Southwest Airlines allows a carry-on of 24 × 16 × 10 inches including wheels and handles, and publishes no personal item dimensions at all — if it fits under the seat, it flies.
Measure the outside, wheels and handles included — that’s what they measure at the gate.
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Enormous margin against every limit here, and it looks like a normal bag rather than travel gear. Ten litres is a daybag though, not a travel bag.
The anti-theft option that actually fits — slash-resistant panels, locking zips, RFID pocket, and a 13-inch laptop sleeve, all inside United’s width.
Pacsafe’s own site is JavaScript-gated, so this comes from a retailer spec rather than the brand. The 0.2 inches of width margin rests on that number.
Five ounces. It stuffs into its own pocket, so it costs you almost nothing to carry as insurance — and it clears every personal item limit on this page.
Unstructured, so 7.48 inches is the empty depth. Pack it full and it rounds out.
The most margin of anything here — comfortably inside United’s brutal 17 × 10 × 9 and inside the budget carriers’ 18 × 14 × 8 too. Structured neoprene that holds its shape instead of sagging.
Buy the MEDIUM. The Large is 16.5 × 11 × 9 and fails United on width.
A tote-shaped answer to the Narwey. Under a pound, folds flat, and doubles as a packable second bag stuffed inside a bigger case.
The cheapest bag here we can fully stand behind. Cabin Max publishes 40 × 25 × 20 cm as the external size, and 40 × 25 × 20 works out to exactly the 20 litres they claim — when the arithmetic agrees with the marketing, the numbers are usually real. No wheels, so the usual “does that include the wheels” ambiguity doesn’t apply. Three-year warranty.
9.84 inches against United’s 10-inch limit is about a sixth of an inch of margin. It’s a soft bag and it will bulge — pack it full and it may not gauge.
See all 17 bags that fit Southwest’s personal item limit →
Narrower questions: Southwest personal item size · Southwest carry-on size · best Southwest carry-on bags. Flying with camera gear? 29 camera bags fit Southwest — see the camera bag guide.
Southwest Airlines does not publish personal item dimensions at all. The only test is whether the bag fits under the seat in front of you. We use 18.5 × 13.5 × 8.5 inches as a working estimate when filtering bags, and label it as an estimate rather than an airline figure.
Southwest Airlines allows a carry-on up to 24 × 16 × 10 inches including wheels and handles. No carry-on weight limit is published, but you must be able to lift the bag into the overhead bin yourself. 16 of the bags we track fit it.
No. Free on every fare, including the cheapest Basic fare. The personal item is free as well.
Yes. Southwest Airlines measures the outside of the bag, so wheels, handles, straps and external pockets all count. This is why a suitcase sold as a "20-inch carry-on" is often 22 inches overall and can still fail a sizer.
Usually it gets gate-checked, which is free. You collect it at the jet bridge or baggage claim depending on the airport.
Manufacturers publish dimensions inconsistently, and a “20-inch” spinner is almost never 20 inches once you count the wheels. Where a brand states dimensions including wheels and handles, that’s the number we use. Where it only publishes the case, we say so on the card. Airlines measure the outside of your bag — wheels, handles, straps and all. Anything marked borderline is down to the gate agent, and remember that a soft bag squashes into a sizer while a hard shell won’t.
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Limits verified August 2026 against each carrier’s published policy. Airlines change these without notice — always confirm before you fly. Spirit Airlines ceased operations on 2 May 2026 and is no longer listed.
Airline Bag Size Checker v1.0.15 · last updated 2026-08-12