Personal item bag size rules explained: what airlines actually allow

Short answer: airline personal-item sizes are written three ways — a hard cm/in box, an "under the seat" test, or a sizer you must drop the bag into. The strictest axis is almost always depth, and a 25 × 17 × 14 cm bag clears every major carrier's published limit.

Stand at a departure gate long enough and you learn that "personal item" is not one rule. It is a label each airline attaches to its own box, and the boxes differ most in depth — the dimension that decides whether a handbag passes at all.

What airlines mean by a personal item

A personal item is the small extra piece you may carry in addition to your main cabin bag, or on the cheapest fares instead of it. It exists for what you want within arm's reach: passport, phone, wallet, medication. Nearly every version of the rule carries the same condition — the bag has to fit under the seat.

That under-seat origin explains the odd shapes. British Airways and Air France both cap the personal item at 40 × 30 × 15 cm / 15.7 × 11.8 × 5.9 in; the 15 cm / 5.9 in figure is a seat-frame clearance, not a round number somebody liked. Overhead locker space is scarce; floor space is not. Our guide to a personal item bag that fits airline limits starts from the same premise.

Why the same word produces different boxes

Three things move the number: the aircraft, the fare structure, and how hard the airline enforces it. A carrier at tight seat pitch publishes a shallower box than one with wider spacing. A carrier selling cabin bags as an add-on has a reason to keep the free box small.

Enforcement is the variable nobody publishes. Ryanair is known for sizer frames in the boarding queue. Lufthansa Group airlines rarely measure a soft handbag, but they do put the 8 kg cabin bag on a scale.

The four allowance families you will meet in Europe

Nearly every European short-haul carrier falls into one of four groups.

• 40 × 20 × 25 cm / 15.7 × 7.9 × 9.8 in — Ryanair's free small bag: tight on width.
• 45 × 36 × 20 cm / 17.7 × 14.2 × 7.9 in — easyJet's small cabin bag, wheels and handles counted in.
• 40 × 30 × 20 cm / 15.7 × 11.8 × 7.9 in — Wizz Air, Vueling and Transavia, the safest number to shop against.
• 40 × 30 × 15 cm / 15.7 × 11.8 × 5.9 in and 40 × 30 × 10 cm / 15.7 × 11.8 × 3.9 in — the full-service carriers, where the personal item is a second piece beside a full cabin bag.

European personal item allowances side by side

The table compares the free piece only. The cabin bag that may sit beside it is noted at the end, because that is where the real value difference between carriers lives.

How to measure your bag the way a sizer will

Measure packed, standing on a hard floor, with a tape that does not stretch. Take the widest point of each side rather than the base, because a bag that bulges in the middle gets measured at the middle. Count anything clipped or strapped to the outside.

• Longest side first. Write all three numbers down and sort them largest to smallest before comparing.
• Press, do not crush. A soft bag can be squeezed into a frame; what you are testing is whether it stays that size once you let go.
• Weigh it loaded. Where a weight limit exists it is usually what gets enforced. A bag about 600 g / 1.3 lb empty reaches 2 kg quickly once a power bank and a hard glasses case go in — see what a power bank and cables add.

The method is identical whether the bag is 20 cm or 55 cm: how to measure a handbag correctly walks through it, and 25 cm in inches and centimetres gives the conversions.

What happens when you are over

Two outcomes, depending on where you are caught. At a bag-drop desk the piece goes into the hold for a fee; at the gate the fee is higher, because it is priced to change behaviour rather than to cover handling.

The defence is unglamorous but reliable: keep the bag soft, keep dense items out of it, and know your tightest number before you queue. If the allowance is tight, plan around one bag using twelve space-saving packing habits. A soft bag of 25 × 17 × 14 cm / 9.8 × 6.7 × 5.5 in, such as the Jelkin 25 Cloud Bag in Noir, clears more European personal item boxes at once than any other single size — the argument in using a 25 cm bag as an airline personal item.

Allowances change with route, fare type, season and aircraft. The figures below were checked against the airline’s public baggage pages in October 2026 and are given as a guide only — always confirm on the airline’s own site before you fly, and measure your bag packed rather than empty. CloudFlirty is not affiliated with any airline mentioned here.

Frequently asked questions

Is a personal item the same as a cabin bag?

No. The cabin bag goes in the locker; the personal item goes under the seat. Full-service carriers usually give you both free, while the cheapest low-cost fares include the small piece only.

Do wheels and handles count towards the size?

Yes on easyJet and most European carriers. Measure to the outermost points, including wheels, handles and anything strapped on, not the shell dimensions on the label.

Will a 25 × 17 × 14 cm bag be accepted as a personal item?

Almost everywhere. It leaves 3 cm of slack on Ryanair, 6 cm on the 40 × 30 × 20 cm carriers and 1 cm on British Airways and Air France. The rule it fails technically is the 10 cm depth inside Lufthansa Group.

What happens if I am one centimetre over?

It depends on the carrier, the airport and the staff that day. A soft bag that compresses under light pressure is usually waved through; a rigid one that will not drop into the frame is not.

Does a personal item have its own weight limit?

Often no separate figure is published. Where weight is stated it applies to the cabin bag or to both pieces combined, so a packed shoulder bag is rarely the problem.

Questions people ask

Why do airlines write the same bag as different sizes?

Because some quote the maximum hard box, others the under-seat test, and low-cost carriers add a paid sizer. The number that matters is the smallest of the three.

Which axis is strictest?

Depth. Six European carriers cap the under-seat item at 40 × 30 × 15 cm, so 15 cm is the dimension that decides most trips.

Is a 25 × 17 × 14 cm bag a universal personal item?

Yes for length and width; at 14 cm deep it also clears the 15 cm depth caps, so it is a true universal free box.

Check it against the others: the airline personal item size checker puts this allowance next to 18 other carriers and tells you whether a 25 × 17 × 14 cm bag passes.

Same region, different rule

• Lufthansa personal item size
• Swiss personal item size
• Eurowings personal item size

Not sure how these allowances are written in the first place? The rules explained covers why the same bag is free on one carrier and a paid extra on another. The bag measured throughout this page is the Jelkin 25, 25 × 17 × 14 cm on the outside.