Topsoil is a gardening and lawn material first, not a construction aggregate, and it behaves differently from the gravel or stone you'd order for a driveway — it settles more, it's sold loose, and how much you need depends heavily on what's growing in it rather than what's driving over it. This calculator converts your area and depth into cubic yards, cubic feet, and tons, using a supplier-sourced density instead of a rounded-off average. Enter the length and width of your space, pick a depth — or tap a preset for lawn topdressing, a garden bed, or a raised bed — and the results update as you type. Add a price per yard or ton and you'll get an estimated cost range too. Whether you're topping off a lawn or filling a raised bed from scratch, the numbers below are the ones to bring to the nursery or supplier.
Enter your dimensions above to see results.
The calculator first finds the volume of the area in cubic feet: length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (in ÷ 12). That's converted to cubic yards by dividing by 27, since a cubic yard is 3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft. A waste percentage is added on top — higher than for aggregate, since topsoil settles more once it's watered in — and the adjusted cubic yardage is multiplied by topsoil's density (tons per cubic yard) to get the weight in tons. Bag counts divide the adjusted cubic feet by each bag's yield; truckloads divide the adjusted cubic yards by the truck's capacity.
A 10 ft × 10 ft garden bed at 6 inches deep: volume = 10 × 10 × (6 ÷ 12) = 50 cubic feet. In cubic yards, that's 50 ÷ 27 = 1.85 yd³. Adding a 15% waste factor: 1.85 × 1.15 = 2.13 yd³. At 1.10 tons per cubic yard, that's 2.13 × 1.10 = 2.34 tons — or 1.92–3.09 tons across the full 0.90–1.45 density range, since topsoil's weight swings more than gravel or sand depending on moisture. In 1.5 cu ft bags, the adjusted 57.5 cu ft (50 × 1.15) needs 39 bags — right at the edge of where bulk delivery starts making more sense.
Topsoil depth depends on what's being planted and how established it already is, more than on any structural requirement. A 3" layer is right for topdressing — leveling low spots in an existing lawn or prepping bare, graded ground before a full reseed. That's a heavier pass than routine overseeding maintenance, which typically only needs a thin 1/4"–1/2" layer worked into the existing grass; use the 3" preset when you're correcting the lawn's surface, not just refreshing it. A 6" layer is standard for a new garden bed, deep enough for most annuals and shallow-rooted perennials. A 12" (or deeper) raised bed gives vegetables and deeper-rooted plants room to establish without hitting a hard boundary. Whatever the target, order based on the settled depth you want — topsoil is sold and delivered loose, and it compacts noticeably once it's watered in and walked on, more than gravel or sand does, which is why the waste factor here defaults higher than on the aggregate calculators.
Topsoil density varies more than aggregate because it depends on organic content, screening, and especially moisture. Ottr Landscape Supply puts typical moist topsoil or fill dirt at about 2,200 lbs (just over 1 ton) per cubic yard — the figure most landscape suppliers use for load planning — and notes saturated topsoil can weigh 30–35% more than dry. North Bay Materials lists soil at roughly 0.6–1.2 tons/yd³. Light screened blends sit near the low end of our published 0.90–1.45 range; moist loam and fill dirt sit near the high end. We use 1.1 tons/yd³ as the display figure, drawn from:
Read more in our density methodology.