Delta carry-on size: will your bag fit?
Enter your bag's measurements and see instantly whether it flies as Delta Air Lines hand luggage — free, for a fee, or not at all — against the official limits.
Your bag's measurements
The order doesn't matter — we test every orientation. Measure the widest points, including wheels, handles and packed pockets.
Where Delta Air Lines contradicts itself
Found on the airline's own pages, not our reading of them.
- Delta answers the regional-jet question twice on the same page, and the two answers disagree. The policy text makes every Delta Connection flight personal-item-only; the FAQ below it says only flights with 50 seats or less. A CRJ-900 seats 76 — assume the stricter reading.
- Delta prints 56 × 35 × 23 cm beside 22 × 14 × 9 in, but they don't convert: 14 in is 35.56 cm. The airport sizers are built to the inches, so that is what we measure you against.
Delta Air Lines — official cabin limits
| Allowance | Max dimensions (inches — the airline's own figure) Second line: our conversion | Max weight |
|---|---|---|
| Free personal item | No dimensions published | Not stated |
| Carry-on | 22 × 14 × 9 in ≈ 55.8 × 35.5 × 22.8 cm | Not stated |
How to read these numbers — Delta Air Lines publishes these limits in inches — the unit its airport sizers are built to. The centimetre figures are our own conversion, always rounded down. Airlines that print both units often print two figures that don't agree with each other — sometimes looser, sometimes stricter. When they disagree we go by the airline's own unit and round the other one down. Packing to our number keeps you inside the real limit.
What to expect
Delta allows one carry-on of 22 × 14 × 9 in (55.8 × 35.5 × 22.8 cm) — with a combined cap of 45 linear inches (114 cm) — plus one personal item, free on every fare. No weight limit is published. The wrinkle is regional flying: on Delta Connection aircraft with 50 seats or fewer, only the personal item comes into the cabin; bigger bags are gate-checked free and returned planeside.
Soft bag vs hard case
Delta publishes no personal item dimensions — the rule is that it fits under the seat — so a soft, frameless under-seat bag is the flexible half of your allowance. For the main carry-on, the 9 in (23 cm) depth is the figure that catches rigid cases with fat wheels: they're measured in.
Boarding tips
- The 45 linear inch cap (length + width + height) sounds like a second hurdle, but 22 + 14 + 9 is exactly 45 — clear the three sides and you have cleared the total.
- No published weight limit; the dimensions above are the only rule Delta states.
- Flying a Delta Connection regional jet (50 seats or fewer)? Only personal items ride in the cabin — bigger bags are gate-checked free and returned on the jetbridge.
- Keep valuables, meds, batteries and power banks in the personal item in case the carry-on gets gate-checked on a full flight.