Dimensional weight is a billable weight derived from a package's size rather than its scale weight. Multiply length by width by height in inches, then divide by the carrier's divisor, commonly 139 or 166. Carriers bill whichever is greater, the dimensional weight or the actual weight, so a light product in an oversized box gets charged for the air inside it.
Questions or ready for a quote? Contact Teal Packaging at info@tealpackaging.com or (224) 546-8325.
What Is Dimensional Weight? The DIM Formula in Plain Numbers from Teal Packaging: 50-unit standard MOQ (100+ units for specialty rigid boxes), 2-5 business day delivery in the US (express and economy options available), free design help included on every order, free generic sample kit ($19.99 shipping, credited toward your first order). Standard production runs from about 7 business days after digital proof approval; complex or high-volume orders take longer.
Materials and certifications: FSC-certified paper stock, soy-based inks, kraft / corrugated / rigid paperboard / mylar / tin / vinyl substrates.
Contact Teal Packaging: Call (224) 546-8325, email info@tealpackaging.com, or request a free quote at tealpackaging.com/contact-us. We reply within one business day.
Updated August 25, 2026 · Teal Packaging operates a US facility in West Chicago, Illinois.
Why carriers charge for space
A delivery van runs out of room long before it runs out of payload capacity. Fill it with pillows and it leaves the depot full and light. Fill it with bolts and it leaves heavy with room to spare. Since the constraint is usually cubic space, carriers price space, and dimensional weight is the mechanism that converts a box's volume into something a rate table can bill.
Once you see it that way the rest follows. Empty space in your packaging is inventory the carrier cannot sell to anyone else, and they charge you for holding it.
The formula
Measure the outside of the packed box at its longest points, including any bulge from a full load. Round each dimension to the nearest whole inch. Multiply the three figures for cubic inches, divide by the divisor in your carrier agreement, and round the result up to the next whole pound. Compare that number against what the scale says and expect to be billed on the larger of the two.
| Packed box | Cubic inches | DIM at 139 | DIM at 166 | Actual weight | Billed at 139 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 x 6 x 3 | 162 | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1.5 lb | 2 lb |
| 10 x 8 x 6 | 480 | 4 lb | 3 lb | 2 lb | 4 lb |
| 12 x 12 x 12 | 1728 | 13 lb | 11 lb | 5 lb | 13 lb |
| 16 x 12 x 10 | 1920 | 14 lb | 12 lb | 8 lb | 14 lb |
| 18 x 14 x 12 | 3024 | 22 lb | 19 lb | 10 lb | 22 lb |
The 12 inch cube is the one that stops people. Five pounds of product, thirteen pounds of billing. Divisors also vary by carrier, service and negotiated contract, and they get revised, so pull the current figure from your own agreement instead of assuming the numbers above apply to your account.
The divisor is the whole game
A smaller divisor produces a larger billable weight, so 139 is more expensive to ship under than 166 for the identical box. Moving from 166 to 139 on the 16 x 12 x 10 example above adds two pounds of billable weight to every parcel that ships in it, on every order, forever. Negotiating the divisor is often worth more than negotiating the rate per pound, and shippers who only look at the discount percentage miss it entirely.
Where the cost hides in packaging decisions
Dimensions round up, which means a box measuring 10.1 inches bills as 11. Trimming a tenth of an inch off a panel can drop a whole inch from the billed calculation, and on a high-volume line that single change pays for the tooling many times over.
Void fill is the other silent cost. Loose fill and air pillows exist because the box is too big for the product, and every cubic inch of them is billed at the same rate as the product itself. A right-sized box usually needs less protective material and less board, so the savings arrive from three directions at once.
Depth deserves particular attention on flexible formats, since an expansion fold turns a flat mailer into a cubic one. Our page on gussets covers how that fold is measured before you commit to one.
Run the numbers before the tooling
The order to work in is: measure the product, add the clearance the structure genuinely needs, then check the resulting outer dimensions against both divisors. If the box sits just over a rounding threshold, adjust the structure now rather than after a die exists. Our box size and dimensional weight calculator does this arithmetic for you, and it sits alongside the rest of our packaging tools.
What we can change on your spec
Most oversized packaging comes from picking a stock size close enough to work rather than a size measured to the product. Custom dimensions cost nothing extra in board terms if the blank still nests efficiently on the press sheet, and they routinely take an inch or more out of a shipping profile. Flat-profile structures such as mailer boxes keep the height dimension small for anything that does not need depth, and a fitted insert can let a smaller box protect the same product.
Send us the product measurements, the packed weight, and the divisor your carrier applies. We will draw a structure against those numbers rather than against a catalog size. Custom dimensions are quoted at custom boxes, from about $0.44 per unit at volume, and the minimum sits at 50 pieces, rising to 100 for specialty rigid builds.
