A Comprehensive Guide to Pizza Box Sizes and Types

This comprehensive guide highlights the most common pizza box sizes, materials, and styles to help you find the best fit for your business.

When delivering the perfect pizza experience, the box matters almost as much as the pie itself. From personal-sized portions to extra-large feasts, choosing the right box ensures freshness, heat retention, and a great first impression.

In this article, we'll discuss the most common pizza box sizes, materials, and styles to help you choose the best option for your business.

Pizza Box Sizes

Pizza boxes tend to follow a simple formula: the length and width of the box will be the same as the diameter of the pizza inside. If your restaurant sells a 12-inch pizza, then you will need a box that is twelve inches long and twelve inches wide.

The box size needs to be proportional to the pizza inside. If the box is too small, the pie will be squished, harming your brand image. On the other hand, if the box is too big, the pie inside will look relatively small.

A larger box gives customers a false perception of the contents. If the pizza box is bigger than the actual pizza, customers feel misled.

The thickness of the box is determined by its construction material. Corrugated cardboard is the most common material choice for pizza boxes. Most restaurants use an E-flute design cardboard with a thickness of 1.5mm (1/16th of an inch).

We discuss pizza box materials in more detail later in the article.

Table 1 - Box dimensions for different-sized pizzas.

The food service industry has three standard pizza sizes—small, medium, and large. So, most generic pizza boxes are also available in those three sizes. Standardization is good for newcomers in the industry; it means wider availability of pizza boxes at a more competitive price.

Other nonstandard pizza sizes require custom boxes, which are slightly more expensive. Personal pizzas are usually six inches in diameter and are the most popular type of nonstandard size in the industry. Relatively few brands offer a six-inch personal pizza, among them is the international chain restaurant Pizza Hut.

In the United States, it's more common to buy a single slice of pizza than a personal pizza. New York is famous for its large 18-24-inch pies, and customers will often get a single slice, which is a 9-inch triangle.

Types of Pizza Boxes

While the conventional pizza box uses a simple flip-open square design, there is a lot of room for customization. Many brands use custom pizza box designs to stand out from the competition.

Here are some of the most popular options for pizza boxes.

1. Square Boxes

A pizza is a circle, and the most cost-effective container for a circular object is a square box. Nearly every pizzeria on the planet uses a folded square box. After all, it's cheap to manufacture, easy to assemble, and conveniently stackable.

Square boxes start their life as flat cardboard sheets folded into a 3D shape at the pizzeria. The flat design is more cost-effective to produce and easy to store.

Standard pizza boxes are always made of biodegradable cardboard. However, many new pizzerias are investing in eco-friendly pizza boxes made from bagasse or recycled cardboard.

Advantages

Cost-effective

Easily Available

Sturdy Shape

Convenient Storage

2. Round Boxes

Round or circular pizza boxes are a fun twist on the standard pizza container. The rounded shape has no practical advantage over square boxes. Still, it's unique and helps your business stand out.

Unlike square boxes, flat cardboard cannot be folded into a round shape—at least not easily. So rather than having your employees waste valuable time assembling round boxes, it's better for brands to buy a pre-assembled or pre-formed round container.

Round cardboard is much more expensive than you might imagine, so restaurants often opt for injection-molded plastic containers. Since plastic has poor insulation properties, plastic pizza boxes are better suited for frozen pizzas.

Some packaging brands sell recyclable pizza containers made from polypropylene. While it's a more sustainable pizza box, it still doesn't address the various issues associated with plastic.

Advantages

Unique Shape

Lightweight

3. Octagonal Boxes

Octagons are eight-sided boxes that occupy the middle ground between a square pizza box and a round one. Using some creative origami techniques, you can fold a flat cardboard sheet into an octagonal box.

The lower assembly cost makes octagonal boxes much cheaper to produce and store. All while maintaining a unique look that gives your pizza boxes an edge over the competition. A variant on the octagonal pizza box is a hexagonal design with six sides instead of eight.

As long as the cardboard is ethically sourced, octagonal boxes are an excellent eco-friendly pizza packaging.

Advantages

Unique Shape

Foldable

Inexpensive

4. Boxes with Cut Corners

While you shouldn't cut corners in any aspect of your business, boxes are an exception. A cut-corner box is a regular square pizza box with two front edges folded in, making it look like the edges have been cut off.

This results in an odd but refreshing shape completely different from any other pizzeria. As of this article, Domino is the only major brand that uses cut-corner boxes. If you order two Domino’s pizzas and lay the boxes back to back, you get the shape of a domino tile.

