The Tucson reference desk for pallet sizes and specs.

The table below is the quick-reference version of our full standard pallet size chart. It covers the footprints most buyers ask for, in both imperial and metric, with the typical entry style and where each one tends to be used. Load and weight figures are ranges — actual numbers depend on wood species, board thickness, and construction.

Start with the size chart to confirm the footprint your load or racking needs. Once you know the size, decide on condition: our grades guideexplains what separates an A-grade unit from a C-grade one and how that moves the price. If you're shipping domestically, a recycled 48×40 GMAcovers most jobs. If you're exporting overseas, you'll need an ISPM-15 heat-treated platform stamped to international standard.

When you know what you want, browse recycled pallets or new & custom builds, or just send us a quote request with your size, quantity, and grade.

The one arithmetic rule that governs every line below is inches × 25.4 = millimeters. Spec sheets round differently, so a footprint you see printed as 1219 × 1016 on one document and 1220 × 1015 on another is the same 48 × 40 pallet. This master table locks down both units for every footprint we handle, adds the metric-to-imperial back-conversion, and notes the region or use each one anchors to. Keep it open when you are reconciling a European purchase order against a North American racking spec.

For the full breakdown with load-rating ranges and footprint utilization, jump to the standard pallet size chart.

Footprints rarely get chosen at random. An industry standardizes on the size that matches its product geometry — a 55-gallon drum diameter, a case count, a warehouse aisle width, or a returnable-container program. The table below maps the sectors we serve in Tucson to the footprint they most often order, with the reason the size stuck.

Measuring a pallet sounds trivial until you are reconciling a rack spec, and it is the single most common source of ordering errors we see. The convention is length × width × height, where length is the stringer or deck-board length (the 48-inch dimension on a GMA) and width is the perpendicular span (the 40-inch dimension). Follow this sequence and you will not be surprised at the dock.

When in doubt, photograph the pallet next to a tape measure and send it through the quote form — we would rather confirm a dimension than ship the wrong size.

A pallet is not machined to the thousandth of an inch — it is assembled from sawn lumber that swells and shrinks with moisture. Reasonable tolerances are baked into the trade, and knowing them keeps you from rejecting a perfectly good load or, worse, jamming an automated conveyor that expects a tighter build. New and recycled units carry different practical tolerances: a recycled pallet has already lived a life and will vary more.

Automated storage, robotic palletizers, and stretch-wrap lines are the least forgiving of variance — if you run those, spec Grade A or new and tell us the squareness tolerance up front.