What each size is for, and why filled weight matters more than volume.
Jerry cans run from a 3-litre reserve to a 30-litre bulk can, and the standard size is 20 litres: 5.28 US gallons or 4.40 imperial gallons, in a NATO-pattern can about 34 by 16 by 46 cm. The right size is the one a person can carry to the point of use, so weigh the filled can, not the empty one.
Quick answer: What size is a standard jerry can?
Twenty litres, which is 5.28 US gallons or 4.40 imperial gallons. A NATO-pattern steel can of that size measures about 34 by 16 by 46 cm and weighs about 3 kg empty; filled with water it weighs about 23 kg. Jerry cans run from 3 to 30 litres, and 10 litres is the comfortable one-hand carry.
Work it out
How many cans do you need?Jerry can sizing calculatorHow many fit in a container?Container load calculatorA 20-litre NATO-pattern steel can measures about 34 × 16 × 46 cm and weighs about 3 kg empty. The chart gives the external dimensions and empty weights of the cans we build, taken from our production specifications. Cans of the same size from other makers differ by a centimetre or two, and a horizontal can trades height for footprint.
| Can | Capacity | External dimensions | Empty weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compact fuel can | 3 L | 16.2 × 29.7 × 12.8 cm | about 1 kg |
| Stainless water can | 5 L | 40.7 × 24.3 × 14.2 cm | about 1.9 kg |
| NATO-pattern steel can | 10 L | 34 × 16 × 26.5 cm | about 1.8 kg |
| Stainless water can | 10 L | 35.2 × 18 × 29 cm | about 2.8 kg |
| NATO-pattern steel fuel can | 20 L | 34 × 16 × 46 cm | about 3.1 kg |
| Stainless water can | 20 L | 35.2 × 18 × 47.5 cm | about 3.8 kg |
| Horizontal agricultural fuel can | 20 L | 50.8 × 30.8 × 21.9 cm | about 3.3 kg |
| Oversized NATO-pattern can | 25 L | 36 × 25.5 × 38 cm | about 4.2 kg |
| Oversized NATO-pattern can | 30 L | 36 × 25.5 × 43 cm | about 4.3 kg |
Dimensions as listed on each product page. Empty weights are derived from the net weight of a full carton, so treat them as a guide. For how many of each fit in a 20ft or 40ft container, see container loads and full weights.
A standard 20-litre jerry can holds 5.28 US gallons or 4.40 imperial gallons. A US gallon is 3.785 litres and an imperial gallon is 4.546 litres (NIST SP 811, Appendix B), so the same can reads as a little over 5 gallons in the US and under 4.5 in the UK. A US 5-gallon gas can holds 18.9 litres, about a litre less than a 20-litre jerry can.
| Jerry can | US gallons | Imperial gallons |
|---|---|---|
| 3 litres | 0.79 | 0.66 |
| 5 litres | 1.32 | 1.10 |
| 10 litres | 2.64 | 2.20 |
| 20 litres | 5.28 | 4.40 |
| 25 litres | 6.60 | 5.50 |
| 30 litres | 7.93 | 6.60 |
Fill to the nominal capacity, not the brim. Liquid expands as it warms, and a can filled to the neck on a cool morning has nowhere to go by the afternoon. For dangerous goods in transport, ADR 4.1.1.4 requires enough ullage that expansion on the road causes no leak or distortion, and a liquid may not fill the packaging completely at 55 °C.
US gas cans are sold by the US gallon, in sizes such as 1, 2, 2.5 and 5 gallons, which hold 3.79, 7.57, 9.46 and 18.93 litres. NIST SP 811 sets the US gallon at 3.785 412 litres, so a 5-gallon gas can holds 1.07 litres less than a 20-litre jerry can, a little over one US quart. Metal safety cans for petrol and other flammable liquids are listed in the same four gallon sizes.
| US gas can | Litres | Petrol inside, before the can | Smallest jerry can that takes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 US gallon | 3.79 L | 2.8 kg (6.3 lb) | 5 L |
| 2 US gallons | 7.57 L | 5.7 kg (12.5 lb) | 10 L |
| 2.5 US gallons | 9.46 L | 7.1 kg (15.6 lb) | 10 L |
| 5 US gallons | 18.93 L | 14.2 kg (31.3 lb) | 20 L |
Petrol at 0.75 kg per litre, the middle of the EN 228 range set out under full weights below. One pound is 0.4536 kg (NIST SP 811).
Five gallons is also where two US rules stop. OSHA defines a safety can as an approved container of not more than 5 gallons (29 CFR 1910.106(a)(29)), and the CPSC flame-mitigation rule covers consumer fuel containers of 5 gallons or less (16 CFR 1461.2). A 20-litre jerry can, at 5.28 US gallons, sits above both limits; US gas can rules sets out what that means on a site or a shop shelf.
