How Much Gravel Do I Need?

One cubic yard of gravel weighs about 1.4 tons, so a 10×10-foot area covered 3 inches deep needs roughly 1.3 tons of gravel. Gravel suppliers sell and deliver by weight, not volume, so the real question behind “how much gravel do I need” is almost always a tonnage — and getting there means running the area math first, then converting.

Cubic yards first: area times depth

Gravel volume works the same way as any bulk fill material: multiply the area by the depth. Measure length and width in feet and multiply them together for square footage, then multiply by the depth in inches divided by 12 to convert it to feet. A 10-foot by 10-foot area at 3 inches deep is 10 × 10 × (3 ÷ 12) = 25 cubic feet. Divide by 27 to get cubic yards: 25 ÷ 27 ≈ 0.93 cubic yards. The gravel calculator runs this conversion automatically once you enter your area and depth.

Tons: the conversion suppliers actually bill by

Cubic yards are the right unit for the geometry, but they’re not what shows up on a supplier’s invoice. Crushed stone and gravel weigh about 1.4 tons per cubic yard (roughly 2,700–2,800 lb), so multiply the cubic-yard figure by 1.4 to get tons: 0.93 × 1.4 ≈ 1.3 tons for the example above. Working the other direction is just as common — if a supplier quotes a delivery in tons, divide by 1.4 to see how many cubic yards of coverage that actually buys. Either way, the 1.4 figure is the bridge between what a calculator outputs and what you’ll actually order.

How deep to spread gravel, by project

Depth depends on what the gravel is doing, not just how it looks:

• 2 in — decorative topping. A thin finish layer over landscape fabric or an existing bed, mainly for appearance.
• 2–3 in — walkway or path surface. Enough to stay put underfoot without excessive material cost.
• 4 in — a single-layer driveway or a compacted sub-base. The standard depth for a basic gravel driveway surface, and also the typical depth of compacted crushed stone laid beneath pavers or a patio before the setting bed goes down — see the paver base calculator for that sub-base case specifically.
• 6 in or more — heavy-traffic driveways. Vehicle traffic beyond occasional use usually calls for a coarser base layer under a finer top layer, splitting the total depth across two gravel grades rather than one.

Sand and river rock don’t use the same conversion

The 1.4 tons-per-cubic-yard figure is specific to crushed stone and gravel — it isn’t a universal landscaping constant. Sand is a finer material and runs slightly lighter, closer to 1.35 tons per cubic yard. River rock is the opposite kind of exception: because the stones are rounded and often larger, a cubic yard of river rock has more void space between individual pieces, so it typically lands in a wider 1.3–1.5 ton range depending on stone size — smaller river rock packs closer to gravel’s 1.4, larger decorative rock runs lighter. Use the sand calculator or the river rock calculator for those materials rather than reapplying gravel’s conversion factor.

What gravel costs

As of 2026-07, standard crushed stone or gravel typically runs $50–$75 per ton delivered in bulk in the US, with most suppliers setting a delivery minimum around 5 tons; price moves with region, hauling distance, and stone size within that range. Decorative or specialty stone — colored gravel, larger river rock, landscaping boulders — costs meaningfully more per ton, often $75–$150 or higher. Bagged gravel from a hardware store is the right call for very small jobs, under roughly half a ton, but it costs far more per ton-equivalent than bulk delivery and stops making sense at driveway or full-yard scale.

Updated: 2026-07-15