Airline spec · verified 2026-07-02

Southwest Airlines carry-on & personal item size limits

Every number below was checked against Southwest Airlines's official pages on 2026-07-02, with links to the source.

Check if your bag fits Southwest Airlines →

Sizer enforcement: relaxed editorial view, not airline data
Largest carry-on allowance among US majors; carry-on free on all fares

What is worth knowing about Southwest Airlines

Southwest and Frontier share the roomiest cabin bag among the US carriers here — 24 x 16 x 10 in, two inches longer and two wider than the 22 x 14 x 9 the rest settled on — but only Southwest gives it away on every fare, and the 2025-26 fare changes left that alone. The personal item is generous too, at 18.5 x 13.5 x 8.5 in. The hold is where Southwest changed: checked bags are now paid on Basic, Choice and Choice Preferred, with free bags attached to fare tier and status instead.

Fares & policy

Two limits Southwest Airlines does not set

The sizes above are the ones Southwest Airlines publishes. These are not, and they do not change when you switch carriers: liquids in the cabin — at a US checkpoint every liquid, aerosol, gel, cream and paste must be 3.4 oz (100 ml) or less and fit one quart-sized bag (TSA — Liquids, Aerosols and Gels Rule); and power banks and spare lithium batteries, which must be carried in the cabin only, never in a checked bag, with an ordinary rechargeable cell capped at 100 watt-hours (FAA PackSafe — Lithium Batteries). The FAA states that airlines may set stricter watt-hour and quantity limits than its own, so Southwest Airlines can be tighter than this and never looser.

Item by item, the answers are on our can you bring it on a plane pages.