Britain counts in litres. A container sold for storing petrol and designed to be carried by hand may hold no more than 10 litres in plastic or 20 in metal. Filled to the brim, it must take 10 to 15% more than that nominal capacity (Petroleum (Consolidation) Regulations 2014, regulation 19 and Schedule 3). UK petrol container rules covers marking and how much you may keep. Where a British gallon is meant, it is the imperial gallon of 4.546 09 litres exactly, so five gallons comes to 22.7 litres, beyond the nominal 20 of a standard jerry can.
Twenty litres of water weighs twenty kilograms before the can; twenty litres of fuel weighs a little less. The practical carrying limit for most people over any distance is closer to ten kilograms, which is why the 20-litre can is a two-hand or short-carry item and the 10-litre is the comfortable single-hand size. Volume tells you how much the can holds. Filled weight tells you who can lift it and how far.
A 20-litre NATO-pattern steel jerry can weighs about 18 kg full of petrol, 20 kg full of diesel and 23 kg full of water, counting 3.1 kg for the can. Each figure in the table is the empty can plus the litres times the density of the liquid, worked for every can in our range.
We used 1.00 kg per litre for water, 0.75 for petrol and 0.83 for diesel. The fuel values sit in the middle of the ranges the European fuel standards set at 15 °C. Those are 720 to 775 kg/m³ for petrol under EN 228 and 820 to 845 kg/m³ for diesel under EN 590. Poland’s 2024 fuel-quality regulation reproduces them in its Annexes 1 and 3. Directive 98/70/EC, Annex II, holds diesel to the same 845 kg/m³ maximum.
| Can | Empty | Full of petrol | Full of diesel | Full of water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 L compact fuel can | 1.0 kg | 3.3 kg | 3.5 kg | 4.0 kg |
| 10 L NATO-pattern steel can | 1.8 kg | 9.3 kg | 10.1 kg | 11.8 kg |
| 20 L NATO-pattern steel fuel can | 3.1 kg | 18.1 kg | 19.7 kg | 23.1 kg |
| 20 L horizontal agricultural fuel can | 3.3 kg | 18.3 kg | 19.9 kg | 23.3 kg |
| 25 L oversized NATO-pattern can | 4.2 kg | 23.0 kg | 25.0 kg | 29.2 kg |
| 30 L oversized NATO-pattern can | 4.3 kg | 26.8 kg | 29.2 kg | 34.3 kg |
| 5 L stainless water can | 1.9 kg | – | – | 6.9 kg |
| 10 L stainless water can | 2.8 kg | – | – | 12.8 kg |
| 20 L NATO-pattern steel water can | 2.6 kg | – | – | 22.6 kg |
| 20 L stainless water can | 3.8 kg | – | – | 23.8 kg |
Empty weights from the chart above and our product pages, rounded to 0.1 kg. Water cans carry water only. On a fuel can the water column is the heaviest load a holder will see; never move a can from fuel to drinking water.
The fuel figures move with the blend and the temperature. Across the whole EN 228 range the 20-litre steel can full of petrol weighs 17.5 to 18.6 kg, and across EN 590, full of diesel, 19.5 to 20.0 kg. Diesel made for cold weather is lighter: the Polish annex allows 800 to 840 kg/m³ for its grade with improved low-temperature properties. Fuel also expands as it warms, so a litre weighs a little less on a hot day than at the 15 °C the standards quote.
For a holder, a rack or a lift, plan on the heaviest case: the water column, or the top of the fuel range. Jerry can mounts by vehicle sets these weights against the HSE manual handling guidance in INDG143 and the ratings of racks and carriers, and container loads and full weights carries them through to a shipment. To turn a fuel or water need into a count of cans, use the jerry can sizing calculator.
A 20-litre military-pattern steel jerry can weighs about 3 kg empty and 18 to 20 kg full of fuel, going by our NATO-pattern steel fuel can. Ours is pressed from 0.6 mm cold-rolled steel to the three-handle, 34 × 16 × 46 cm form described in the NATO jerry can pattern, and weighs 3.1 kg empty. We also build it in 0.9 mm heavy-gauge steel to order, which adds weight; ask for that figure with a quotation.
The US military specifies a 20-litre fuel can as well. A-A-59592A, the commercial item description that federal agencies buy it against, sets the capacity at 20 litres, plus 1 and minus 0, measured at 23 °C (3.2.2), with three carrying handles (3.2.4). The can must fit the envelope of the A-A-52513 bracket, a bracket for a five-gallon liquid container (3.4.1), and it is marked “FOR STORAGE OF FUELS ONLY” and “DO NOT USE FOR DRINKING WATER” (3.5). The description sets no empty weight. Our cans are not made to it: it calls for an EPA certificate of conformity (5.3), and we hold no EPA approval.
