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01 — Camp / Guide

What size cooler do I need?

Cooler sizing goes wrong for one reason: the number on the lid describes the outside of the box, and ice takes up half of what is inside it.

By Brijon M.Last updated How we pick
A hard-sided cooler open and packed with ice at a campsite

The short answer

Plan on roughly 15 quarts of rated capacity per person per two nights, then round up. Two people for a weekend want a 25 to 35 quart cooler; a family of four for a weekend wants 45 to 55; a family for a week wants 65 to 75. Ice takes a third to a half of the space.

01 — The catch

Why the number on the lid is not the capacity

A cooler's quart rating measures the internal volume of the box as molded, before you account for anything you will actually put in it. There is no standard requiring manufacturers to state usable volume, and almost none do.

Two things eat into it. The first is insulation: a rotomolded cooler carries up to two inches of foam in every wall and the lid, so a cooler with a 45-quart rating commonly has usable interior space in the high twenties. Blow-molded coolers have thinner walls and lose less, which is why a 52-quart Igloo and a 45-quart YETI hold a surprisingly similar amount.

The second is ice, and this one is larger than people expect. Getting multi-day performance from any cooler means an ice-to-contents ratio of about two to one by volume at the start of the trip. That is not a recommendation you can skip -- a half-iced cooler is a cooler that is warm by the second afternoon. So the real question is not how much food you have, it is how much food plus twice that in ice.

  • Rated quarts are the outside box. Expect usable interior space of roughly 60 to 70 percent of the rating on a rotomolded cooler.
  • Budget two parts ice to one part contents by volume for trips over one night.
  • Cans are 12 ounces but take about 20 ounces of space once stacked with gaps. Count the gaps.
  • A frozen gallon jug of water is a block of ice, a flat shelf and a gallon of drinking water later. Count it as ice, not as contents.

02 — The chart

Cooler size by people and nights

These bands assume you want cold food for the whole trip without buying ice along the way, and they assume you pack the cooler properly. If there is a store at the campground, you can go one band smaller and resupply ice.

Group and tripRated sizeRoughly holdsFormat
1-2 people, day trip16-20 qtLunch and 6-12 drinksSoft or small hard
1-2 people, 2 nights25-35 qt2 days of food plus iceHard cooler
3-4 people, 2 nights45-55 qtWeekend of food plus iceHard cooler
3-4 people, 4-5 nights65-75 qtA week of food plus iceHard, wheeled
5+ people or a weekTwo coolersFood and drinks separatedHard plus soft
Drinks only, any group20-30 qt extraSeparate drinks coolerSoft or backpack

03 — The real answer

Two coolers beats one big one

Past about 50 quarts, the better buy is usually two coolers instead of one larger one, and the reason has nothing to do with capacity.

Ice loss in a cooler is dominated by air exchange. Every time the lid opens, the cold air inside falls out and warm air replaces it. A drinks cooler gets opened twenty or thirty times a day; a food cooler gets opened three or four times. Put them in the same box and the food cooler is being opened thirty times a day, which costs you a full day of ice or more.

Splitting them also fixes the packing problem. A food cooler packed once, filled completely and kept shut performs close to its best case. A drinks cooler can be smaller, lighter and cheaper because it only needs to hold cold for a few hours at a time, and it can be the one that travels to the beach or the picnic table.

What size cooler for weekend camping?

For two people, 25 to 35 quarts. For a family of four, 45 to 55. The weekend case is where blow-molded gasketed coolers are genuinely sufficient, because two days is inside their range and the money saved is substantial. The brand-level version of that argument is in YETI vs Igloo coolers.

What size cooler for a family of four?

A 45 to 55 quart hard cooler for a weekend, 65 to 75 for four or five nights. At 65 quarts and above, buy wheels: a full 70-quart cooler weighs enough that two adults carry it awkwardly and one adult cannot.

What is a good mid-size cooler?

The 45 to 55 quart band is the one that covers the widest range of trips -- a family weekend, a long weekend for two, or a week for one person. If you are only ever going to own one cooler, buy in this band. Full field in best coolers for camping.

Do I need a cooler at all for one night?

Often not. One night of food can go in a soft cooler with a couple of frozen bottles, which is lighter, cheaper and stores flat. See best cooler backpacks and hard cooler vs soft cooler.

04 — Adjustments

Things that change the answer

Four variables move the right size by a band in either direction, and all four are worth checking before you buy.

Resupply: if there is ice for sale within a short drive, size down. The whole case for a large cooler is carrying several days of cold with no way to top it up.

Heat: in genuine summer heat in the South or Southwest, size up one band or accept buying ice daily. Ambient temperature is the largest single variable in ice retention and it is not under your control.

Trunk space: a 70-quart cooler is a large rigid box that cannot be squeezed, and it competes with the tent, the chairs and the passengers. Measure the trunk before you measure the food.

Food safety: the working rule is that perishable food must stay at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. A cooler that is undersized for the ice it needs is not just inconvenient, it is the actual mechanism by which camping food goes bad.

05 — Honest limits

What we did not test, and what that means

The sizing bands above are arithmetic from stated capacities, the standard two-to-one ice ratio and typical food volumes -- not the output of a measurement we made. We have not run controlled ice-retention trials, so no hour figures appear anywhere on this page.