The cut-corner box is the closest in cost and convenience to a regular square pizza box. Other options like circles and hexagons are considerably more costly than a square box.

Advantages

Foldable

Cost-Effective

Sturdy

Unique Branding

5. Triangular Boxes

Triangle boxes are more than a fun gimmick. A 20-inch New York-style pizza has six to eight slices, which results in an amazingly large pizza slice (6 inches wide and 9 inches tall). So, it only makes sense that we have a dedicated triangular box for these large pizza slices.

A large pizza slice is roughly the same size as a small round pizza, so it makes sense for many businesses to replace their small or personal pizzas with a New York slice.

Triangle pizza boxes cost no more than square boxes. They also have the added benefit of being a unique branding opportunity for a pizzeria. Very few mainstream pizza chains offer 20-inch pies, and of course, none of them sell a large pizza slice.

Many brands go the extra mile and source recycled cardboard from a more sustainable pizza box.

Advantages

Foldable

Sturdy

Unique Branding

6. No Box

Okay, so this isn't technically a pizza box, but it's still something to consider. Almost every New York pizzeria sells a large pizza slice as a stand-alone food item. These shops hand you a nice warm slice of cheese pizza placed on a disposable paper plate.

Costco's famous pizza slice is also sold in similar packaging. It is served on a disposable styrofoam plate covered with aluminum foil. Sometimes a paper plate is the more cost-effective and sustainable option than any eco-friendly pizza box.

It’s not ideal for a large chain restaurant but perfect for a small dinner or food cart.

Advantages

Cost-Effective

Easy to Manage

Hassle-Free

Material Choices for Pizza Boxes

The third pillar of pizza box design is the construction material. The size and shape of a pizza box require a material that provides the necessary strength and durability.

Here are four popular pizza box materials.

1. Corrugated Cardboard

Corrugated cardboard is the most popular material for pizza boxes. It is made from a fluted paper sandwiched between two other thin sheets of paper. This unique shape provides additional strength without making the box heavier.

The thickness of corrugated cardboard depends on the height of the . Corrugated cardboard is categorized by the variations in the middle layer.

The types of corrugated cardboard are named alphabetically, going from the thickest A flute cardboard to the thinnest E flute cardboard. A thicker design also means larger air pockets in the cardboard, which results in better heat insulation.

Regular 9 to 13-inch pizza boxes use an E flute corrugated cardboard to balance strength and cost. Larger boxes would buckle under the pizza's weight as there is no support structure in the middle of the box.

So we recommend using B flute cardboard for any pizza box larger than 14 inches, especially if you need a box for the massive 20-24-inch New York pies.

Corrugated cardboard results in partially sustainable pizza boxes. The oil from the pizza often seeps into the cardboard making recycling harder. Although you can still compost your pizza boxes and stay eco-friendly.

2. Kraft Paperboard

Next, we have Kraft paperboard, a thick card-like material made from wood pulp. It is a strong, rigid material ideal for food packaging applications. Unlike corrugated cardboard, it doesn't need three layers of paper to achieve its high strength.

The only major drawback of Kraft paper board is its lack of heat insulation. The corrugated cardboard helps keep the heat inside the box, so your pizza stays warm, and you don't accidentally burn your hands.

With Kraft paperboard, customers must be more careful about holding their pizza boxes. Placing one in your lap will be uncomfortable, to say the least. The lack of heat insulation isn't a huge issue since many businesses already use Kraft paperboard for takeout, and it hasn't resulted in anyone getting hurt.

In our opinion, Kraft pizza boxes are best suited for frozen pizza packaging.

3. Bagasse

Bagasse is the fibrous pulp of the sugarcane stalk. It's a byproduct of the sugar-making process and is generally used as biofuel for energy generation. In recent years, many companies have started upcycling bagasse for packaging applications.

It’s an excellent biodegradable and compostable alternative to single-use plastics. Bagasse is stronger, more rigid than most thin plastics, and completely food-safe.

Paper and cardboard are less harmful than plastic. However, paper production requires excessive tree harvesting. As more consumers raise their concerns regarding deforestation and sustainability, brands are looking for more eco-friendly packaging items.

Bagasse is a more versatile material than paper and plastic. It's a low-cost material that is easy to process and mold. Many sustainability-focused brands already employ bagasse-based food containers for their takeout services.

Bagasse pizza boxes are sturdy, cost-effective, and, most importantly, heat-safe. There is really no downside to using pizza boxes made from natural byproducts like bagasse. It is the ultimate material for eco-friendly pizza box construction.

