Landscape Gravel Calculator
Plan decorative stone across every bed, path and dry creek in one go — rectangles, circles, borders and curves — with bagged-versus-bulk pricing, landscape fabric, edging, and a full project PDF.
Add every planting bed, walkway and border as its own area — the calculator totals them and prices bagged against bulk so you can see the crossover point. For planning purposes only.
| Area | Shape | Size | Depth | Sq Ft | Cu Yd |
|---|
| Stone | lb / cu yd | Tons | Bulk | Bagged |
|---|
Same 1.70 cu yd volume. Bagged cost does not change with density — bags are sold by volume, bulk is sold by weight.
How to Use the Gravel Calculator
Size the gravel for a driveway, path or drainage run — in cubic yards, tons and bags — then price it bulk against bagged before you call the quarry, in four steps.
Measure the area
Type the length and width and the area fills in automatically. Set how many identical areas you’re covering, or overwrite the area field directly for an irregular shape.
Set depth and compaction
Enter the finished depth you want, then slide the compaction allowance. Gravel settles when it’s tamped, so ordering the raw volume leaves you short of the depth you planned.
Choose the stone
Pick pea gravel, crushed stone, #57, river rock, crusher run or decomposed granite and the density fills in — or enter your supplier’s own figure to price anything else.
Compare and save it
Add your per-ton and per-bag prices to see which way is cheaper, check how the order changes across four depths, and download the branded PDF.
What’s Included
Gravel is quoted by weight, ordered by volume and sold by the bag or the ton — this handles all three conversions.
Six stone types with densities
Pea gravel, crushed stone, #57, river rock, crusher run and decomposed granite each carry their own weight per cubic foot — plus a custom option for your supplier’s number.
Compaction allowance
A slider from zero to twenty-five percent covering the settling and spread loss that turns a three-inch order into a two-and-a-half-inch finished surface.
Cubic yards, tons and bags
Yards for ordering, tons for the quarry ticket and bag counts for the hardware store run — all from one set of inputs, with the conversions handled for you.
Bulk vs. bagged cost
Prices the same job both ways side by side, so you can see the point where hauling bags stops making sense and a delivered load becomes the obvious choice.
Depth comparison
A chart and table showing what your area needs at one, two, four and six inches — the quickest way to see how sharply the order grows with every extra inch.
Branded PDF report
Bundles your project details, the full volume and weight calculation, bulk and bag costs, the depth comparison and gravel best practice into a clean two-page report.
By the Numbers
A quick snapshot of what this calculator covers under the hood.
plus custom density
1 to 6 inches
40, 50 and 60 lb
per cubic yard
no sign-up needed
Built for “How Many Tons Do I Order?”
Gravel is priced by weight but spread by volume, and the two only line up once you know the density. Whatever you’re covering, this does that conversion first.
Driveway builders
Laying or topping up a gravel drive? Price the base course and the top course separately at their own depths and densities — they’re different stones doing different jobs.
Paths, patios & beds
Decorative gravel over a small area? Two inches goes a long way, and the calculator will show you whether bags from the store beat a delivered half-load for a job that size.
Drainage & shed bases
French drains, dry wells, downspout runs and shed pads all want clean angular stone at a specific depth. Set the density for the stone you’re actually buying and get the tonnage.
Buy the Right Stone, Not Just Enough Stone
Seven habits that separate a driveway that holds up from one that ruts by spring.
- 1Angular locks, round rolls. Crushed stone has sharp faces that knit together under load; river rock and pea gravel stay loose and migrate underfoot. Use angular stone anywhere it needs to stay put — drives, slopes, walking surfaces — and save the rounded stone for beds and borders.
- 2A driveway is layers, not one pour. The usual build is several inches of compacted base rock carrying the load, topped with a couple of inches of cleaner stone for the surface. Run the calculator twice — once per course — because the depths and stone types differ.
