The 40 x 30 x 20 cm free bag: what fits under the seat on Ryanair, Wizz Air and Vueling
The free bag on Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling and Norwegian must fit in 40 x 30 x 20 cm (15.7 x 11.8 x 7.9 in). ANA uses the same under-seat size. Of the 1,902 bags in our catalog, 237 fit it. Most of them are slings. Only 76 are backpacks, and only 10 of those hold 20 litres or more.
If you want to travel on these airlines’ cheapest fare with one bag, those 10 backpacks are your short list.
Why most backpacks don’t fit
Length is the problem, not volume. The median backpack in our catalog is 48 cm (18.9 in) long. Of the 1,168 backpacks that miss the 40 x 30 x 20 cm size, 1,155 are longer than 40 cm. A 24-litre daypack can fit and a 16-litre one can fail: what counts is that the bag is short and squat.
That is also why brands now sell “underseater” or “personal item” backpacks. They trade height for width and depth, filling the 40 x 30 x 20 cm box instead of the tall shape of a school backpack.
The backpacks of 20 litres or more that fit
| Backpack | Volume | Weight | Size (cm) | Laptop | US price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabin Zero Classic Tech Backpack 28L | 28 L | 0.71 kg | 39 x 29.5 x 20 | 15.6” | $108 |
| Cabin Zero Classic Backpack 28L | 28 L | 0.60 kg | 39 x 30 x 20 | 15.6” | $92 |
| Eastpak Day Pak’r | 24 L | 0.40 kg | 39.9 x 30 x 18 | 14” | $60 |
| Eastpak Padded Pak’r | 24 L | 0.40 kg | 40 x 30 x 18 | no sleeve | $55 |
| Delsey Brochant 3 Underseater 24L | 24 L | 0.63 kg | 40 x 30 x 20 | not published | no US price |
| Delsey Shadow 5.0 Underseater 24L | 24 L | 0.96 kg | 40 x 30 x 20 | not published | no US price |
| tomtoc Navigator-T69 | 23 L | 0.70 kg | 40 x 30 x 19 | not published | $73 |
| BAGSMART Blast Elite 22L | 22 L | 0.90 kg | 40 x 29 x 18 | 15.6” | $80 |
| Eastpak Tecum Cabin CNNCT | 22 L | 0.80 kg | 39.9 x 24.9 x 19.8 | 16” | $120 |
| WANDRD PRVKE Zip 21L | 21 L | 1.27 kg | 40 x 28 x 14.5 | 16” | $234 |
Prices are the brands’ US list prices when we last checked, in September and October 2026.
Cabin Zero’s two 28-litre bags are the largest that fit. They are 1 cm shorter than the limit and still take a 15.6-inch laptop.
The two Delsey Underseaters and the tomtoc are exactly 40 x 30 x 20 cm, with no margin at all. A soft bag packed full bulges past its stated depth, so fill these carefully or expect a tight squeeze in the sizer.
Price has little to do with any of it. The cheapest bag on the list costs $55 and the most expensive $234, and the $234 one holds less.
If you need a big laptop
22 backpacks that fit the free size take a laptop of 15 inches or more, and 9 of them take a 16-inch one. Apart from the Eastpak Tecum and the WANDRD above, the 16-inch options are smaller bags: the Matador 18L Personal Item Travel Pack (18 L, 0.8 kg), the Pacsafe CX (17 L), and four slim WaterField Designs bags from 11 to 17 litres. At this size, a laptop takes a big share of the space, so plan on packing cubes and a light wardrobe.
Slings and totes
Slings are the easiest way to stay inside the limit: 154 of the 237 bags that fit are slings. The largest are the Boundary Supply Errant Sling at 15 litres and the Black Ember Grip-Sling 12. Among totes, the Aer Go Tote 2 holds 17.5 litres and a 16-inch laptop. A sling works well as the free item on a trip where you pay for a cabin bag anyway. As your only bag, it is a one-night bag.
Bags that almost fit
Some popular daypacks miss by a centimetre or less, usually on length:
- Patagonia Atom Daypack 24L: 40.6 cm long.
- CALPAK Luka 15 inch Laptop Backpack: 40.6 cm long.
- Away Featherlight Daily Backpack: 31 cm wide.
- Tom Bihn Synik 22: 41 cm long.
A soft bag 6 mm over the limit will often pass a sizer when it is not overstuffed. It is a risk, though, not a guarantee, and gate agents on these airlines do check.
Weight
Wizz Air caps its free bag at 10 kg. Norwegian counts it inside a 10 kg cabin allowance. Ryanair and Vueling don’t publish a weight for the free bag on the pages we use. The backpacks above weigh 0.4 to 1.3 kg empty, so weight is rarely the limit at this size.
Related
- Which airlines make you pay for a cabin bag, with the free size for each one.
- The Ryanair and Wizz Air pages list every bag that fits their under-seat size.
- Our guide to personal-item backpacks that fit under the seat ranks bags across all airlines.
How we counted
A bag fits when its published dimensions, sorted from largest to smallest, are within 40 x 30 x 20 cm. Orientation doesn’t matter. Dimensions are the brand’s own; we don’t measure bags ourselves. Sizes and rules come from the airlines’ baggage pages, checked in September and October 2026.