Per square foot is the only fair way to compare two boxes that are not the same size. It is also the easiest number in this business to fudge, because most sellers publish a price without an area, or an area without a price. We publish both, so you can run the division yourself.
The short answer: a 20-ft comes out around $20 a square foot and a 40-ft around $15. That gap is why we steer people toward the bigger box whenever the driveway can take one. What follows is the arithmetic behind both figures, where square feet quietly stop telling the truth, and the one comparison we are not going to fake.
The two numbers, divided
Start with what the price already covers. Both figures below are what the box costs sitting on your ground. Free delivery and leveling reach 75 road miles out from Woodlawn, and anywhere inside that ring the haul is already in the price, along with the welded lockbox. Nothing gets added on afterward. That matters more here than anywhere else, because a per square foot figure built on a number that excludes the haul is not worth doing.
Now the two divisions. The 20-ft: about 160 square feet of floor, from $3,200 delivered. Divide 3,200 by 160 and it lands exactly on 20, so call the 20-ft about $20 a square foot. That area is not a figure we invented for this page. It is the one printed on our 20-ft container page, and you can go read it there.
The 40-ft: about 320 square feet of floor, from around $4,900 delivered. Divide 4,900 by 320 and you get a little over 15. Call it about $15 a square foot. Same method, same sort of inputs, and a distinctly better answer.
Both areas are written as about for a reason. They are the rounded floor figures we publish for each size, not a tape run around your particular box.
| Container | Floor area | Delivered price | Roughly per square foot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20-ft | About 160 sq ft | From $3,200 | About $20 |
| 40-ft | About 320 sq ft | From around $4,900 | About $15 |
| 40-ft high-cube | About 320 sq ft | Quoted | Same floor as the 40-ft |
Figures current as of August 2026, and the used container market does move. The last column is our own division, not a rate we charge. Give us a call at (276) 237-6144 for where the number sits today.
Two things about that table. First, the last column is not a price. Nobody at this yard will ever quote you by the square foot, and you cannot order half a box. It is a comparison tool and nothing else. Second, both dollar figures are the used cargo-worthy grade, our cheapest way into either size. A like-new one-trip box carries a premium over used, so the same division against a one-trip price comes out higher for both.
Why the longer box costs less per foot
The 40-ft is not cheaper per square foot because we discount it. It is cheaper because most of what goes into putting a container on your ground does not care how long the container is.
Doubling the floor really only doubles one thing, and that is the steel. Here is what it does not double:
- The delivery run. One tilt-bed truck makes one trip out and one trip back, whether it is carrying a 20 or a 40.
- The leveling. Same blocks, same crew, same fussing to get it flat with the doors swinging true.
- The lockbox. One welded lockbox per container, whatever the length.
- The door end. A standard container has cargo doors on one end only, so a 40-ft carries the same hardware as a 20-ft with twice the box behind it.
- The handling. One lift at the yard, one inspection, one set of paperwork, one scheduling call.
Spread those fixed costs across twice the floor and the per square foot figure has to fall. That is the entire mechanism. It is also why our 40-ft container page has carried the words best value per square foot since long before this page existed. We are not making a fresh claim, just showing the working behind an old one.
Distance is the one cost in that list that is not truly fixed. Inside 75 road miles of Woodlawn it is already in the number. Past that line we quote the mileage up front, and a longer haul lifts the total on either size, and the figure per square foot with it. For the wider view, our guide to what drives container prices walks through all five things that move a quote.
Where square feet stop telling the truth
The high-cube row in that table has no figure in the last column. That was deliberate.
A 40-ft high-cube takes up the identical patch of ground a standard 40-ft does: 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, about 320 square feet of floor. Run the division and you get the same answer as the row above, which tells you nothing. Everything a high-cube adds happens above the floor, and square feet cannot see upward.
What it adds is a foot of height. A high-cube stands 9 ft 6 in instead of 8 ft 6 in, leaving roughly 9 feet of clear interior. In volume that is about 2,690 cubic feet against about 2,390 for a standard 40-ft, around 300 cubic feet more air on the same floor. For scale, a 20-ft holds about 1,170 cubic feet.
So a per square foot comparison understates a high-cube, flatly. Whether that matters depends on what you are putting in there. Stacking pallets two high, rolling in a tall machine, or finishing a ceiling and still standing up straight are all height problems, and floor math will steer you wrong on every one. Storing furniture at ground level, the extra foot earns you nothing. Measure the tallest thing you own before a square foot figure picks your container.
For a high-cube figure, call (276) 237-6144 and you will have it before the day is out.
When the cheapest square foot is the wrong buy
Per square foot always rewards the bigger container. Your property may not. Before the arithmetic picks your box, four things get a veto over it:
- Room for the truck. A 20-ft wants roughly 65 feet of straight clearance to set, a 40-ft closer to 95, and that is before the driver finds room to back in. A 40-ft that cannot get down your driveway has no price per square foot at all.
- The ground. Reasonably firm and reasonably level, with gravel the ideal. Soft wet dirt is what trips up most drops, and a longer box hands it more weight to swallow.
- Two locations. If you need locked storage in two separate places, two 20-ft units beat one 40-ft every time, whatever the division says.
- Floor you will actually use. 160 square feet you fill beats 320 square feet sitting half empty. A cheaper figure per foot is only cheaper if you needed the feet.
That last one catches people. Per square foot is a ratio, and a ratio will happily talk you into buying more than you have any use for. The better question is how much locked, dry floor the job actually needs, and whether the truck can reach the spot you want it in.
The fix costs nothing. Put a couple of pictures of the spot and the way in with your quote request, and access gets settled before a date goes on the calendar.
The storage unit question, answered honestly
Most people searching for a container price per square foot are really asking one thing: is this cheaper than a unit at the mini storage place out on the highway? We are not going to answer that with a number, and you deserve to know why.
We have no verified rate for mini storage, for sheds, or for the portable moving containers you see on driveways, and rates for all three are set locally. What the place two exits down charges is not what the next county charges. Any figure we printed here would be a guess dressed up as research, and you would have no way to check it. So we are leaving that comparison blank on purpose.
What we will hand you is the method, and it is the same one you just watched. Get the monthly rate in writing. Get the real square footage of the unit. Run the division. Then set that against a container, where the payment happens once and the steel is yours afterward, on your own ground rather than across town behind a gate.
There is one crossover figure we do stand behind, and it concerns our own rentals rather than anybody else's. Renting a 20-ft starts at $165 a month, a 40-ft at $235, month to month and no contract either way. Keep either one long enough and the rent stops being cheaper than ownership, and we put that turn at 18 to 20 months. Our buy versus rent guide publishes the same figure, and it is the one we go by ourselves.
Read it the obvious way. Well under a year, renting usually wins. Past two years, or if nobody can say how long the job runs, ownership tends to win and the square foot math above becomes the right lens. Whichever way you lean, the number comes back the same day you ask for it. We answer at (276) 237-6144 from eight until five, weekdays, and the quote form on this page reaches the same desk. The rest of the pricing picture sits on our container cost guide.