Southwest Airlines does not publish a personal-item size. The only published rule is that it fits under the seat in front of you. Put your own bag's measurements in below.
| Personal item maximum | No numeric size published — it must fit under the seat |
| Is it free? | Yes — every fare includes one personal item |
| Full-size carry-on | 24 x 16 x 10 in (also included) |
| If it does not fit | Must be checked at the ticket counter before the gate; checked-bag fees apply. |
Southwest Airlines publishes no personal-item measurement. Southwest publishes NO numeric personal-item size — its policy page lists examples (purse, briefcase, laptop case, backpack) and requires the item to fit under the seat in front of you. Figures circulating online are not Southwest's published limit.
Southwest Airlines is one of 6 airlines in our set that publish no personal-item dimensions. The rule is functional rather than numeric: the bag has to fit fully under the seat in front of you, and cabin crew judge it by whether it does.
Figures for Southwest Airlines circulate widely anyway. They come from measuring the under-seat space on particular aircraft, or from copying another airline's published limit — neither is Southwest Airlines's rule, and neither binds the person at the gate. We publish the absence instead, because a traveller who buys a bag to an invented number and is charged for it has been misled by the number, not by the airline.
In practice the under-seat space on a narrowbody is roughly 17 to 19 inches wide and 9 to 11 inches high, and it shrinks where a seat has a lifejacket box or an entertainment unit beneath it. A soft bag that squashes is worth far more than an exact measurement here.
Both bags are included in the fare on Southwest Airlines, so the personal item is an addition to your 24 x 16 x 10 in carry-on rather than a replacement for it. The two limits are judged separately — a bag that is too big for under the seat may still be fine overhead.
Southwest Airlines publishes no cabin weight limit, so in practice the personal item is judged on whether it fits the space rather than what it weighs. You still have to be able to handle it yourself.
Must be checked at the ticket counter before the gate; checked-bag fees apply. An over-large personal item usually travels overhead instead, which is free on Southwest Airlines and therefore a much softer landing than on a carrier that charges for the carry-on.
Two practical notes that apply on any airline: the under-seat space is smaller in a row with a lifejacket box or an entertainment unit beneath the seat, and a soft bag that compresses will pass where a rigid case of identical stated dimensions will not. Measure with anything strapped to the outside included.
Southwest Airlines does not publish a numeric personal-item size. The published requirement is that it fits completely under the seat in front of you — so any figure you see quoted elsewhere is someone's inference, not Southwest Airlines's rule.
Yes. Every Southwest Airlines fare includes one personal item.
A purse, small backpack, laptop bag, briefcase or similar. Southwest publishes NO numeric personal-item size — its policy page lists examples (purse, briefcase, laptop case, backpack) and requires the item to fit under the seat in front of you. Figures circulating online are not Southwest's published limit.
Must be checked at the ticket counter before the gate; checked-bag fees apply.
The personal item goes under the seat and is free. The carry-on goes in the overhead locker and can be up to 24 x 16 x 10 in, included with your fare.
Yes — Southwest Airlines measures the whole bag, so soft bags that squash down have a real advantage under the seat.