Standard IPE beams run from IPE 80 at 6.0 kg/m up to IPE 600 at 122 kg/m, with the number in the designation giving the section depth in millimetres. An IPE 200 weighs 22.4 kg/m, an IPE 300 weighs 42.2 kg/m, and an IPE 400 weighs 66.3 kg/m. The chart below covers all 18 standard sizes; watch for the lighter IPE A and heavier IPE O variants, which share the same nominal depth but weigh 10–20% less or more.
Full IPE weight chart: IPE 80 to IPE 600
These are the catalogue weights for the standard IPE series (European I-beams with parallel flanges, rolled to EN 10365 / Euronorm 19-57). The lb/ft column is there for anyone pricing European drawings from a US shop — multiply kg/m by 0.672.
| Section | Weight (kg/m) | Weight (lb/ft) |
|---|---|---|
| IPE 80 | 6.0 | 4.0 |
| IPE 100 | 8.1 | 5.4 |
| IPE 120 | 10.4 | 7.0 |
| IPE 140 | 12.9 | 8.7 |
| IPE 160 | 15.8 | 10.6 |
| IPE 180 | 18.8 | 12.6 |
| IPE 200 | 22.4 | 15.1 |
| IPE 220 | 26.2 | 17.6 |
| IPE 240 | 30.7 | 20.6 |
| IPE 270 | 36.1 | 24.3 |
| IPE 300 | 42.2 | 28.4 |
| IPE 330 | 49.1 | 33.0 |
| IPE 360 | 57.1 | 38.4 |
| IPE 400 | 66.3 | 44.6 |
| IPE 450 | 77.6 | 52.1 |
| IPE 500 | 90.7 | 61.0 |
| IPE 550 | 106 | 71.2 |
| IPE 600 | 122 | 82.0 |
Above IPE 600 the naming convention changes: the largest rolled sizes are designated with the weight baked in — IPE 750 x 134 through IPE 750 x 220 — so there's no ambiguity to resolve. Below IPE 80 you're out of the IPE range entirely and into small channels and angles.
Note the jump pattern. From IPE 240 the depth increments go 240 → 270 → 300 → 330 → 360 → 400 → 450 → 500 → 550 → 600 while the weight roughly doubles every three or four sizes. If a takeoff total looks wrong, check whether a 330 got read as a 300 somewhere — at 49.1 vs 42.2 kg/m that's a 16% miss on every metre of that beam line.
How much does an IPE 200 weigh per metre?
An IPE 200 weighs 22.4 kg/m (15.1 lb/ft). It is 200 mm deep with a 100 mm flange, a 5.6 mm web, and 8.5 mm flanges.
A worked example, since IPE 200 is one of the most common purlins-and-secondary-steel sizes on European jobs: a 6 m length of IPE 200 weighs 6 × 22.4 = 134.4 kg. Twenty of them is 2,688 kg — call it 2.7 tonnes on your material order.
The trap with IPE 200 specifically is its variants. IPE A 200 weighs 18.4 kg/m and IPE O 200 weighs 25.1 kg/m. All three are "200-deep IPE" at a glance on a drawing. Miss the A and you overbuy by 18%; miss the O and you underquote by 11%. More on catching those below.
IPE dimensions table: depth, flange width, thicknesses
The full dimension set for the standard series. IPE flanges run at roughly half the section depth — that narrow-flange proportion is the defining feature of the family.
| Section | Depth h (mm) | Flange width b (mm) | Web tw (mm) | Flange tf (mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPE 80 | 80 | 46 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 6.0 |
| IPE 100 | 100 | 55 | 4.1 | 5.7 | 8.1 |
| IPE 120 | 120 | 64 | 4.4 | 6.3 | 10.4 |
| IPE 140 | 140 | 73 | 4.7 | 6.9 | 12.9 |
| IPE 160 | 160 | 82 | 5.0 | 7.4 | 15.8 |
| IPE 180 | 180 | 91 | 5.3 | 8.0 | 18.8 |
| IPE 200 | 200 | 100 | 5.6 | 8.5 | 22.4 |
| IPE 220 | 220 | 110 | 5.9 | 9.2 | 26.2 |
| IPE 240 | 240 | 120 | 6.2 | 9.8 | 30.7 |
| IPE 270 | 270 | 135 | 6.6 | 10.2 | 36.1 |
| IPE 300 | 300 | 150 | 7.1 | 10.7 | 42.2 |
| IPE 330 | 330 | 160 | 7.5 | 11.5 | 49.1 |
| IPE 360 | 360 | 170 | 8.0 | 12.7 | 57.1 |
| IPE 400 | 400 | 180 | 8.6 | 13.5 | 66.3 |
| IPE 450 | 450 | 190 | 9.4 | 14.6 | 77.6 |
| IPE 500 | 500 | 200 | 10.2 | 16.0 | 90.7 |
| IPE 550 | 550 | 210 | 11.1 | 17.2 | 106 |
| IPE 600 | 600 | 220 | 12.0 | 19.0 | 122 |
Two shop-floor observations. First, the depth in the name is the actual depth for the standard series — an IPE 300 measures 300 mm, unlike US W-shapes where a W12 can run anywhere from 11.9 to 13.1 inches deep. Second, webs are thin: 7.1 mm on an IPE 300. That's relevant when you're detailing coped ends and bolted connections, and it's why IPE is efficient in bending but not the section you pick for heavy axial load.
What is the difference between IPE and HEA/HEB?