Capacities, construction types and wheel sizes for the three picks below come from manufacturer specifications. The 40-degree food safety threshold is the USDA figure, linked at the bottom. We publish no prices; every buy link opens a live Amazon search for the model named. Our criteria are at how we pick.

What to buy

The gear we would buy for this

Trail & Terminal earns a commission when you buy through our Amazon links, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we pick -- see our affiliate disclosure and selection method.

1

Best for one or two people, a day or a night

Igloo BMX 25 Quart

The small end done properly: a gasketed lid and rubber latches on a cooler you can carry one-handed when full.

Most people buy a cooler two bands too large, and this is the one to consider instead if your camping is short and your car is full. Twenty-five quarts is lunch, dinner and breakfast for two with ice, or a day's drinks for four.

The reason to pick this over an unbranded small cooler is the seal. A gasketed lid with latches that compress it is worth roughly a full day of ice over an unsealed lid of the same wall thickness, and at this size you feel that difference immediately because there is less thermal mass to coast on.

Specs

  • 25-quart rated capacity
  • Insulated gasketed lid with rubberized T-grip latches
  • Steel-reinforced corners and tie-down loops
  • Threaded drain plug

Good for

  • Small enough to carry full with one hand, which no 45-quart cooler is
  • Gasket and latches put it a clear step above basic small coolers
  • Fits in a footwell or behind a seat rather than owning the trunk

Bad at

  • 25 quarts is a day and a night, not a weekend for two with drinks
  • Blow-molded, so ice life is roughly a day and a half in heat
  • No wheels, though at this size that is not a real loss
2

Best for the one-cooler household

YETI Tundra 45

The mid-size band done to the highest standard. Rated 45 quarts, usable high twenties, and ice measured in days rather than hours.

If you are going to own exactly one cooler, this is the size band to own it in: a family weekend, a long weekend for two, or a solo week all fit. That versatility is the actual argument for the mid-size, more than any insulation spec.

Go in knowing the capacity math. Thick walls mean the usable interior is roughly 60 to 70 percent of the rating, so pack a dry run at home before a trip that matters. For whether the premium is worth it against a mainstream brand, see YETI vs Igloo coolers.

Specs

  • One-piece rotomolded shell with pressure-injected polyurethane
  • Up to two inches of insulation including the lid
  • Full-perimeter gasket with rubber T-latches
  • Five-year warranty

Good for

  • Holds ice for several days in heat when pre-chilled and packed full
  • The 45-quart band fits the widest range of trips of any single size
  • Construction and warranty make it a decade-plus purchase

Bad at

  • Usable capacity is well under the 45-quart label -- measure before you commit
  • Very heavy empty, and heavier still at capacity with no wheels
  • Costs several times a blow-molded cooler of similar usable volume
3

Best for a family for four or more nights

RTIC 65 QT Hard Cooler

Rotomolded, three inches of insulation, and the capacity a family week actually needs -- at a mainstream price.

This is the size where the arithmetic in the chart above stops being theoretical. A family of four for five nights needs somewhere around 40 quarts of food and drinks and twice that in ice, and only a 65-quart-and-up cooler absorbs both.

The thing to plan for at this size is not the cooler, it is the lifting. Sixty-five quarts of ice and food is well over a hundred pounds and it has to come out of a trunk. Load it at the car and pack it in place, or buy a wheeled model. The two-cooler strategy above applies with full force here -- keep the drinks somewhere else. See best cooler backpacks.

Specs

  • 65-quart rated capacity, rotomolded one-piece construction
  • Up to three inches of closed-cell polyurethane insulation
  • Freezer-grade gasket with heavy-duty T-latches
  • Integrated non-slip feet and molded tie-down slots

Good for

  • Genuinely holds a week of food for four with the right ice ratio
  • Three inches of insulation is more than most premium coolers carry
  • Substantially cheaper than the premium brands at the same capacity

Bad at

  • Extremely heavy when full -- this is a two-person lift every time
  • No wheels on the standard model, which at 65 quarts is a real omission
  • Takes a large fixed block of trunk space whether it is full or not

Questions

Frequently asked

What size cooler do I need for camping?
Roughly 15 quarts of rated capacity per person per two nights, rounded up. Two people for a weekend want 25 to 35 quarts; a family of four for a weekend wants 45 to 55; a family for a week wants 65 to 75.
How much ice do I need in a cooler?
About two parts ice to one part contents by volume at the start of the trip. That ratio is why a cooler's usable food capacity is roughly a third of its rated quarts on a multi-night trip.
Why does my 45 quart cooler not hold 45 quarts?
The rating measures the outside box. Up to two inches of insulation in every wall and the lid eats into it, so usable interior space on a rotomolded 45-quart cooler is commonly in the high twenties.
Is it better to have one big cooler or two small ones?
Two, past about 50 quarts. A drinks cooler gets opened dozens of times a day and a food cooler only a few; separating them stops the food cooler losing its cold air every time somebody wants a drink.
How many cans fit in a 20 quart cooler?
Around 24 cans with no ice, or roughly 12 cans with enough ice to keep them cold. Cans stack with gaps, so a 12-ounce can occupies closer to 20 ounces of cooler space in practice.
What size cooler fits in a car trunk?
Measure first -- a 45-quart hard cooler is typically around 25 inches long and cannot be compressed. In a sedan trunk shared with a tent and chairs, 35 to 45 quarts is usually the practical ceiling.

References

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This page sits in Camp -- campsite kit: shelter, sleep, kitchen, light and power.

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