- 3Order for compaction, not for the hole. Loose gravel loses noticeable depth once tamped or driven on, and material with fines settles most. Five to fifteen percent extra is the usual allowance; skipping it means a finished surface thinner than you planned.
- 4Weight is the limit, not bed size. A cubic yard of gravel runs well over a ton, so a half-ton pickup is at its payload with roughly half a yard. Check the rating in your door jamb against the tonnage figure — for anything past a yard or two, delivery is cheaper and safer.
- 5Put fabric under decorative gravel. Without a separation layer, stone works down into the soil and soil works up into the stone, so you lose depth and gain weeds. Geotextile under a drive also stops the base pumping into soft subgrade.
- 6Contain the edges. Gravel migrates outward every time it’s walked or driven on. Steel, timber or paver edging keeps the depth where you put it and saves you topping up the same area every year.
- 7Bulk wins sooner than you’d think. Bagged stone costs several times more per ton once you total it up, and hauling forty bags is an afternoon of lifting. Past roughly a pallet, a delivered load is cheaper even with the delivery fee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the most common questions about gravel volume, weight, depth and pricing.
How much gravel do I need?
Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in feet — inches divided by twelve — for cubic feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. A 400 square foot patio at three inches works out to 100 cubic feet, or about 3.7 cubic yards before compaction. Multiply the cubic feet by the stone’s density to get pounds, and divide by 2,000 for tons, which is how most yards will actually quote you. The calculator runs the whole chain and adds your compaction allowance on top.
How many tons is a cubic yard of gravel?
Most gravel lands somewhere around 1.3 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard, but it varies with the stone. Clean drainage rock and rounded river stone sit at the lighter end because of the air gaps between the pieces, while crusher run and other material with fines packs much denser and runs meaningfully heavier. Wet stone weighs more again. Because suppliers price by the ton and you plan by the yard, that density figure is what connects the two — which is why the calculator lets you override it with your supplier’s number.
How deep should gravel be?
It depends entirely on the load. Decorative beds and garden paths need only a couple of inches over fabric. Walking paths and patios want two to three. A driveway is a layered build — several inches of compacted base rock carrying the vehicle weight, with a two to three inch top course over it — and soft or clay subgrade needs more base, not more surface stone. Drainage trenches are dictated by the pipe and the design rather than a standard depth. The comparison table shows what your area needs across a range of depths so you can see the cost of each choice.
What’s the difference between the gravel types?
The two things that matter are shape and whether the mix contains fines. Crusher run is crushed stone plus stone dust, so it compacts into a hard load-bearing layer — the standard base under drives and pads, but it doesn’t drain freely. Clean crushed stone such as #57 has the fines screened out, leaving voids that water moves through, which is why it goes in French drains and under slabs. Pea gravel and river rock are rounded and stay loose, making them comfortable and attractive in beds but poor underfoot on slopes. Decomposed granite is fine crushed granite that packs into a firm natural-looking path surface.
Is it cheaper to buy gravel in bags or by the ton?
Bulk is dramatically cheaper per ton — often several times cheaper — because you’re not paying for packaging or retail handling. Bags only win on genuinely small jobs, where a delivery fee would swamp the material cost, or where there’s nowhere to dump a pile and no way to move it. A useful rule of thumb: once your order passes about a pallet of bags, bulk almost always comes out ahead even after delivery. The calculator prices both so you can see where your particular job falls rather than guessing.
Do I need landscape fabric under gravel?
For decorative gravel over soil, yes — a separation layer stops the stone sinking into the ground and the soil rising into the stone, which is what causes gravel areas to thin out and grow weeds after a season or two. It won’t stop everything, since windblown seed germinates in the debris that collects among the stones, but it dramatically slows the mixing. Under a driveway, a woven geotextile serves a structural purpose as well, keeping the base course from pumping down into soft subgrade under vehicle loads. Note that fabric doesn’t reduce how much gravel you need — it protects the depth you laid.