Carry-On Weight Limits: Which Airlines Enforce Them
Most major U.S. carriers (American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue) publish no carry-on weight limit — only a size limit. Frontier is the U.S. exception at 35 lb. International and low-cost carriers overwhelmingly do enforce weight: Lufthansa 17.6 lb (8kg), Ryanair 22 lb (10kg), easyJet 33 lb (15kg), Emirates 15.4 lb (7kg), and ANA combines carry-on plus personal item into a single 22 lb (10kg) cap.
The one thing to know: The industry-standard checked-bag size cap is 62 linear inches (length + width + height added together, not each dimension), and the standard weight cap on most U.S. carriers' economy fares is 50 lbs — Delta, United, American, Alaska, and JetBlue all use this pairing. Go over on either linear inches or weight and you pay an oversize or overweight fee, sometimes both.
The pattern: legacy U.S. carriers vs everyone else
The six major U.S. network and low-cost carriers in our table rely on a size-only rule, betting that a 22-24 inch bag rarely weighs enough to be unliftable. International legacy carriers and European low-cost carriers take the opposite approach, publishing a firm kilogram cap and weighing bags at the gate or bag-drop counter on many routes. See every airline's exact figure in the size table.
What "no published limit" doesn't mean
It's not a blank check. A gate agent can still refuse to let you board with a bag they judge too heavy to lift into the overhead bin safely, published policy or not — treat "no limit" as "no specific number," not "no risk."
This page reports published airline policy facts as of the date above, not a guarantee for your specific flight or gate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Generally no. American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska, and JetBlue publish a size limit for carry-on bags but no specific weight cap — the practical constraint is being able to lift the bag into the overhead bin yourself. Frontier is the U.S. exception, capping carry-ons at 35 lb.
Most of them. Lufthansa caps carry-ons at 17.6 lb (8kg), Ryanair's priority cabin bag at 22 lb (10kg), easyJet at 33 lb (15kg), Emirates at 15.4 lb (7kg), and ANA combines carry-on plus personal item into a 22 lb (10kg) total. British Airways sets a combined 51 lb (23kg) cap across both cabin bags.
On airlines that enforce it, an overweight carry-on is typically either checked at the gate for a fee or you're asked to redistribute weight into a personal item on the spot. On airlines with no published limit, an agent can still deny boarding a bag they judge too heavy to lift safely, even without a numeric cap.
Yes — a bag you can't lift into the overhead bin without help is a practical problem regardless of policy, and gate agents have discretion to gate-check anything they judge unsafe to lift, published limit or not.
Yes, especially before flying an airline that does enforce a carry-on cap (Frontier, Lufthansa, Ryanair, easyJet, Emirates, ANA) — weighing at home avoids a gate-side scramble to redistribute items. See Are Compression Bags Worth It and our travel-accessories picks.