Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 16, 2026

Cubic yard

A cubic yard is an imperial / U.S. customary unit of volume used in Canada and the United States. It is defined as the volume of a cube with sides of 1 yard in length.

Last revised
Jun 16, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
230 w
Citations
2
Source
Cubic yard
A GRW ballast wagon with
a volume of 8 cubic yards
General information
Unit systemImperial and US customary
Unit ofVolume
Symbolyd3, cu yd
Conversions
1 yd3 in ...... is equal to ...
   SI units   0.764554857984 m3
   Imperial and US customary   27 ft3

A cubic yard (symbol yd3)1 is an imperial / U.S. customary (non-SI non-metric) unit of volume used in Canada and the United States. It is defined as the volume of a cube with sides of 1 yard (3 feet, 36 inches, 0.9144 meters) in length.

Symbols and abbreviations

The IEEE symbol for the cubic yard is yd3.1 A non-standard abbreviation is cu yd.

Cubic yard per second

One cubic yard per second (1 yd3/s) is a unit of volume flow rate. It corresponds to one cubic yard passing through a specified area every second.

Cubic yard per minute

One cubic yard per minute (1 yd3/min) is a unit of volume flow rate. It corresponds to one cubic yard passing through a specified area every minute.

  • 1 yd3/s = 60 yd3/min

Conversions

1 cubic yard 
≡ 27 cubic feet
46656 cubic inches
764.554857984 litres
21.0223197 imperial bushels
⁠21+74859/107521 US bushels
168.1785574 imperial gallons
⁠201+75/77 US gallons
⁠4+436/539 oil barrels
See also

See also

References

References

  1. IEEE Std 260.1-2004