PCB weight

Weight of a printed circuit board. Estimates the mass from the outline dimensions. The glass-epoxy laminate and the copper are shown separately.

Length

Width

Board thickness

Layers

layers

Copper thickness

Board weight

43.815g

Laminate weight25.02 g

Copper weight18.795 g

Advanced — Density of copper, Density of laminate

Density of copper

g/cm³

Density of laminate

g/cm³

History

Press Enter in any field to keep a snapshot here.

Formula

Board weight: W = W_laminate + W_copper
Density of copper ≈ 8.95 g/cm³
Density of FR-4 ≈ 1.8 g/cm³

Design notes

On drones, wearables and anything else with a tight mass budget, estimating board weight early is worth doing. The same numbers give you the copper usage for a production cost estimate.

Ways to take weight out:
• Shrink the outline — weight goes with area
• Use a thinner laminate (0.8 mm, say)
• Keep the layer count and copper thickness to the minimum that works

Density of copper ≈ 8.95 g/cm³; density of FR-4 ≈ 1.8–2.0 g/cm³, varying a little between suppliers.

When you need this

For quotations, shipping weight, giving mechanical engineering a figure, or building up a system weight budget. Laminate and copper are reported separately, so on thick-copper multilayer boards you can see which dominates.

Entering the values

Layer count is the number of copper layers. For a 4-layer board, enter 4 (not the number of cores).
Copper thickness is per layer. 1oz is 0.035mm. If layers differ, use an average or calculate them separately.
Laminate density is roughly 1.85–1.95 for FR-4, depending on glass content.
Copper density can be left at 8.96.

Typical breakdown

100mm × 100mm, 1.6mm thick, 35µm copper.
Layers	Laminate	Copper	Total
2	about 29 g	about 6 g	about 35 g
4	about 28 g	about 13 g	about 40 g
6	about 26 g	about 19 g	about 45 g
8	about 25 g	about 25 g	about 50 g

At constant board thickness the laminate contribution barely changes with layer count; the increase is essentially all copper. By 8 layers copper is close to half the total, and more so with 2oz on a power board.

Caveats

This is the bare board. Components, solder, connectors and shielding cans are not included. An assembled board is commonly 1.5–3 times the bare weight.
Copper is assumed to cover the full area. In reality, signal layers retain 30–60% after etching. Multiply the copper figure by your CAD tool's copper coverage if you need precision. Plane layers are close to 100%.
Surface finish is excluded. The weight of gold plating or HASL is normally negligible.
Cut-outs are not subtracted. For shapes with large openings, substitute the actual area.

Frequently asked questions

How do I account for copper coverage?

This assumes full coverage. If your signal layers are 50% covered, halve the copper figure and add it to the laminate weight. Splitting signal layers from plane layers, which differ greatly, improves the accuracy.

What laminate density should I use?

1.9 is fine for FR-4. Strictly it ranges from 1.85 to 1.95 depending on resin content. Use your fabricator's datasheet value if it is published.

Does this work for aluminium or flexible boards?

You can approximate by substituting the base density — 2.7 for aluminium, about 1.42 for polyimide. Aluminium-backed boards have a different construction (dielectric layer plus aluminium base), so calculating layer by layer is more accurate.

Standards and references

IPC-4101 — Laminate specification and material properties.
IPC-4562 — Copper foil specification; thickness versus oz.

Last updated: 2026-08-29