Materials / Field notes

How Many Bags of Concrete Are in a Cubic Yard?

With QUIKRETE Concrete Mix #1101, one cubic yard takes 45 bags at 80 lb, 60 bags at 60 lb or 90 bags at 40 lb, before any allowance. For any product, divide 27 cubic feet by the finished yield printed on the bag and round up. Bag weight alone does not tell you how much concrete it makes.

By ConcreteTotals · Prepared 2026-10-21 · 2 min read

Illustration for explanation. Dimensions, quantities and layouts are examples.

Read the yield before choosing a preset

QUIKRETE Concrete Mix #1101 lists approximate yields of 0.30 cubic feet for a 40-lb bag, 0.375 for a 50-lb bag, 0.45 for a 60-lb bag, 0.60 for an 80-lb bag and 0.675 for a 90-lb bag. Using those particular yields gives the following purchases for exactly one cubic yard, and for one yard plus a 10% allowance.

Bag	Yield per bag	Bags for 27 ft³	With 10% extra
40 lb	0.30 ft³	90	99
50 lb	0.375 ft³	72	80
60 lb	0.45 ft³	60	66
80 lb	0.60 ft³	45	50
90 lb	0.675 ft³	40	44

Check the exact product. For example, the two manufacturer sheets linked below give different yields for their 90-lb products. A bag-weight preset is only a starting convenience.

Allow for the project, then round bags once

Suppose the measured volume is one yard and you choose 10% extra. The target is 29.7 cubic feet. At 0.60 cubic feet per bag, 29.7 ÷ 0.60 = 49.5, so the purchase is 50 bags. Their labeled yield totals 30 cubic feet.

For several small sections made from the same product, add their required volumes before rounding bags. Rounding each section independently can buy more bags than rounding one shared batch total. Keep separate totals when different products are required.

Compare the work as well as the bag price

Fifty 80-lb bags represent 4,000 lb of dry packaged material before pallets or other supplies. Plan delivery, storage and handling around the actual purchase. Adding water changes the placed mixture; dry bag weight is not a substitute for finished concrete density.

The bag calculator accepts a custom yield. For pallet purchases, check the supplier's bag count in the pallet calculator. Compare the complete purchase against a local delivered quote in ready-mix versus bags. Ask whether the retailer sells loose bags, full pallets or both, and use the actual pack size when rounding the purchase.

Sources & further reading

Examples illustrate arithmetic. Use project specifications and current local supplier quotes for a purchase.