Ryanair and easyJet Cabin Sizes for US Travelers: What Actually Fits Free

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The verdict

1. Your American carry-on does not fit easyJet's free allowance, and the gap is not close. easyJet's free bag is "a maximum size of 45 x 36 x 20 cm (including any handles and wheels)". American publishes its personal item as "18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 35 x 20 cm)". Read those two lines together: easyJet's free cabin allowance is your US personal item, not your US carry-on. Buy to that box — see current prices on bags sized for budget-airline limits.
2. Europe is not smaller. The free tier is smaller. easyJet's large cabin bag is 56 x 45 x 25 cm, which British Airways publishes for the identical box as 22 x 18 x 10in — wider and deeper than the 22 x 14 x 9 inches American allows. A European cabin bag you pay for is bigger than a US carry-on you do not.
3. We publish no Ryanair measurement on this page. We requested Ryanair's cabin-bag page on 22 September 2026 and the server returned a document with no cabin-bag policy in it; a second request to its help centre article was refused. Any figure we printed today would be a copy of somebody else's copy.

The two numbers that decide your trip

easyJet states the free allowance twice, identically. From the page: "It can be a maximum size of 45 x 36 x 20 cm (including any handles and wheels) and must be kept under the seat in front of you. Your bag can weigh up to 15kg". And in the allowance table: "Maximum size 45 x 36 x 20cm (including any handles and wheels)".

That parenthesis is the whole article. It is an EXTERIOR limit — wheels, grab handles, the lot — not the packing case, which is the distinction we lay out in listed versus overall carry-on dimensions. A spinner whose maker lists a 20-centimetre-deep case is not a 20-centimetre-deep bag once the wheels are on it.

The paid tier: "If you'd also like to bring a large cabin bag on board (max. 56 x 45 x 25 cm, including any handles and wheels), you have the option to book a large cabin bag for your flight." Same weight cap — "Maximum weight 15kg" — applies to both.

Now the comparison a US traveller actually needs. American publishes its carry-on as "22 x 14 x 9 inches (56 x 36 x 23 cm) including handles and wheels" and its personal item as "18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 35 x 20 cm)". Line the centimetre figures up:

• easyJet free bag, 45 x 36 x 20 cm against American personal item, 45 x 35 x 20 cm. Within a centimetre on every axis. If your under-seat bag clears American, it almost certainly clears easyJet.
• easyJet free bag, 45 x 36 x 20 cm against American carry-on, 56 x 36 x 23 cm. Eleven centimeters too long and three too deep. Your roll-aboard is not going in the cabin free.
• easyJet large bag, 56 x 45 x 25 cm against American carry-on, 56 x 36 x 23 cm. Same length, nine centimeters wider, two deeper. The paid European bag is the bigger bag.

British Airways sells the same box and prints it in both units — "Max dimensions of 56 x 45 x 25cm (22 x 18 x 10in) – including wheels and handles" — which is the cleanest published inch conversion available for that size. Its under-seat hand bag is smaller than easyJet's free bag at "Max dimensions of 40 x 30 x 15cm (16 x 12 x 6in)". Iberia sits between them: "maximum dimensions of 56 x 40 x 25 cm" with a 10 kg cabin weight cap. Our international carry-on guide and the verified size table hold the wider set.

What easyJet does at the gate, in its own words

Three sentences worth memorising.

"We check cabin bag sizes before you board." Not "may check". Then the consequence: "If your cabin bag is bigger than the maximum size allowed or if you bring a large cabin bag to the departure gate without the correct seat selection or without one pre-booked for your flight, it won't be able to go in the cabin."

The price of getting that wrong is published: "If you wait until you're at the airport, a large cabin bag costs £60." That is the gate price, and it is in the same range as buying a compliant under-seat bag outright.

And a caveat easyJet prints about its own measuring app, which every traveller should apply to every sizing tool — it is a guide only, and "the best way to know if your bag will fit is by measuring it with a tape measure". We would add one thing — measure with the wheels and the retracted handle included, because that is what the airline measures. That is the subject of our companion piece on what a gate sizer actually constrains.