The same can must take jet fuel to MIL-DTL-83133, the JP-8 specification, as well as diesel and unleaded petrol (3.4.2). MIL-DTL-83133J puts JP-8 at 0.775 to 0.840 kg per litre at 15 °C (Table I), so 20 litres of it in our 3.1 kg can weighs 18.6 to 19.9 kg. Opening, pouring and carrying are covered in how to use a jerry can.
A fit adult can pick up a filled 20-litre can once and think nothing of it. The job is rarely one lift. Move fuel to a machine fifty times across a shift and the weight compounds into a strain, and a tired lift is where a can gets dropped and the contents spill. Size the can for the hundredth carry, not the first. The 10-litre also widens who can do the work: it suits more people than the 20-litre, so a crew is not built around the strongest few.
HSE gives indicative filter weights of 25 kg for men and 16 kg for women, and only where the load is held close to the body at about knuckle height. Take the lift above shoulder height and the figures drop to roughly 10 kg and 7 kg. They are filters rather than limits, meaning below them a task is likely acceptable and above them a proper assessment is expected rather than optional.
Set against that scale, a filled 10-litre can of water, at about 12 kg, sits inside every zone for most people. A 20-litre at about 23 kg sits inside exactly one: a man, at knuckle height, close to the body. Lifting that same can onto a tailgate, a truck bed or a roof rack is an above-shoulder lift measured against a 10 kg guideline, and it is the lift a real refuelling job asks for most often.
None of that rules out the 20-litre format, which remains the workhorse. A buyer should ask which lift, how high, how many times a shift and by whom. Answer those four and the size follows.
Larger cans mean fewer handling movements per litre. One 20-litre trip replaces two 10-litre trips, so the container count drops and so does the caps-off, caps-on time. The cost is a heavier lift each time. A distributor weighs that against the crew and the distance. Pick the big can where the carry is short and the people are strong, and the small can where the carry is long or the hands are many.
One middle answer is to break up the carry. A 20-litre can moved once from a store to a trolley and then wheeled is a single lift and a push, where the same can carried the whole distance is a sustained load. Where the layout allows it, a trolley turns a size problem into an equipment problem.
A 25 or 30-litre can is drawn from, not carried. Nobody lifts a brimmed 30-litre can to pour it accurately, so specify a tap or a spout on anything at that size that will sit at a refuelling point and be decanted. A person carrying to a machine wants 10 or 20 litres. A reserve in a vehicle wants 3 to 5. A refuelling point that is drawn from wants 20 to 30 with a tap or spout. Use our jerry can sizing calculator to turn a headcount or a refuelling point into a quantity.
A carried can is lifted, tipped and aimed, and all three are where fuel ends up on the ground. A can on a stand with a tap is opened and drawn from, so the lifting stops entirely and the pour rate is controlled by a valve instead of by an arm. That is the reason a fixed refuelling point tolerates a size nobody would carry, and the reason the tap is a specification item rather than an accessory at 25 litres and above.
The tap has to match the liquid like any other wetted part, so a brass fitting that suits fuel is wrong on DEF and a plastic one rated for water may not hold a solvent. And a can that sits on a tap needs somewhere for air to enter as liquid leaves, or it draws a vacuum and the flow stutters to a stop. That is a vent question, not a tap fault. See venting and pressure.
The size you pick also sets how the cans travel. A can that nests or stacks cleanly loads more units into the same pallet and container, so the choice reaches past the point of use and into the freight bill. Read warehouse storage and export packing before you fix a size for a large order. The common mistake runs both ways: specifying 20-litre cans for a job where staff carry them far all day, and expecting anyone to hand-carry a brimmed 30-litre can. Match the size to the carry, then check it against the freight.
The order matters because the two pull in opposite directions. Freight rewards the largest format that cubes efficiently; handling rewards the smallest format the job tolerates. Settling the carry first and then testing it against the loading table gives a defensible answer, where starting from the container figure gives a cheap delivery of cans nobody wants to lift.
Fortitude21 builds across the size range in steel, stainless, aluminium and HDPE. Read how to choose a jerry can for the full path from liquid to specification.
Pick the size for the carry.
| Your use case | Recommended can | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| A reserve or a sample |  3L Mini Horizontal Can |
A one-hand top-up or trial volume. |
| A comfortable one-hand carry |  10L NATO Steel Can |
Ten kilograms filled, wider user base. |
| The standard workhorse |  20L NATO Steel Fuel Can |
NATO size for fuel and water. |
| Bulk at a refuelling point |  25L & 30L NATO Can |
Fewer handling moves per litre; add a tap. |
A standard 20 litre jerry can holds 5.28 US gallons or 4.40 imperial gallons. A 10 litre can holds 2.64 US gallons and a 25 litre can 6.60. One US gallon is 3.785 litres and one imperial gallon 4.546 litres, which is why the same can reads differently in the US and the UK.