Flange width, mostly. An IPE has a flange roughly half its depth; an HE section has a flange roughly equal to its depth. Compare at the 200 nominal size:
| Section | Depth (mm) | Flange (mm) | Weight (kg/m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPE 200 | 200 | 100 | 22.4 |
| HEA 200 | 190 | 200 | 42.3 |
| HEB 200 | 200 | 200 | 61.3 |
Same nominal number, and the HEB weighs almost three times the IPE. On a takeoff, confusing the two families is the single most expensive letter-reading mistake you can make on a European drawing. IPE is the economical beam choice — floor beams, purlins, rafters. HE sections carry the columns and the heavy transfer work. The HEA vs HEB vs HEM breakdown covers the HE side, and if you're new to Eurocode drawings generally, start with the European steel sections guide.
What is the UK or US equivalent of an IPE section?
There is no exact equivalent — IPE, UB, and W series are rolled to different standards with different dimension sets — but the nearest matches by depth and weight are close enough for early-stage pricing and substitution enquiries:
| IPE | Nearest UK UB | Nearest US W-shape |
|---|---|---|
| IPE 200 (22.4 kg/m) | UB 203x102x23 (23.1 kg/m) | W8x15 (22.3 kg/m) |
| IPE 300 (42.2 kg/m) | UB 305x127x42 (41.9 kg/m) | W12x26 (38.7 kg/m) |
| IPE 400 (66.3 kg/m) | UB 406x178x67 (67.1 kg/m) | W16x45 (67.0 kg/m) |
| IPE 500 (90.7 kg/m) | UB 457x191x89 (89.3 kg/m) | W21x62 (92.2 kg/m) |
| IPE 600 (122 kg/m) | UB 610x229x125 (125.1 kg/m) | W24x84 (125 kg/m) |
Treat these as weight-class matches, not drop-in swaps — flange widths and section properties differ, and any substitution needs the engineer's sign-off. For the full mapping in the other direction, see the W-shape metric equivalents chart.
Calculating total member weight from length x kg/m
The arithmetic is the easy part:
Total weight (kg) = quantity × length (m) × kg/m
Say a mezzanine package calls for 14 pieces of IPE 240 at 7.2 m:
14 × 7.2 m × 30.7 kg/m = 3,095 kg, or just under 3.1 tonnes.
Add your waste allowance on top (2–5% depending on how the lengths nest against stock), and that's the number that goes on the mill order. If you'd rather not keep the chart open in another tab, the free steel weight calculator does length × kg/m for IPE and every other EN section directly, and the beam weight calculation guide walks through the method including imperial units and plate.
The part that actually goes wrong isn't the multiplication — it's the count and the designation. Which brings us to the variants.
IPE takeoff tips: catching IPE A and IPE O variants
The standard IPE series has three siblings sharing each nominal depth:
- IPE A — lighter: thinner web and flanges, fractionally shallower. IPE A 200 = 18.4 kg/m vs 22.4 standard.
- IPE AA — lighter still, less common. IPE AA 200 = 18.0 kg/m.
- IPE O — heavier: thicker walls, fractionally deeper. IPE O 200 = 25.1 kg/m.
- IPE V — reinforced heavy variant on the big sizes only (400–600). IPE V 500 = 129 kg/m vs 90.7 standard.
Three things bite estimators on real drawings:
- The letter hides in the callout. "IPE A 450" and "IPE 450" differ by 10.4 kg on every metre (67.2 vs 77.6 kg/m). On a 12 m rafter line with 20 pieces, that single letter is 2.5 tonnes of steel. Schedules sometimes write it "IPE450A" or "IPEA450" depending on the detailer's software, so a naive text search for "IPE 450" catches all of them and prices them identically.
- Mixed series on one job. European designers routinely spec standard IPE for main framing and IPE A for secondary steel on the same sheet. If your takeoff process groups by depth alone, the variants collapse into one line item and the tonnage is wrong in whichever direction you got lucky.
- IPE V looks like a typo. It isn't — it's the heaviest variant, and at IPE V 600 you're at 184 kg/m, half again the standard 122. If a callout you've never seen shows up on a heavy transfer beam, verify it against the catalogue before assuming a drafting error.
The count matters as much as the rate: every occurrence of the label on every sheet is a piece, and hand-counting IPE callouts across a 40-sheet Eurocode package is where the misses accumulate. This is the problem SteelFlo was built for — upload the PDF, it finds and boxes every steel callout (IPE A and O variants included, across 4,500+ sections in 6 international standards), and you verify the boxes rather than hunting for labels. Detection plus human verification runs 95–99% accurate, which in practice means you review a flagged shortlist instead of re-counting the whole set.
Quick answers
How much does an IPE 300 weigh per metre? 42.2 kg/m (28.4 lb/ft). It is 300 mm deep with a 150 mm flange.
What does IPE stand for? I-Profil Européen — European I-beam with parallel flanges, as opposed to the older tapered-flange IPN series.
Is an IPE beam depth the actual depth? Yes, for the standard series. An IPE 400 measures 400 mm deep. The A/AA variants run a few millimetres shallower and the O/V variants a few millimetres deeper than nominal.
What grade of steel are IPE beams? The section standard defines geometry only; the material is specified separately, most commonly S235, S275, or S355 to EN 10025. Weight per metre is identical across grades.
Pricing a European package and don't want to hand-key 18 rows of kg/m? Try the free steel weight calculator — pick the IPE size, enter lengths and quantities, and get tonnage instantly. And if the drawings are a PDF set, SteelFlo's takeoff finds every IPE callout for you: 3 free takeoffs, no card required.