One more trap in the same document: if you do not choose a seat, "if you're auto-allocated an Up Front or Extra Legroom seat, your cabin bag allowance will be one small under seat cabin bag." The seat that looks like an upgrade does not carry the bag benefit unless you booked it deliberately.

Ryanair: what we can and cannot tell you today

We attempted Ryanair's own cabin-bag page at ryanair.com on 22 September 2026 with ordinary browser headers. The server answered, but the document contained no cabin-bag policy text at all — the only readable content was a page title reading "Book cheap flights using Fare Finder | Ryanair". We then requested Ryanair's help-centre article on the same topic and the request was refused with an interstitial titled "Just a moment...".

So: no Ryanair dimension appears in this article, and you should be suspicious of any site that prints one without a date. Our airline sizer does carry a Ryanair row, and it is deliberately stamped with an older check date rather than today's, precisely because we could not re-read the source. Treat it as a prior reading, not a current one, and confirm on ryanair.com before you pack.

What we can say without a figure is structural, and it holds across the low-cost sector: the free allowance is an under-seat bag, the overhead bag is a paid product, and the depth of the free box is the axis that catches US travellers. Buy for the under-seat box and the cabin bag becomes optional rather than compulsory.

Bags that fit the European free box

The safe test for a US buyer is the American bridge above: a bag inside American's 18 x 14 x 8 inches personal item — which American itself equates to 45 x 35 x 20 cm — is within a centimetre of easyJet's free allowance on every axis.

• Travelpro Platinum Elite UnderSeat Tote, published as "Overall Dimensions: H: 10.25 in. W: 16.5 in. D: 7.5 in.", 2 lbs, 22 L. Inside the box on all three axes with the depth comfortably under, which is what you want against a 20-centimetre ceiling. You can compare the current Travelpro under-seat range.
• Monos Metro Backpack, published at 16.5 inches by 11.2 inches by 6 inches, 2.68 lb / 1.21 kg, 14 L. Monos does not label that table listed or exterior the way it labels its Carry-On, so we read it as exterior on the grounds that a backpack has no wheels or telescoping handle to leave out. The most margin of anything here and the least volume. Monos runs no programme we belong to, so that name carries no link.
• Travelpro Maxlite 5 Soft Tote, "Overall Dimensions: H: 11 in. W: 16 in. D: 8 in.", 1.6 lbs, 28 L. Note the depth: 8 inches is exactly American's limit and exactly easyJet's 20 cm. Zero margin on the axis the airline checks.

For the equivalent US problem, our Frontier 18 x 14 x 8 roundup and the under-seat backpack shortlist cover the same box, and United's tighter personal item box shows how much smaller a US personal item can get. Browse current personal-item bag prices if you want options beyond these three.

If the trip genuinely needs more than an under-seat bag, the maths is simple: compare the airline's large-cabin-bag price against shipping. Luggage Forward states its shipment "is guaranteed to arrive on time or we'll refund you double what you paid to ship the bag" — get a luggage shipping quote and put it next to two £60 gate charges.

FAQ

Will my 22 x 14 x 9 carry-on fit easyJet?

Not as the free allowance. easyJet's free bag is 45 by 36 by 20 centimeters including handles and wheels, as published in September 2026, while American equates a 22 by 14 by 9 inch carry-on to 56 by 36 by 23 centimeters. It fits easyJet's large cabin bag, which you have to pay for or get with certain fares.

How much is a cabin bag at the easyJet gate?

Sixty pounds for a large cabin bag if you leave it until the airport, as stated on easyJet's cabin bags page in September 2026. Adding it online is cheaper; easyJet says so on the same page but does not publish a single online figure because it varies by flight.

What size is Ryanair's cabin bag?

We are not printing a figure. When we requested Ryanair's own cabin-bag page in September 2026 the server returned a document containing no policy text, and the help-centre article refused the request. Check ryanair.com directly before you fly, and be wary of third-party tables with no date on them.

Is a European cabin bag smaller than an American carry-on?

Not necessarily. easyJet's large cabin bag and British Airways' cabin bag are both 56 by 45 by 25 centimeters, which British Airways prints as 22 by 18 by 10 inches — wider and deeper than the 22 by 14 by 9 inches American publishes. What is smaller in Europe is the free allowance, not the paid one.