Southwest Baggage Fees: What Bags 1 and 2 Cost

For tickets booked, ticketed, or changed on or after April 9, 2026, Southwest charges $45 for your first checked bag and $55 for your second, each way, on Basic, Choice, and Choice Preferred fares. That's up from $35 and $45 before that date, so if you're pricing a trip off an old blog post or a friend's flight from last year, the number has already moved twice in under two years.

The only ways to avoid the fee entirely are booking Choice Extra, Southwest's top fare tier, or holding A-List Preferred elite status. Both include free checked bags on every flight. Everyone else pays the standard $45 and $55, which puts Southwest right in line with what Delta, American, and Alaska now charge for a domestic bag under 50 pounds.

Southwest's standard checked bag allowance is 50 pounds and 62 linear inches, meaning length plus width plus height, wheels and handles included. Stay under both numbers and you pay only the base fee above.

Go over on weight and Southwest adds a separate charge on top of the checked bag fee: $100 for anything between 51 and 70 pounds, $200 for anything between 71 and 100 pounds. Go over on size and it's a flat $200 for bags between 63 and 80 linear inches. Southwest won't accept a bag heavier than 100 pounds or bigger than 80 linear inches at any price, so repacking at the counter is your only real option past that line.

Every Southwest fare, including Basic, includes one free carry-on bag and one free personal item. There's no published weight limit on the carry-on, just a size cap: external dimensions of 10 by 16 by 24 inches, which works out to 50 linear inches once you add wheels and handles into the count.

That's noticeably roomier than Delta, American, and Alaska, all of which cap their carry-on at roughly 45 linear inches (22 by 14 by 9 inches). If you only ever fly Southwest, you've got room to size up your next suitcase. If you mix airlines, pack to the tighter 45-inch standard so the same bag clears every airline's sizer, not just Southwest's. Our free carry-on fit checker will tell you in seconds which airlines your exact bag passes and which ones will flag it at the gate.

Southwest allows up to 20 checked pieces per passenger, a limit almost nobody hits on a normal trip. A third bag, and every bag after it, costs a flat $200 each, whether it's your third bag or your fifteenth.

If your trip needs more than two checked bags, it's worth comparing the cost of a second Southwest fee, a different airline's baggage pricing, or shipping the extra bag ahead through a courier service before you get to the counter.

Southwest's old Bags Fly Free pitch meant a family of four checking one bag each used to fly for free on a trip that now costs $180 round trip at $45 per bag each way. That's the real number to plan around if you booked Southwest specifically for the free-bag perk in the past and haven't flown since the policy changed.

The upside is Southwest's checked bag fees still land in line with or below most legacy carriers at the higher weight and size tiers, and the carry-on stays free and generously sized on every fare, including Basic. If your trip works with one carry-on and one personal item, Southwest's baggage cost to you hasn't changed at all.

Southwest doesn't publish a separate list of packing rules beyond the standard TSA carry-on restrictions every US flight follows, like the 3.4 ounce liquids limit. What Southwest does enforce strictly is the carry-on sizer at the gate, since the airline boards by number rather than assigned seat, and overhead bins fill up fast once a flight boards from the front of a long line.

If your bag is anywhere close to the 10 by 16 by 24 inch limit, board as early as your position allows and don't assume gate agents will skip the sizer check just because the flight looks half full. A bag that does get flagged as oversized at the gate on Southwest gets checked for free on the spot, which is at least one small silver lining if it happens to you. Measuring your bag at home against the actual 10 by 16 by 24 inch limit, rather than trusting a store label that says 'carry-on size', is the simplest way to avoid that gate conversation entirely.

If you fly more than just Southwest, it helps to browse every airline's carry-on rules in one place, since limits range from Southwest's roomy 50 linear inches down to the stricter 45 inch standard most legacy carriers use.

And if you're shopping for a new suitcase that'll clear more than one airline's sizer, our luggage size directory breaks down real dimensions pulled from actual product listings, not rounded marketing numbers.