Your bag, outside measurements
Length
Width
Depth
Units
Weight in
Measure the widest points with the wheels, the handle and any bulging front pocket included. That is what the metal sizer at the gate measures, whatever the airline website says.
Verified August 2026. Airlines change these numbers without notice, and every row links its source page so you can confirm in one tap. The gate agent has the final say and can size or weigh any bag.
These are AIRLINE rules, not TSA rules. TSA has no opinion on the size of your bag, only what is inside it.
Every airline, side by side
The part worth screenshotting before you leave for the airport. Blank means the airline does not publish a figure, and we would rather say so than invent one.
| Airline | Carry-on | Personal item | Weight | Wheels in? |
|---|
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Not listed: Spirit Airlines. Spirit ceased all operations on 2 May 2026, so it has no current carry-on policy. Any comparison table still publishing Spirit's numbers has not been updated in over a year.
How this checker decides
A bag fits a sizer when each of its three measurements fits inside the matching limit, tallest against tallest, once both sets of numbers are sorted. Orientation does not matter, because you can turn the bag. So we sort your three numbers largest to smallest, sort the airline's three the same way, and compare them in pairs.
- Everything is converted to inches internally at 1 in = 2.54 cm, then displayed back in whatever unit the airline actually publishes, with the other unit underneath. No airline's own figure is rounded away.
- A few airlines publish a linear total instead of three numbers. Singapore Airlines uses 115 cm and Air New Zealand uses 118 cm for length plus width plus depth added together. Those are checked as a sum, which is exactly how the airline words it.
- Under half an inch of clearance is flagged as tight rather than as a clean pass. A bag that only just fits an empty sizer will not fit once it is packed and the front pocket bulges.
- Weight is only checked when the airline publishes a limit. Most large US carriers do not publish one for domestic flying. Most airlines outside the US do, and it is usually 7 to 10 kg.
Where an airline does not publish a number, the table says so and the row links the airline's own baggage page. That is the honest answer, and it is more useful than a made-up measurement that gets your bag pulled at the gate.
Before you zip the bag
Can I Bring It?TSA rules for any item, carry-on or checked
Packing List GeneratorA checkable list built around your trip
Travel Document ChecklistID, passport and visa, by trip type
Passport Processing TimesCurrent lead times and how to rush one
Travel Itinerary TemplateA day-by-day plan you can actually use
How to Plan a Road TripRoute, budget and what to pack in the car
Questions people ask at the gate
Is 22 x 14 x 9 inches a universal carry-on size?
No, and this is the single most expensive myth in travel. It is the standard across most large US carriers, so a bag sold as "carry-on approved" in the United States is built to it. Run that same bag through this checker and it fails Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Aer Lingus, because the common European limit of 55 x 40 x 23 cm is about 21.7 inches on its longest side.
The gap is often under half an inch. That is enough for a sizer, and low-cost European carriers charge at the gate rather than waving it through.
Do the dimensions include the wheels and the handle?
Almost always yes. American, Delta, United, Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue, Air Canada, British Airways, Lufthansa, Ryanair and easyJet all state it in writing, and Frontier goes further and includes straps. Where an airline stays silent, assume the wheels count anyway, because the sizer is a physical metal box and the bag either goes in or it does not.
This matters more than travelers expect. Wheels and a telescoping handle housing routinely add one and a half to two inches to a bag's depth, which is the dimension with the least clearance.
Why do some airlines not publish a personal item size?
Because their actual rule is not a measurement. Southwest and Delta both define the personal item only as something that fits under the seat in front of you, and they deliberately leave it there so the crew can judge it. We leave those cells blank instead of filling them in.
If you find a comparison site quoting an exact personal item size for Southwest or Delta, that number was invented by the site, not published by the airline. The under-seat space also varies by aircraft and is smaller in a bulkhead row or a window seat with an entertainment box.
Will the gate agent actually measure my bag?
Inconsistently, and that inconsistency is the real risk. On a half-empty domestic flight nobody looks. On a full flight, on a low-cost carrier, or at a European gate where the airline earns money from bag fees, agents work through the line with a sizer and charge on the spot, usually at a much higher rate than pre-booking would have cost.
Plan for the strict version. A bag that fits every time is worth more than an inch of extra packing space you use twice a year.
Is there a weight limit on a carry-on?
It depends entirely on where you are flying. Most large US carriers publish no carry-on weight limit for domestic flights, which is why American travelers are surprised abroad. Outside the US it is normal and it is enforced: 7 kg on Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Cathay Pacific, 8 kg on Lufthansa and Turkish, 10 kg on Ryanair, Wizz Air, Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic.
Seven kilograms is 15.4 pounds. A good empty hard-shell spinner can be 8 or 9 pounds on its own, so more than half your allowance can be gone before you pack anything.
What happened to Spirit Airlines?
Spirit ceased all operations on 2 May 2026, so it no longer has a carry-on policy to check. We list it here only as a historical note, because it is a useful freshness test: any baggage comparison table that still shows Spirit's dimensions has not been maintained since before that date, and everything else on it is likely to be stale too.
My bag is soft-sided. Does that help?
Often, yes. A soft duffel or a soft-sided spinner compresses into a sizer in a way a hard shell physically cannot, and a bag one inch over on depth usually goes in if it is fabric and not overpacked. That is why the checker flags a tight fit rather than simply passing it: on a soft bag a tight fit is usually fine, and on a hard shell a tight fit is a coin flip.
The trade-off is that a soft bag with an expansion zip is very easy to overpack past the limit without noticing. If your bag has an expander, do not use it on the outbound flight.
What happens if my bag is too big at the gate?
It gets gate-checked, and on most airlines you pay for it there and then. Gate fees are typically higher than the online rate, sometimes double. The bag then travels in the hold, which means anything you cannot check has to come out first: your power bank, your lithium batteries, your medication, your passport and your laptop.
Keep those items in a small pouch near the top of your bag so you can pull them in ten seconds rather than unpacking on the jet bridge with a line behind you.