Buyer guides

How Many Air Pillows Should You Order?

By the Custom Air Pillows team · May 12, 2026 · 6 min read

Order too few air pillows and your packing line stalls mid-shift while someone hunts for a spare roll. Order too many and you tie up cash and warehouse space in inflated film you will not touch for a year. The goal is a run that clears in a sensible window and still earns a bulk price break.

Air pillows are sold deflated on the roll and inflated at the station, so the math is a little different from ordering pre-made boxes. Here is a working method that ties your order to real parcel volume rather than a guess.

Start with daily parcel volume

Count the parcels you ship on a normal day, then multiply by the number of shipping days you want one order to cover. Most operations buy film for one to three months at a time to keep the per-unit price low without overcommitting to a single artwork or film gauge. If you ship 400 parcels a day and want a two-month buffer at roughly 22 shipping days a month, you are planning for about 17,600 parcels.

Estimate void per carton

The number that drives everything is void percentage: the empty space in a packed carton once the product is inside. A snug polybag inside a right-sized mailer might be five to ten percent void. A single small item rattling in a stock carton can be sixty percent or more. Weigh your typical order profile and pick an average. Most e-commerce operations land somewhere between 30 and 45 percent void.

Convert void into pillows per carton

Air pillows come in common inflated sizes, and each size fills a predictable volume. Divide the average void volume in a carton by the volume of one inflated pillow to get pillows per carton. The table below gives a practical starting point for typical carton footprints and a mid-range void assumption.

Carton size	Approx. void volume	Pillow size	Pillows per carton
Small (6x6x6 in)	~90 cu in	4×8 in	2–3
Medium (10x8x6 in)	~200 cu in	8×8 in	4–6
Large (12x12x8 in)	~450 cu in	8×12 in	7–10
Extra large (16x12x12 in)	~900 cu in	8×12 in	12–18

Check roll yield

Film is quoted by the roll, and each roll lists a pillow count at a given inflated size. A single roll of 8×8 inch pillows can yield several thousand pillows once inflated. Take your total pillows needed, divide by the pillows per roll on the spec sheet, and round up to whole rolls. Always confirm the yield figure is for the exact size and gauge you plan to run, because a heavier gauge or larger pillow lowers the count per roll.

Add spares and a peak buffer

Build in five to ten percent for spares: film that gets misfed, pillows that seal short, and the natural waste of threading a fresh roll. If your volume spikes for a seasonal peak, size the order to the peak week, not the average, or you will run out exactly when you are busiest.

Choosing for your order

Once you have a target quantity, the film choice narrows it down further. Lighter loads run fine on standard air pillows, while heavier or fragile shipments may push you toward quilted cushion pillows. If sustainability is a factor, price the same quantity against recycled-content pillows. Not sure where your profile lands? Our team reviews your parcel mix and recommends a size and gauge, and the blog covers the trade-offs in more depth.

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