Cylinder Volume Calculator
From radius and height, get the volume (πr²h) plus the lateral and total surface area — in one step, in any unit you like.
Three results
One radius and one height give you volume, the curved lateral surface, and the full surface area including both ends.
Use one unit
Keep radius and height in the same unit; the volume is in that unit cubed and the surfaces in that unit squared.
What is a cylinder volume calculator?
Radius and height in, three numbers out
A cylinder volume calculator works out how much space a right circular cylinder holds, plus how much surface it has. You enter just two measurements — the radius of the circular base and the height — and it returns the volume (πr²h), the lateral surface area (2πrh), and the total surface area (2πr(r+h)). It is the tool for sizing tanks, cans, pipes, water cylinders, and any container shaped like a tube.
A cylinder is a stack of identical circles. The base circle has area π × r², and stacking it to a height h sweeps out a volume — so volume is simply base area times height.
V = π × r² × hThe two surface areas follow the same shape. The lateral surface — the curved side, like the label peeled off a can — is the base circumference (2πr) times the height: 2πrh. The total surface adds the two circular ends (each πr²), which factors neatly to 2πr(r+h).
Suppose a water cylinder has a radius of 3 and a height of 10.
Square the radius
3² = 9, the radius squared.Multiply by π and the height
π × 9 × 10 = 282.743339, the volume in cubic units.Read the surfaces
Lateral surface = 2 × π × 3 × 10 = 188.495559, and total surface = 2 × π × 3 × (3 + 10) = 245.044227.
The most useful thing to notice is how differently the two inputs behave. Volume scales with the square of the radius but only linearly with the height, so doubling the height doubles the volume, while doubling the radius multiplies the volume by four. If a tank looks too small, widening it pays off far faster than making it taller. The same asymmetry is why measuring the radius accurately matters most — a small error there is squared, while a small height error only carries through once. The lateral surface tells you how much material wraps the side (sheet metal, a label, insulation), and the total surface adds the two ends, which matters for paint, coating, or heat loss. As a sanity check, the total surface is always larger than the lateral surface by exactly the area of the two end caps, 2πr².
The formulas are exact for a right circular cylinder; the limits are about shape and rounding.
Right circular cylinders only
These formulas assume a straight tube with flat, parallel circular ends — a right circular cylinder. They do not apply to oblique (slanted) cylinders, cones, tapered tanks, or shapes with domed or dished ends. If you have a diameter rather than a radius, halve it first. Results are shown to six decimal places, so values with long decimal tails may round the last digit.