ring diameter ft 6, Gap around trunk (in) 4, Depth 2, Bag size 0.5 cu ft — Pea gravel, river rock, paver sand, this page works out 0.7 cubic yards ≈ 0.9 tons. = 20 cu ft · about 40 bags ( 0.5 cu ft )

Weight, dry1,852 lb
Loads in a half-ton pickup2
One cubic yard covers162 sq ft at this depth

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