How thick is 26 gauge steel?

26 gauge steel is 0.0179 in thick, which is 0.456 mm. A square foot weighs 0.75 lb (3.66 kg/m²).

What is 26 gauge steel in mm?

0.456 mm. The gauge number is an index into the MSG system rather than a measurement, so it converts to a fixed thickness rather than a round metric figure.

Is 26 gauge steel thicker than 25 gauge?

No — a lower gauge number is thicker sheet. 25 gauge steel is 0.0209 in (0.531 mm) against 0.0179 in (0.456 mm) for 26 gauge steel, a difference of 0.0030 in.

Why is 26 gauge a different thickness in other materials?

Because each material is indexed on its own gauge system. At 26 gauge: Aluminium 0.0159 in (B&S), Galvanized 0.0217 in (galvanized-MSG), Steel 0.0179 in (MSG), US Standard 0.0188 in (USG). The number is a position in a series, not a thickness, so 3 other readings of "26 gauge" are all equally correct.

Sheet metal · Sheet Steel · MSG

26 Gauge Steel Thickness in Inches and Millimetres

https://shopmath.org/gauges/steel/26 · data verified August 1, 2026

26 gauge steel sheet is 0.0179 in thick — 0.456 mm. A square foot weighs 0.75 lb (3.66 kg/m²). The gauge number indexes the MSG system, so the same number is a different thickness in another material — the comparison is below. Thicknesses are nominal, before mill tolerance.

Gauge: 26 ga
Material: Sheet Steel
Inch: 0.0179
mm: 0.456
System: MSG

26 Gauge Steel · nominal thickness

0.0179 in

Millimetre: 0.456mm
Weight: 0.75lb/ft²
Weight: 3.66kg/m²

Nominal thickness on the MSG system. Gauge numbers are material-specific — "26 gauge" on its own does not name a thickness.

26 Gauge Steel Sheet Thickness

26 Gauge Steel is defined by the Manufacturers' Standard Gauge (MSG), not by a measurement — the gauge number is an index into that system, which is why the same number means a different thickness in another material.

26 Gauge Steel — thickness and weight
Property	Value
Thickness, decimal inch	0.0179 in
Thickness, millimetre	0.456 mm
Weight per square foot	0.75 lb/ft²
Weight per square metre	3.66 kg/m²
Gauge system	MSG

Nominal thickness. Mill tolerance on sheet is typically a few thousandths of an inch either way and varies with width and process; measure the stock when the fit matters.

26 Gauge Thickness in Every Other Sheet Material

Gauge 26 spans 0.0159 in to 0.0217 in depending on the material, because each material is indexed on a different gauge system. Ordering sheet by gauge without naming the material is how the wrong thickness arrives.

Thickness of 26 gauge sheet across materials
Property	Property	Thickness
Material	Gauge system	in	mm
Sheet Aluminium	B&S	0.0159	0.405
Galvanized Steel	galvanized-MSG	0.0217	0.550
Sheet Steel	MSG	0.0179	0.456
U.S. Standard Gauge	USG	0.0188	0.476

Steel uses the Manufacturers' Standard Gauge, galvanised adds a zinc-coating allowance to the steel thickness, aluminium and other non-ferrous sheet use the Brown & Sharpe geometric series, and U.S. Standard is the 1893 statute on a wrought-iron basis.

Gauges Either Side of 26 Gauge Steel

A higher gauge number is thinner sheet. The steps are not equal — the gauge systems are geometric, so the difference between two gauges shrinks as the sheet gets thinner.

Sheet Steel gauges adjacent to 26 gauge
Property	Thickness
Gauge	in	mm
24 ga	0.0239	0.607
25 ga	0.0209	0.531
26 ga	0.0179	0.456
27 ga	0.0164	0.418
28 ga	0.0149	0.380

Sources and Method for 26 Gauge Steel Thickness

26 Gauge Steel thicknesscomputed

15 U.S.C. 206 (Act of Mar. 3, 1893, ch. 221, 27 Stat. 746) — U.S. Standard Gauge for sheet and plate iron and steel; 15 U.S.C. 206 statutory weights; MSG (41.82 lb/ft2 per inch), galvanized zinc allowance, and Brown & Sharpe formula per docs/research/data-sourcing.md §3.7

Verified against Wikipedia Sheet metal, Standard sheet metal gauges table (CC BY-SA 4.0) — 137/137 checks passed at 0.05 mil

Computed from the standard's formulas, then checked against published tables.

Formula

Weight per square foot, sheet steel

lb/ft²  =  thickness (in) × 41.82

  0.0179 × 41.82  =  0.75 lb/ft²

41.82 lb/ft² per inch of thickness is the Manufacturers' Standard Gauge basis for steel. The U.S. Standard Gauge of 1893 uses a wrought-iron basis of 40 lb/ft² per inch, which is why the two systems differ.

Assumptions

Thicknesses are nominal. Mill tolerance varies with width, process and material and is not part of the gauge definition.
Gauge is an index into a material-specific system, not a unit. A gauge number without a material is ambiguous by construction.
Dataset scope: EXCLUDED: stainless steel (genuinely ambiguous convention, only one source in hand), zinc, copper, brass, steel tube wall.

Data last verified

August 1, 2026

How this data is built and checked →

How to Cite This 26 Gauge Steel Reference

Citation

ShopMath. "26 Gauge Steel Thickness in Inches and Millimetres." ShopMath, verified August 1, 2026, https://shopmath.org/gauges/steel/26

BibTeX

@misc{shopmath-gauges-steel-26,
  title        = {26 Gauge Steel Thickness in Inches and Millimetres},
  author       = {{ShopMath}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://shopmath.org/gauges/steel/26}},
  note         = {Data verified 2026-08-01}
}

Permanent URL

https://shopmath.org/gauges/steel/26

Common Questions About 26 Gauge Steel

How thick is 26 gauge steel?: 26 gauge steel is 0.0179 in thick, which is 0.456 mm. A square foot weighs 0.75 lb (3.66 kg/m²).
What is 26 gauge steel in mm?: 0.456 mm. The gauge number is an index into the MSG system rather than a measurement, so it converts to a fixed thickness rather than a round metric figure.
Is 26 gauge steel thicker than 25 gauge?: No — a lower gauge number is thicker sheet. 25 gauge steel is 0.0209 in (0.531 mm) against 0.0179 in (0.456 mm) for 26 gauge steel, a difference of 0.0030 in.
Why is 26 gauge a different thickness in other materials?: Because each material is indexed on its own gauge system. At 26 gauge: Aluminium 0.0159 in (B&S), Galvanized 0.0217 in (galvanized-MSG), Steel 0.0179 in (MSG), US Standard 0.0188 in (USG). The number is a position in a series, not a thickness, so 3 other readings of "26 gauge" are all equally correct.

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