Key takeaways

One cubic yard of soil covers 54 sq ft at 6 inches and fills a 4 × 8 ft raised bed about 10 inches deep.
Flower beds need 6–8 inches of soil. Vegetable raised beds need 10–12. A lawn top-dressing of compost is only ¼–½ inch.
Bulk soil is sold by the cubic yard. Bags run 0.75–2 cu ft, and 27 one-foot bags make a yard.
Published prices run $30–$50 a yard for garden soil, $20–$55 for compost and $5–$18 for fill dirt, before delivery.

How much soil do I need?

A 4 × 8 ft bed filled 6 inches deep needs 0.62 cubic yards of garden soil with 5% extra. That's about 0.56 tons, or 17 bags of 1 cu ft. Fill the same bed to 12 inches, the usual depth for a vegetable raised bed, and you need 1.24 cubic yards, or 34 bags. At that size, bulk usually starts to make sense, so ask your yard for 1.25 yards and see what their smallest load is.

Here's the same math for the beds people ask about most. No waste is added, so add 5–10% to whatever you order.

Garden soil at 0.9 tons per cubic yard. Raised-bed mix is lighter, about 0.7. Bags rounded up.
Project	Size and depth	Cubic yards	Tons	1 cu ft bags
Raised bed, small	4 × 4 ft, 12 in	0.59	0.53	16
Raised bed, standard	4 × 8 ft, 10 in	0.99	0.89	27
Raised bed, standard	4 × 8 ft, 12 in	1.19	1.07	32
Raised bed, long	4 × 12 ft, 12 in	1.78	1.60	48
Border along a fence	12 × 4 ft, 6 in	0.89	0.80	24
New garden bed	10 × 10 ft, 6 in	1.85	1.67	50

How to measure for soil

Measure the inside of the bed. A bed that's 4 × 8 ft on the outside and built from 2× lumber is about 3 ft 9 in by 7 ft 9 in inside. That's 29 sq ft instead of 32, roughly 9% less soil. For an in-ground bed, measure the longest and widest points.
Measure the depth you're adding, not the height of the bed. A new 12-inch bed on bare ground needs the full 12 inches. Topping up an old bed that has sunk might need only 2 or 3.
Choose the soil type. It changes the weight, not the yards. Compost weighs about two-thirds as much as garden soil for the same volume.
Set the waste. The default 5% is right for topping up. For a brand-new raised bed, slide it to 10% to cover settling.

How deep should soil be?

Project	Depth	What to order
Top-dress a lawn	¼–½ in	Screened compost
Yearly top-up for beds	1–2 in	Compost
New lawn from seed or sod	4–6 in	Screened topsoil
Flower or shrub bed	6–8 in	Garden soil or planting mix
Vegetable raised bed	10–12 in	Raised-bed mix, or garden soil plus compost
Deep-rooted crops (tomatoes, squash)	12–18 in	Raised-bed mix
Fill a low spot or raise the grade	As needed	Fill dirt, then 4–6 in of topsoil on top

Which soil should you buy?

Yards use these names loosely, so ask what's in the pile. Here's what each one is for.

Garden soil or planting mix. Topsoil blended with compost. The default for in-ground flower and shrub beds.
Raised-bed mix. Lighter and higher in compost, so it drains well in a box. Some yards also sell a "landscape mix" with a lot of sand in it, which is fine for shrubs and less good for vegetables.
Compost. Not a soil on its own. Blend it into beds, or spread it thin on top of beds and lawns.
Fill dirt. Subsoil for filling holes and building up grade. It compacts well, which is the point, and grows poor plants, which is the catch.
Topsoil. Screened native soil for lawns and leveling. Use the topsoil calculator for those jobs, because it carries packed and wet weights.
Potting soil. For containers only. It's sold in bags and costs far too much to fill a raised bed with.

How much does soil cost?

Fill dirt is cheap. Planting soil and compost cost more, and delivery can cost as much as the soil on a small order. Here are the ranges the cost guides published this year.

What you're buying	Published price	Source
Garden soil (organic planting soil)	$30–$50per cubic yard	[1]
Garden soil with manure	$30–$50per cubic yard	[2]
Landscape mix	$25–$50per cubic yard	[1]
Organic compost	$20–$55per cubic yard	[1]
Leaf compost	$15–$30per cubic yard	[2]
Fill dirt	$5–$18per cubic yard	[2]
Fill dirt, screened	$12–$20per cubic yard	[3]
Bulk soil delivery, up to 15 cu ydSome suppliers charge $65-$100 per hour instead	$50–$150per delivery	[1]

[1] Angi, What Is the Cost of Topsoil? [2026 Data], updated Oct 2026.
[2] Lawn Love, How Much Does Topsoil Cost in 2026?, updated Oct 2026.
[3] Angi, How Much Does Fill Dirt Cost? [2026 Data], updated Sep 2026.

