Penalty Box Dimensions: Every Measurement, in Yards and Metres

Last updated: August 2026

Key Takeaways

• The penalty box extends 16.5 m (18 yds) from the inside of each goalpost and 16.5 m (18 yds) into the field, making it 40.32 m (44 yds) wide e 16.5 m deep.
• Il penalty mark is 11 m (12 yds) from the midpoint between the goalposts, measured to the back edge of the goal line.
• Il D is an arc of radius 9.15 m (10 yds) drawn from the penalty mark, outside the box. It is not part of the penalty area.
• Unlike the pitch itself, which has a legal range of sizes, the box never changes size. An 18-yard box is 18 yards at Wembley and on a park pitch.

Almost every important thing in a soccer match happens inside a rectangle whose dimensions most players could not tell you. The goalkeeper can only use their hands inside it, a foul that would be a free kick anywhere else becomes a penalty inside it, and every argument about a handball starts with whether it was in or out.

All the numbers below come from Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, which is what every pitch in the world is marked to.

«Groundstaff measure from the inside of the posts, not the outside, and from the back edge of the goal line for the spot. Get either wrong and the box is out by a few inches everywhere — which nobody notices until someone measures a penalty.» — Anthony Molina, FOOTBOLNO.COM

Every Measurement Around the Goal

The two total widths are simple arithmetic on the laws: the goal is 7.32 m between the posts, and the box extends 16.5 m beyond each of them, so 7.32 + 16.5 + 16.5 = 40.32 m. The same sum for the goal area gives 7.32 + 5.5 + 5.5 = 18.32 m.

How the Box Is Actually Measured

Three details in Law 1 decide whether a box is marked correctly, and all three are easy to get wrong.

From the inside of the goalposts. The 16.5 m is measured from the inside face of each post, not the outside and not the centre of the post. Measure from the wrong face and every line moves.

Lines belong to the area they enclose. Measurements are taken from the outside of the lines, because a line is part of the area it bounds. A ball on the line of the penalty area is in the penalty area; a foul on that line is a penalty.

The penalty mark is measured to the back edge of the goal line. Not the front edge and not the middle — 11 m from the centre of the mark to the back edge of the line.

The box itself is two lines drawn at right angles to the goal line, extended 16.5 m into the field, and joined by a line parallel to the goal line. That is the whole definition.

The D, and Why It Exists

The arc on the front edge of the box — the D, or penalty arc — is a circle segment of radius 9.15 m (10 yds) drawn from the centre of the penalty mark, outside the penalty area.

Its only job is the penalty kick. Every player except the taker and the goalkeeper must be at least 9.15 m from the penalty mark when a penalty is taken, and since 9.15 m from the mark reaches beyond the front edge of the box, the arc marks where they may stand. Inside the box they are already too close; inside the D they are within 9.15 m of the mark.

The D is not part of the penalty area. A handball inside the D is a free kick, not a penalty. That single fact is behind a fair share of Sunday-league arguments. The rest of what happens on that kick is in our guide to penalty rules.

The Six-Yard Box

The goal area — the small box — is 5.5 m (6 yds) from the inside of each post, extended 5.5 m into the field. Total width, 18.32 m (20 yds).

It defines two things and nothing else: where a goal kick is taken from, and where a dropped ball is placed if play stopped with the ball inside it. The old idea that a goalkeeper is somehow protected inside the six-yard box has not been in the Laws for decades.

Why the Penalty Box Matters

The rectangle is not just paint. Four rules change at its boundary.

Handling. The goalkeeper may handle the ball only inside their own penalty area. A keeper whose hands touch the ball with any part of it outside the line is conceding a direct free kick.

Penalties. A direct-free-kick offence committed by the defending team inside its own penalty area is a penalty kick, wherever the ball is at the time.

The eight-second rule. A goalkeeper who controls the ball with the hands inside their own penalty area for more than eight seconds concedes a corner kick. The referee counts down the last five seconds with a raised hand — one of several signals covered in our guide to referee signals.

Restarts. At a goal kick and at a penalty, opponents must be outside the penalty area until the ball is in play.

The Pitch Around It Can Change Size. The Box Cannot.

This is the part that surprises people. The Laws give the pitch a range, not a fixed size:

The touchline must be longer than the goal line, and competitions choose their own dimensions within those limits — which is why pitch sizes genuinely differ between grounds.

The penalty area does not have a range. It is 16.5 m by 40.32 m everywhere the eleven-a-side Laws apply. On a narrow pitch the box therefore takes up a much larger share of the width, which is one reason tight grounds feel congested in the final third.

For anyone actually marking out or building a pitch, the surface underneath is the expensive part — we covered what that runs in the guide to building a soccer field.

Marking One Out

If you are setting out a pitch rather than reading about one, the box is the fiddly part, and two tricks do most of the work.

Get the right angles from a 3-4-5 triangle. The two side lines of the penalty area must be at right angles to the goal line, and eyeballing that over 16.5 m is hopeless. Measure 3 m along the goal line and 4 m along the intended side line; when the diagonal between those two points is exactly 5 m, the corner is square. Any multiple works — 6, 8 and 10 metres is easier to hold accurately over a long run.

Draw the arc with a string from the spot. The D is not a freehand curve. Fix a line 9.15 m long at the penalty mark, pull it taut, and swing it across the front of the box; the part of that circle that falls outside the penalty area is the arc. Marking it any other way produces the lopsided D you see on a lot of park pitches.

The order matters too. Mark the goal line and the centre of the goal first, then the penalty mark from it, then the box from the posts, then the arc from the mark. Every measurement after the first depends on the one before, so an error at the start travels all the way through.

Youth and Small-Sided Football

Youth formats do not use the 18-yard box. The Laws of the Game define the field for the eleven-a-side game, and Law 1 explicitly allows national associations and competitions to modify dimensions for youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football.

What that means in practice is that a nine-a-side or seven-a-side pitch has a penalty area scaled to its own size, set by the national association running the competition — the FA, US Soccer, the DFB and so on all publish their own tables. The relationship stays the same, though: the box is deep enough to give the keeper a working area and wide enough to swallow most of the goalmouth.

Common Questions

How big is the penalty box in soccer? 16.5 m (18 yds) deep and 40.32 m (44 yds) wide. The depth is measured from the goal line into the field of play, and the width from the outside of one side line of the box to the other.

How far is the penalty spot from the goal? 11 m, or 12 yds, measured from the centre of the mark to the back edge of the goal line.

Why is it called the 18-yard box? Because it extends 18 yards from the goal line, the imperial figure the Laws were originally written in. The metric equivalent, 16.5 m, is the same distance.

What is the D on a soccer field for? It marks 9.15 m (10 yds) from the penalty spot, so players who are not taking the penalty know where they can legally stand. It is not part of the penalty area.

Is the line part of the penalty box? Yes. Lines belong to the areas they enclose, so a ball or a foul on the line of the penalty area counts as inside it.

How big is the six-yard box? 5.5 m (6 yds) deep and 18.32 m (20 yds) wide. It exists for goal kicks and dropped balls, not for protecting the goalkeeper.

Are penalty box dimensions the same everywhere? In eleven-a-side football, yes — the box is fixed even though the pitch itself has a legal range of sizes. Youth and small-sided competitions use scaled versions set by their national association.

How much area does the penalty box cover? 16.5 m × 40.32 m is roughly 665 m², or about 792 square yards — around a tenth of a full-size pitch.

Anthony Molina writes about soccer technique, gear and coaching at FOOTBOLNO.