A 20 litre NATO-pattern steel jerry can is about 34 cm long, 16 cm wide and 46 cm tall, and weighs about 3 kg empty. Stainless 20 litre cans run slightly larger, about 35 by 18 by 47.5 cm, and horizontal cans are lower and longer.
Close, but no. A US 5 gallon gas can holds 18.9 litres, about a litre less than a 20 litre jerry can, which holds 5.28 US gallons. Fuel quantities written in gallons on a US data sheet need converting before you count cans.
About 18 kg with petrol, 20 kg with diesel and 23 kg with water, for a NATO-pattern steel can weighing 3.1 kg empty. The contents alone weigh about 15, 17 and 20 kg: petrol runs 720 to 775 kg per cubic metre under EN 228 and diesel 820 to 845 under EN 590, both at 15 °C. Our 20 litre stainless water can, at 3.8 kg empty, comes to about 24 kg full.
It is the practical ceiling for one person to lift and carry any distance. Above it the filled weight forces two-person handling or equipment, which defeats the purpose of a portable container. The original wartime design settled on it for that reason and nothing has changed the arithmetic.
Size it on running hours rather than capacity. A can that holds slightly more than one refuelling interval avoids both a part-full can degrading in store and a mid-run top-up. For most portable generators that lands on 10 or 20 litres.
It depends on the neck. Plastic jerricans use neck sizes such as DIN 45, 51 and 61, where the number is roughly the outer thread diameter in millimetres. A NATO-pattern steel can closes with a cam lever or a screw cap; ours use a screw cap with a gasket. Match any cap, spout or tap to the neck size the maker states, because a DIN 51 part fits a DIN 51 neck and nothing else.
No. A drilled hole lets vapour out all the time, lets fuel out if the can tips, and nothing closes it. US rules allow a vent on a consumer gas can only if it closes by itself, without anyone touching it (40 CFR 59.611(c)). On a UN-marked can, a hole means the can is no longer the design that passed its tests. If a can glugs as it pours, fit a vented cap or a vented spout.
Not in Great Britain. A container sold for storing petrol and carried by hand may hold no more than 20 litres in metal or 10 in plastic (Petroleum (Consolidation) Regulations 2014, regulation 19 and Schedule 3). Elsewhere the national rule decides. A 25 or 30 litre can suits diesel, water or a fixed refuelling point, and full of diesel or water it weighs 25 to 34 kg, so it is drawn from with a tap.
One with at least 35 by 17 by 47 cm inside, for an upright NATO-pattern can that measures 34 by 16 by 46 cm, plus room for a hand at the handle. A horizontal 20 litre can, at 50.8 by 30.8 by 21.9 cm, suits a low tool box or an under-seat locker. Measure the can you own before you buy the box, since makers differ by a centimetre or two.
Yes, by about 2 kg at 20 litres. The ICRC and IFRC specification for a 20 litre HDPE jerrycan sets its empty weight at 1,000 g, plus or minus 5 per cent, against 3.1 kg for our NATO-pattern steel fuel can. Full of water that is about 21 kg against 23 kg. In Great Britain a plastic container for storing petrol stops at 10 litres, so a 20 litre plastic can there is for diesel, water or other liquids.
A 3 litre can is the usual size, strapped to a pannier rail or rack clear of the exhaust. Full of petrol our 3 litre steel can weighs about 3.3 kg. A 10 litre can weighs about 9.3 kg full, which counts against the luggage limit the handbook gives. Jerry can mounts by vehicle covers fitting a can to a motorcycle, a quad or a 4x4.
Filled to the brim, yes. The litres marked on a jerry can are its nominal capacity, and the space above that level is headspace for the liquid to expand into as it warms. Fill to the nominal figure and stop. For dangerous goods in transport, ADR 4.1.1.4 requires enough ullage that expansion causes no leak or distortion, and a liquid may not fill the packaging completely at 55 °C.
A standard jerry can holds 20 litres of water, petrol or diesel. Capacity is a volume, so 20 litres of any of them fills it and only the filled weight differs. Cans run from 3 to 30 litres. In the UK a portable petrol container may hold no more than 10 litres in plastic or 20 in metal. Fill to the nominal capacity rather than the brim, because liquid expands as it warms.
The standards and regulations this page relies on, at their issuing body. Where a market rule is named here, check the current revision before you specify against it.
Last reviewed by Clarence Cheang, Co-Founder.
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