Trundlo

Airline Carry-On Size Limits by Carrier: A Reference Chart

A gate agent in Frankfurt once made me put my perfectly normal, U.S.-standard carry-on into a metal sizing frame while a line of German business travelers stood there checking their watches. It fit—barely—but only because I’d looked up Lufthansa’s numbers in a hotel room the night before, not because I assumed every airline plays by the same rules as Delta or United. “22 x 14 x 9” is an American consensus, not a global law, and nobody tells you that until you’re the one holding up the line.

I built this chart after that trip, mostly so I’d stop pulling up eleven different airline sites on hotel wifi that drops every four minutes. My old system was a folded printout that lived in a bag pocket until it got soaked on a rainy tarmac in Cleveland and turned into gray pulp—RIP to that bag too, a mid-tier spinner that started delaminating at the corners before its first birthday. These days I keep the real numbers here instead, pulled straight from each carrier’s own baggage page where that’s actually possible, and from a source that loads and says the same thing when an airline’s site is more interested in blocking robots than answering a simple question. Pack to the tightest number on your itinerary, not the most generous one, and you won’t be the one sweating in the sizer.

On this page
Bar chart comparing maximum carry-on volume in liters across eleven airlines, grouped into US carriers, international carriers, and low-cost carriers. British Airways and EasyJet allow the most at about 63 liters; Ryanair's paid large bag the least at about 44 liters.
Maximum carry-on box volume by airline, computed from each carrier's stated max bag dimensions (details and sources in the tables below). Embed this chart with credit to trundlo.com — or download the image.

The one rule: pack to the tightest number on your whole itinerary, not the most generous one — a bag that sails through a 61 cm Southwest gate can still get pulled at a Lufthansa (55 cm) or Emirates (55 cm) sizer.

Major US Carriers

Airline Max Dimensions (Inches) Max Dimensions (CM) Weight Limit Notes
American Airlines 22 x 14 x 9 in [1] 56 x 36 x 23 cm No official limit Dimensions include wheels and handles; no official weight cap, but you’re the one who has to lift it into the bin.
Delta Air Lines 22 x 14 x 9 in [2] 56 x 35 x 23 cm No limit on most routes Weight limits only kick in on flights out of a few Asian hubs—Singapore caps it at 7 kg (15 lbs), Beijing/Shanghai at 10 kg (22 lbs). [3]
United Airlines 22 x 14 x 9 in [4] 56 x 35.5 x 23 cm No official limit Basic Economy usually includes a personal item only, no overhead-bin bag, on most routes.
Southwest Airlines 24 x 16 x 10 in [5] 61 x 40 x 25 cm No limit Dimensions run bigger than the 22 x 14 x 9 in most other US carriers use.
JetBlue 22 x 14 x 9 in [6] 55.88 x 35.56 x 22.86 cm No weight restriction Blue Basic fares have included a free carry-on bag since September 6, 2024. [7]

International Carriers

Airline Max Dimensions (CM) Max Dimensions (Inches) Weight Limit Notes
British Airways 56 x 45 x 25 cm [8] 22 x 18 x 10 in 23 kg (51 lbs) Weight limit applies to each individual cabin bag, not combined with your personal item. [9]
Lufthansa 55 x 40 x 23 cm [10] 21.6 x 15.7 x 9 in 8 kg (17 lbs) Weighed and measured more strictly than most US carriers; foldable garment bags up to 57 x 54 x 15 cm are also permitted.
Air France 55 x 35 x 25 cm [11] 21.7 x 13.8 x 9.9 in 12 kg (26.4 lbs) Weight limit is the combined total of your carry-on and personal item.
Emirates 55 x 38 x 22 cm [12] 22 x 15 x 8.5 in 7 kg (15 lbs) Economy gets one carry-on bag; Business and First add a 7 kg briefcase or garment bag on top of it.

Low-Cost Carriers

Airline Small Bag (Free) Large Bag (Paid/Priority) Weight Limit Notes
Ryanair 40 x 30 x 20 cm [13] 55 x 40 x 20 cm 10 kg (Large bag) Small bag must fit under the seat; large bag requires the “Priority & 2 Cabin Bags” add-on.
EasyJet 45 x 36 x 20 cm [14] 56 x 45 x 25 cm 15 kg (Small bag) Small bag is free for everyone; large bag comes with a FLEXI fare or easyJet Plus membership, or as a paid add-on.

Key Definitions

Carry-On Bag (Cabin Bag)
A piece of luggage intended for storage in the overhead bin. Standardized dimensions typically hover around 22 x 14 x 9 inches (56 x 36 x 23 cm) for US domestic flights.
Personal Item
A smaller bag (e.g., purse, laptop bag, small backpack) that must fit entirely under the seat in front of the passenger. Typical limits are approximately 18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 36 x 20 cm).
Combined Weight
A policy used by some international carriers (e.g., Air France) where the weight of the carry-on bag and the personal item are added together to meet a single maximum threshold.
Sizer
A metal frame located at airport check-in counters or gates used to verify that a bag meets the airline’s specific dimensional requirements—the same frame that had my carry-on (and my patience) tested in Frankfurt.

I re-check these numbers every few months since airlines shuffle them without much warning. If a link above ever 404s on you, assume the carrier changed something and go check their current page before you fly—don’t just trust the last number you saw here.

Last verified: 2026-07-17

Sources

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