Concrete Bag Yields Compared: US, Canada, UK and Australia
How much concrete does one bag actually make? We collected the yields that manufacturers publish for 9 bagged concrete products sold in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, and converted them all to litres.
What we found
- North American products agree closely. Every US and Canadian figure works out at 0.467–0.468 litres of concrete per kilogram of dry mix. An 80 lb bag makes about 0.60 cu ft; a 30 kg bag about 14 litres.
- A 20 kg bag isn't a fixed amount. Published figures for 20 kg bags range from 8.4 to 11.0 litres, depending on the product. That's between 91 and 119 bags for a cubic metre.
- Australian figures vary most. The two Australian products give 8.4 L and 11.0 L per 20 kg bag. Both are worked out from the makers' coverage examples rather than a stated volume, and one is a fibre-reinforced, rapid-hardening mix.
Litres of concrete per 20 kg of dry mix
To compare bags of different weights, each product is scaled to 20 kg. Lighter bars are worked out from a coverage example rather than a stated volume.
The data
| Product | Bag | What the maker states | Litres per bag | Bags per m³ | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quikrete Concrete Mix No. 1101 US | 40 lb | approximately 0.30 cu ft (8.5 L) | 8.5 | 118 | Quikrete product data sheet |
| Quikrete Concrete Mix No. 1101 US | 60 lb | approximately 0.45 cu ft (12.7 L) | 12.7 | 78 | Quikrete product data sheet |
| Quikrete Concrete Mix No. 1101 US | 80 lb | approximately 0.60 cu ft (17 L) | 17.0 | 59 | Quikrete product data sheet |
| Sakrete High-Strength Concrete Mix US | 80 lb | 0.6 cu ft | 17.0 | 59 | Oldcastle APG product listing |
| Quikrete Concrete Mix Canada | 30 kg | approximately 0.014 m³ (1/2 cu ft) | 14.0 | 71 | Home Hardware product listing |
| Quikrete QUIKRETE 5000 No. 1007 US and Canada | 30 kg | approximately 0.50 cu ft (14 L) | 14.0 | 71 | Quikrete product data sheet |
| Tarmac High Strength Concrete (40N), sold as a 20 kg bag UK | 20 kg | around 0.01 m³ of fresh concrete (0.33 × 0.33 × 0.1 m) | 10.0 | 100 | Tarmac technical data sheet (via Wickes) |
| Cement Australia Concrete Mix Australia | 20 kg | 2 × 20 kg bags cover a 450 × 500 mm slab approximately, 75 mm thick (converted from coverage) | 8.4 | 119 | Cement Australia sell-in sheet |
| Dingo MaxPRO Concrete Mix (fibre reinforced, rapid hardening) Australia | 20 kg | covers 1.1 m² to a depth of approximately 10 mm (converted from coverage) | 11.0 | 91 | Dingo product sheet (via Bunnings) |
What it means when you buy
For a few post holes the differences don't matter: you'll round up to whole bags anyway. On a slab they add up. A 1 m³ pour needs about 91 bags at 11.0 litres each, but about 119 at 8.4 litres.
Our calculators use the North American ratio (about 0.468 litres per kg) for metric bags, so a 20 kg bag is taken as about 9.4 litres. If your bag states a different yield, choose Other size in the concrete calculator or the post hole calculator and enter it.
Method
- Question: how much fresh concrete does one bag of ready-to-use concrete mix make, according to the people who make it?
- Sources: manufacturer data sheets where available; otherwise retailer product pages or sheets that reproduce the manufacturer's figures. Each row links to its source.
- Conversion: cubic feet × 28.317 = litres; cubic metres × 1,000 = litres. Where a maker gives a coverage example instead of a volume, we multiplied area by depth (for example 1.1 m² × 10 mm = 11 litres) and divided by the number of bags.
- Comparison: litres per kg of dry mix, scaled to 20 kg, so bags of different weights can be compared.
Limitations
- This is a sample of 9 products, not a survey of every brand. We'll add products as we verify them.
- Products differ: standard, high-strength, fibre-reinforced and rapid-setting mixes are not the same thing, and makers measure yield in different ways.
- Coverage examples are approximate by nature, so the two derived figures are less precise than a stated volume.
- Figures were correct on the pages we read on 16 October 2026. Products and labels change; the bag in front of you is the final word.
Cite this
Yardstickly (2026). Concrete Bag Yields Compared: US, Canada, UK and Australia. https://www.yardstickly.com/research/concrete-bag-yields/
Know a published yield we're missing, or spotted an error? Tell us and we'll check and add it.