To figure out how much asphalt you need, multiply length × width × thickness in feet to get cubic feet, then multiply by 145 lb and divide by 2,000 for tons. A 12 × 50 ft driveway at 3 in compacted works out to 10.88 tons. Add 5% for waste and you'd order 11.5 tons, which fits on one 20-ton truck.
Asphalt plants sell hot mix by weight, so everything comes back to tons. You need three numbers: the length and width of the area in feet, and the compacted thickness in inches. Then:
That's the exact math inside our asphalt calculator, and the example above is its default setting. It also rounds up to whole truckloads and prices the material.
Use compacted thickness, not loose. Hot mix goes down thicker and the roller squeezes it, so "3 inches" means the finished mat. And 145 lb/ft³ is typical, not a law. If your plant gives you a different density, change it in the calculator.
At 2 in thick, one ton covers about 82.8 sq ft. At 3 in it drops to 55.2 sq ft, and at 4 in it's 41.4. The formula is 2,000 ÷ (145 × thickness in feet). Flipped, you get tons per 1,000 sq ft.
| Compacted thickness | Sq ft per ton | Sq yd per ton | Tons per 1,000 sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 in | 82.8 | 9.2 | 12.08 |
| 3 in | 55.2 | 6.1 | 18.13 |
| 4 in | 41.4 | 4.6 | 24.17 |
| 6 in | 27.6 | 3.1 | 36.25 |
These are exact tonnages at 145 lb/ft³ with no waste added. Notice how each extra inch adds about 6 tons per 1,000 sq ft. Going from 2 to 3 in on a driveway sounds minor, but it's 50% more asphalt.
A quick field check: one square yard at one inch thick weighs 108.75 lb, or about 0.054 tons. Multiply by square yards and inches and you're close enough to sanity-check a quote on the back of an envelope.
Thickness depends on what's under it and what drives on it. These are the conventional ranges most residential pavers work from:
The asphalt is only the top layer. Underneath, a new driveway normally sits on 4 to 8 in of compacted crushed aggregate. That base carries the load and drains water away. A thin mat on a good base will outlast a thick mat on mud, so ask every bidder how deep the base is and how they compact it. You can size the stone with our gravel calculator, and if you're digging out old material first, the excavation calculator tells you how much dirt is leaving the site.
Here's the calculator's output for some typical jobs, at 145 lb/ft³ with 5% waste and $130 a ton. The "tons to order" column is rounded up to the next tenth, and truckloads assume a standard 20-ton truck.
| Project | Size and thickness | Exact tons | Tons to order (+5%) | 20-ton loads | Material cost at $130/t |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parking pad | 10 × 20 ft, 2 in | 2.42 | 2.6 | 1 | $338 |
| Parking pad | 10 × 20 ft, 3 in | 3.63 | 3.9 | 1 | $507 |
| Single driveway | 12 × 50 ft, 2 in | 7.25 | 7.7 | 1 | $1,001 |
| Single driveway | 12 × 50 ft, 3 in | 10.88 | 11.5 | 1 | $1,495 |
| Single driveway | 12 × 50 ft, 4 in | 14.50 | 15.3 | 1 | $1,989 |
| Double driveway | 20 × 50 ft, 3 in | 18.13 | 19.1 | 1 | $2,483 |
| Double driveway | 20 × 50 ft, 4 in | 24.17 | 25.4 | 2 | $3,302 |
| Long two-car driveway | 24 × 60 ft, 3 in | 26.10 | 27.5 | 2 | $3,575 |
| Long two-car driveway | 24 × 60 ft, 4 in | 34.80 | 36.6 | 2 | $4,758 |
| Small parking lot | 60 × 100 ft, 3 in | 108.75 | 114.2 | 6 | $14,846 |
| Small parking lot | 60 × 100 ft, 4 in | 145.00 | 152.3 | 8 | $19,799 |
Remember that cost column is asphalt only. It doesn't include base stone, grading, labor, equipment or the paver's margin, and those usually add up to more than the mix. For installed prices per square foot, see our guide on how much it costs to pave a driveway.
Divide the tons you're ordering by the truck size and round up. The calculator offers three sizes:
Truck count matters more than it looks. The 20 × 50 ft driveway at 4 in needs 25.4 tons, so it's just over the line on both 20- and 25-ton trucks and takes 2 loads either way. With 10-ton trucks it's 3. At 3 in the same driveway is 19.1 tons and fits on a single 20-ton truck. If you're right on a boundary, talk to the paver before you settle on a thickness.
This guide and the calculator are built around hot mix asphalt, the material plants load into trucks and pavers lay with a screed and roller. It's what you want for a new driveway, a full overlay, or a parking lot.
Cold patch is a mix you can use at outdoor temperature. It's for potholes and small repairs, not whole surfaces. It's usually sold by the bag, so check the coverage printed on the bag.
Asphalt millings are ground-up old pavement. People use them for rural driveways and parking areas because they pack down firm once compacted. They behave more like a gravel surface than new asphalt, so size them by volume and ask your supplier for their weight per yard. Don't plug millings into a hot-mix density and assume the numbers match.
If you're weighing asphalt against a slab, our concrete calculator gives you cubic yards for the same footprint so you can compare bids.
A little always gets lost. Some mix stays in the truck bed and hopper, some goes to raking edges and feathering joints, and the ground is rarely as flat as the tape says.
The calculator adds 5% and rounds up to the next tenth of a ton, which is a sensible allowance for a prepared, graded base. If the base is uneven or you're overlaying a driveway with dips, a bit more is reasonable. Running short is the expensive mistake here. A second delivery costs time and money, and a cold joint where the first load ended never looks or lasts as well as a continuous mat.
Enter length, width and thickness to see tons to order, truckloads and material cost.
Open the Asphalt CalculatorA 12 × 50 ft single driveway needs 7.25 tons at 2 in compacted, 10.88 tons at 3 in, and 14.5 tons at 4 in, at 145 lb per cubic foot. With 5% added for waste, order 7.7, 11.5 or 15.3 tons.
At 145 lb per cubic foot, one ton of hot mix covers about 82.8 sq ft at 2 in thick, 55.2 sq ft at 3 in, 41.4 sq ft at 4 in, and 27.6 sq ft at 6 in. The formula is 2,000 ÷ (145 × thickness in feet).
A standard plant truck carries about 20 tons. Smaller tri-axles carry about 10 tons and transfer setups about 25. Divide the tons you're ordering by the truck size and round up to get the number of loads.
Most new residential driveways are 2 to 3 in of compacted asphalt over 4 to 8 in of compacted aggregate base. Heavy vehicles or soft soil call for 3 to 4 in, usually in two lifts. Overlays on sound pavement are often 1.5 to 2 in.
It varies by region and moves with liquid asphalt prices, so get a local quote. The calculator defaults to $130 a ton, which puts the material for a 12 × 50 ft driveway at 3 in at about $1,495. Base work and labor are extra.