4. Plastic

Plastic is perhaps the most versatile material ever invented. It's used in every facet of our food packaging industry. However, the adoption of plastic pizza boxes has been incredibly slow.

The reason is somewhat obvious, plastic containers are best suited for small food items. You would need an incredibly thick piece of plastic to withstand the weight of a large pizza and ensure proper heat insulation. Which in turn would make the pizza box unnecessarily heavy and expensive.

A big advantage of plastic containers is their reusability. However, that advantage isn't worth much in the food service industry, where disposable containers are the norm. Plastic is generally fine for small containers that hold sauces or rice, but it doesn't scale well.

A 20-inch plastic pizza box is a nightmare for everyone. Restaurants can't properly store this expensive plastic container, and customers wouldn't know how to dispose of it.

Design Considerations for Pizza Boxes

Now that you are familiar with pizza boxes' sizes, shapes, and materials, it's time to combine all that knowledge into a cohesive box design.

Here are seven important design factors to consider when designing a pizza box.

1. Box Durability

Durability is one of the most important factors in a pizza box design. Pizzas get exponentially heavier as they increase in diameter. A standard 13-inch large pizza weighs approximately 2 pounds, and a 20-inch New York pie can weigh up to 10 pounds.

You will need thick cardboard for any pizza larger than 13 inches.

2. Oil Resistance

Pizza tends to be greasy. The oil from the dough and cheese leaks into the pizza box and coats the bottom. Thick cardboard helps reduce oil absorption. However, the best way to prevent the pizza box from becoming an oily mess is to use a sheet of butter paper between the pizza and the box.

3. Heat Insulation

You need good heat insulation for your pizza boxes. Make sure your pizza boxes are made from materials that can prevent heat loss.

Poor insulation means the pizza will get colder faster, making delivery services a nightmare. It also means the pizza's heat will quickly transfer from the box to your hands.

4. Proper Ventilation

Hot pizza releases a lot of steam, which can ruin an otherwise crispy crust. To combat soggy pizza bottoms, manufacturers often place small holes in the top of the pizza boxes.

These ventilation holes remove excess moisture from the box. Unfortunately, they also result in heat loss. It's a delicate balance between heat retention and moisture control.

5. Box Assembly

Most pizza boxes are shipped as flat templates, and the pizzeria staff folds (assembles) the cardboard sheets into boxes in the morning. A successful pizza place sells hundreds of pizzas per day.

This means your staff has to spend hours assembling boxes every day. An easy-to-assemble box design will save businesses valuable work hours.

6. Microwave Safety

While most pizza boxes never see the inside of a microwave, it happens occasionally. Sometimes, people try to heat leftover pizza in the oven. In those rare cases, you want a non-toxic and non-reactive pizza box.

Something that doesn't release toxic chemicals upon heating and has no metal or foil parts that can cause a spark.

7. Design & Printing

Finally, you want pizza boxes with a flat printer-friendly surface. A pizza box should reflect the colors and vibe of your brand. The best way to establish a unique identity is by investing in a high-quality digital print.

Alternatively, you can buy a generic pizza box and paste a stick of your brand on top. It doesn't have the same impact but gets the job done.

How to Choose the Right Pizza Packaging?

Here are six steps to choosing the right pizza packaging for your business.

1. Size - Identify the differ

2. Shape - You can go with the simple and cost-effective square shape or something more  interesting like a circular or triangular packaging.

3. Material - Choose a pizza box material based on the size and design of your pizza boxes. A larger box will need more durable materials.

4. Branding - Decide how you want to brand your pizza box. Choose colors, images, and fonts that best reflect your business.

5. Storage - Your pizza packaging needs to be stored properly. Pick something that has a good shelf life.

6. Cost - Premium materials and designs cost more. Try to balance your packaging cost with your pizza prices.

Conclusion

There are many pizza box options for businesses to choose from. You can go with the tried-and-true square cardboard box or invest in a more modern hexagonal design. Additionally, you have the option of going with eco-friendly materials like bagasse. Square cardboard pizza boxes are the most cost-effective solution. However, bagasse pizza boxes offer a more balanced solution, biodegradable and sustainable pizza boxes without breaking the bank.

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Sumkoka is an environmentally conscious brand known for its high-quality biodegradable disposable products. We specialize in bagasse-based food containers, plates, and cutlery. Our food packaging is made from completely natural materials, free from plastic and chemicals. Give your business a sustainability boost by getting eco-friendly pizza boxes from us. Contact us Now!