How much does a yard of gravel weigh
A cubic yard of 3/4 inch gravel weighs roughly 1.4 tons, close to 2,800 pounds. Pea gravel, being a similar mineral but a different shape and packing pattern, comes in slightly lighter at around 1.3 tons per cubic yard, close to 2,600 pounds. Both figures are dry weight averages; wet gravel can weigh noticeably more, since water fills the gaps between stones.
Why gravel is so much heavier than mulch
Gravel is crushed or naturally occurring stone, a dense mineral material, while mulch is mostly wood fiber with a lot of air trapped between pieces. A cubic yard of wood mulch weighs around 0.2 tons, roughly 400 pounds, compared with gravel at 1.4 tons for the same volume, a difference of seven times. This is exactly why a generic volume calculator that ignores material type gives a misleading weight estimate: the volume math is identical for both materials, but the resulting weight is nothing alike.
Why weight matters for gravel specifically
Gravel is one of the few landscaping materials where weight regularly becomes a practical constraint rather than just a curiosity. A pickup truck bed rated for half a ton can be overloaded by less than half a cubic yard of gravel, well short of what the bed looks like it could physically hold by volume. A trailer with a stated payload limit needs the same check before loading gravel for a driveway or path project. Even a wheelbarrow, rated by volume rather than weight, can be genuinely difficult to push once loaded with gravel at a depth that would be effortless with mulch.
Converting weight to cubic yards for a quote
Some suppliers quote gravel by the ton rather than the cubic yard, which is common for larger commercial orders. To convert, divide the quoted tons by the density, about 1.4 for 3/4 inch gravel or 1.3 for pea gravel, to get cubic yards, or multiply cubic yards by the density to get an expected tonnage. This conversion is also the fastest way to compare a per ton price against a per cubic yard price from a different supplier, since the two units are not directly comparable without it.
Worked example
A driveway path needing 1.5 cubic yards of 3/4 inch gravel weighs approximately 1.5 times 1.4, about 2.1 tons, worth knowing before renting a trailer or asking a delivery truck to cross a bridge or culvert with a posted weight limit.
Get the figure for your project
The gravel and mulch calculator returns an estimated weight in tons for whichever gravel type, or any of the other nine materials, alongside the cubic yard and bag figures, based on your actual measured area and chosen depth.
Dry gravel weight by volume
Use these dry weight estimates to compare common gravel loads by cubic yard.
| Volume | 3/4 inch gravel | Pea gravel |
|---|---|---|
| 0.25 cubic yard | 700 pounds | 650 pounds |
| 0.5 cubic yard | 1,400 pounds | 1,300 pounds |
| 1 cubic yard | 2,800 pounds | 2,600 pounds |
| 1.5 cubic yards | 4,200 pounds | 3,900 pounds |
| 2 cubic yards | 5,600 pounds | 5,200 pounds |
| 3 cubic yards | 8,400 pounds | 7,800 pounds |
Use the closest row for a load check, or multiply your cubic yards by the 1 cubic yard weight; divide pounds by 2,000 for tons.