How Many 80 lb Bags of Concrete in a Yard?

The math: 45 bags per cubic yard

One cubic yard of concrete is 27 cubic feet. A standard 80 lb bag of QUIKRETE or Sakrete concrete mix yields about 0.60 cubic feet once you add water, a figure printed on the bag and set by the dry mix density of roughly 133 lb per cubic foot.

Divide the two and you get the answer. Twenty-seven cubic feet divided by 0.60 cubic feet per bag is 45 bags, so it takes 45 bags of 80 lb mix to fill a cubic yard.

That same yard takes 60 bags of 60 lb mix or 90 bags of 40 lb mix, since the smaller bags yield 0.45 and 0.30 cubic feet each. If you want the count for your exact volume, the concrete calculator does the division for you.

Bags by cubic yard and project size

Most pours are a fraction of a yard, not a whole one, so the round 45 figure is only the start. Multiply 45 by your volume in cubic yards to get the bag count, then add 5 to 10% for waste.

The bag counts above are rounded up, because you cannot buy part of a bag and you never want to come up short mid-pour. A bag or two left over is cheap insurance.

What 45 bags actually weighs and costs

Forty-five bags is a lot to handle. At 80 lb each, a cubic yard of bagged mix weighs 3,600 lb dry, and each bag weighs close to 100 lb once you add the mixing water.

On price, an 80 lb bag runs about 5 to 8 dollars in 2026 at Home Depot or Lowe's, so a yard of bags costs roughly 225 to 360 dollars in material alone. That is before the hours of hauling, mixing, and cleanup.

When to switch from bags to ready-mix

Bags win for small jobs, ready-mix wins for big ones, and the crossover sits around 1.5 to 2 cubic yards. Below that, mixing bags by hand is cheaper and avoids minimum-order fees. Above it, the labor and cost of dozens of bags tips the math.

Ready-mix runs about 125 to 175 dollars per cubic yard delivered in 2026, but small orders carry a short-load fee of 50 to 150 dollars per yard under the truck minimum, which is usually around 8 to 10 yards. For a one yard pour, those fees can rival the concrete itself, which is exactly why people reach for bags at that size.

If you are sizing a slab specifically, the concrete slab calculator gives you the yards and bag counts in one step so you can compare both routes.

Metric bags: 25 kg and 30 kg in Canada and Europe

An 80 lb bag is a US and Canadian size, equal to 36.2 kg. There is no exact metric match, so do not assume a bagged-concrete count from one market carries to another.

European and Canadian retailers commonly sell 25 kg and 30 kg bags. A 25 kg bag yields about 0.0125 m³, so it takes roughly 64 bags of 25 kg to make a cubic yard (0.765 m³), well above the 45 figure for 80 lb bags.

Always read the yield printed on your bag before buying in volume, since it varies a little by product and density.

Let the calculator do the bag count

Counting bags by hand works for a round yard, but real pours are odd fractions and it is easy to slip a decimal. Enter your length, width, and thickness in the concrete calculator and it returns the cubic yards, the number of 40, 60, and 80 lb bags, whether to order ready-mix instead, and an optional cost.

If you are still working out the volume itself, the guide on how much concrete you need walks through the formula shape by shape before you reach for the bags.

Frequently asked questions

References

• QUIKRETE Concrete Mix data sheet (No. 1101)
• Concrete (Wikipedia)
• Sakrete Concrete Mix product page
• Cubic yard (Wikipedia)

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