Prices as published by each source, checked November 2026. They are national ranges, not quotes: your local yard can be well above or below them.

For a new 4 × 8 ft bed filled 12 inches deep with 10% for settling, you need 1.3 cubic yards. At $30–$50 a yard, that's $39–$65 of garden soil. Add a $50–$150 delivery fee and the total is $89–$215. The fee is per trip, not per yard, so two beds cost $78–$130 in soil and still one delivery. Splitting a load with a neighbor works the same way.

For a bed deeper than 12 inches, you can fill the bottom with fill dirt and put garden soil only where the roots are. A 4 × 8 ft bed 24 inches deep holds 2.37 yards. All garden soil is $71–$119. The bottom foot in fill dirt ($6–$21) and the top foot in garden soil ($36–$59) comes to $42–$80.

Bags or a delivery?

One cubic yard is 27 bags of 1 cu ft. Under about half a yard, which is one small raised bed, bags are easier: no delivery fee, no pile on the driveway. Past one yard, bulk is usually cheaper. To check, type the bag price into the calculator with per bag, then switch to the yard price and add the delivery fee.

Hauling it yourself? A yard of garden soil weighs about 1,800 lb, more when wet (the yards to tons converter has the other soils). That's at or over the payload of many half-ton pickups, so check the sticker on the driver's door frame before you let the loader drop a full bucket in the bed.

The soil formula

Cubic feet = length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (in) ÷ 12
Cubic yards = cubic feet ÷ 27
Tons = cubic yards × 0.9 for garden soil, 1.1 for fill dirt, 0.7 for raised-bed mix, 0.6 for compost

Bags are cubic feet divided by the bag size, rounded up. The weights come from landscape-supply charts listed on the methodology page. If you're putting mulch on top of a new bed, the same length and width work there too, at 2–3 inches. For any other material, the cubic yard calculator does the same volume math.

Soil coverage per cubic yard

A cubic yard spread 1 inch thick covers 324 square feet. Divide 324 by your depth in inches to get the coverage.

Square feet one cubic yard covers, by depth

Every extra inch of depth shrinks the area. Exact figures in the table below.

1 in324 sq ft
2 in162 sq ft
4 in81 sq ft
6 in54 sq ft

Bag counts use 1 cu ft bags. Garden soil also comes in 0.75, 1.5 and 2 cu ft bags. Change the size in the calculator.
Depth	1 cubic yard covers	Yards per 100 sq ft	Bags (1 cu ft) per 100 sq ft
1 in	324 sq ft	0.31 yd³	9 bags
2 in	162 sq ft	0.62 yd³	17 bags
4 in	81 sq ft	1.23 yd³	34 bags
6 in	54 sq ft	1.85 yd³	50 bags
8 in	41 sq ft	2.47 yd³	67 bags
10 in	32 sq ft	3.09 yd³	84 bags
12 in	27 sq ft	3.70 yd³	100 bags

Frequently asked questions

How much soil do I need for a 4 × 8 raised bed?

Filled 12 inches deep, a 4 × 8 ft bed holds 32 cubic feet: 1.19 cubic yards or 32 bags of 1 cu ft. At 10 inches it takes 26.7 cubic feet, just under one yard, or 27 bags. For a brand-new bed, add 10% for settling and order 1.3 yards for the 12-inch version.

How many bags of soil make a cubic yard?

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so it takes 27 bags of 1 cu ft, 36 bags of 0.75 cu ft, 18 bags of 1.5 cu ft or 13.5 bags of 2 cu ft. Check the bag, because garden soil is sold in all four sizes and the price per bag tells you nothing until you know which one it is.

What is the difference between fill dirt, topsoil and garden soil?

Fill dirt is subsoil with little organic matter. It packs down and stays put, which is what you want for raising a grade, and why plants struggle in it. Topsoil is the screened upper layer, used for lawns and leveling. Garden soil is topsoil blended with compost for planting beds. The topsoil calculator covers lawn and grading jobs.

How much does a yard of soil weigh?

Garden soil runs about 0.9 tons (1,800 lb) per loose cubic yard, fill dirt about 1.1 tons, raised-bed mix about 0.7 and compost about 0.6. Wet soil weighs more. The yards to tons converter lists the ranges for each.

Why did the soil in my raised bed sink?

Fresh mix is full of air, and watering pulls it down. The compost in it also breaks down over the season, so the level keeps dropping slowly. That is normal. Top the bed up each spring with an inch or two of compost: for a 4 × 8 ft bed, 2 inches is 5.3 cubic feet, about 6 bags of 1 cu ft.

How much compost do I need to top-dress a lawn?

Spread ¼–½ inch. For 1,000 sq ft that is 0.77 cubic yards at ¼ inch or 1.54 yards at ½ inch. Use screened compost so it settles down between the grass blades instead of sitting on top of them.

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