Ryanair vs easyJet vs Wizz Air Hand Luggage 2026: The Big Budget-Airline Comparison

A word on sources, because this matters here. The Ryanair figures come from Ryanair's own bag policy, the easyJet sizes from easyJet's cabin bags page, where a small bag up to 45x36x20 cm and 15 kg is free in the ticket price. I could not verify the Wizz Air numbers directly on wizzair.com. They rest on several travel portals such as sendmybag.com that all agree. So treat the Wizz Air row as well-supported rather than officially confirmed. Everything here is current as of August 2026.

And yes, that last column on the right is not a hard number. It is a judgement call. More on that below.

This is the number most people still have wrong in their heads. Ryanair's free small bag has measured 40x30x20 cm since 4 September 2025. Before that it was 40x20x25 cm. Plenty of blogs, older guides, even some luggage product pages still show the old figure. Learn the new one, because it actually gives you a touch more usable volume.

That small bag has to fit under the seat in front of you. On the Basic fare, that is all you get.

Want a real trolley up in the overhead locker? You need Priority. That adds a 10 kg bag up to 55x40x20 cm. The surcharge moves around depending on route and when you book, so I am deliberately not quoting a fixed euro figure here.

The part that stings is the gate. If your bag gets flagged as oversized there, Ryanair's policy says it costs up to €69.99. That is more than a lot of the fares. Honestly, I find that number absurd, but it is real and Ryanair enforces it.

The full breakdown, fare tiers and packing strategy included, lives in our Ryanair hand luggage guide. Here I am keeping it to the overview.

easyJet is the most relaxed of the three on hand luggage size, at least on the free bag. 45x36x20 cm and up to 15 kg with no surcharge, which is noticeably more room than Ryanair or Wizz Air. For most weekend trips, that is enough.

The larger cabin bag at easyJet measures 56x45x25 cm, also up to 15 kg. But it is only free with Plus, Inclusive Plus or Speedy Boarding. Without one of those, you are back to the small bag.

For the gate price I have to lean on an independent source, because easyJet does not publish an easy-to-find official fee table for it. According to Stiftung Warentest, an oversized easyJet cabin bag runs to around €60 at the gate. The same investigation found that only 5 of 14 tested airlines include a cabin trolley in the cheapest fare at all. easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air are none of them.

More on easyJet's fares and the fine print sits in our easyJet hand luggage guide.

Wizz Air is the one that catches people out on hand luggage size. On 1 November 2025 the airline, also searched as "Wizzair" as one word, shrank its free personal item from 45x35x20 cm to 40x30x20 cm. So if you packed to the old, roomier size, you might turn up at the gate in 2026 with a bag that is suddenly too big.

This is exactly where Wizz Air meets Ryanair: the same 40x30x20 cm, except Ryanair went up and Wizz Air went down. For you as a traveller that is good news. A bag that clears Ryanair also clears Wizz Air. Handy.

The larger trolley is called WIZZ Priority and measures 55x40x23 cm at 10 kg. The price for it is dynamic and depends heavily on route and timing. Nobody should quote you a fixed number, that would be a guess.

As I said, the Wizz Air figures could not be checked against the official site. Several travel portals agree, but I would rather flag that openly. The long version is in our Wizz Air hand luggage guide.

Now the part no official rulebook answers: who actually charges you at the gate?

The thing to understand is how that metal frame at the gate works. According to handgepaeck-guru.de, it measures your wheels, handles and bulging outer pockets too, not just the main compartment. One or two centimetres over can trigger the fee. That is why soft backpacks you can squeeze into the frame often pass, while a rigid hardshell trolley with the exact same paper dimensions gets stopped. To avoid getting caught out like that in the first place, see the most common airport packing mistakes.

How strictly they check also depends on how full the flight is. On a packed flight with tight locker space, checks are very thorough. On a half-empty one, more of a spot-check. Dublin, Stansted and Bergamo come up again and again in traveller forums as airports with a reputation for tougher enforcement.

My ranking, with the explicit caveat that it is an estimate and not a guarantee:

1. Ryanair, strictest. The checks are notorious, and the €69.99 gate fee is the steepest of the three.
2. Wizz Air, strict. About as consistent as Ryanair, just less in the spotlight. After the November 2025 shrink, more people fall into the size trap.
3. easyJet, medium. They check too, but the more generous free allowance buys you a bit more slack.

The pure fee angle, who charges what and when, we broke out separately in our gate-penalty comparison. This piece is about the decision, not every single number.

You might have read that hand luggage will soon be free everywhere. That is not quite true, not yet anyway.

Here is what happened. The European Parliament voted 632 to 15 on 21 January 2026 for free hand luggage. Then on 15 June 2026, Parliament and the member states agreed on a passenger-rights reform (euronews.com). But it is narrower than what Parliament wanted: a free personal item is guaranteed, a right to a full free trolley for everyone was not adopted.

And the bit that matters for your next booking: none of this is binding before summer 2027 at the earliest. The exact guaranteed size is still reported inconsistently across the press, one figure here, another there. I am deliberately not naming a centimetre number for the future, because it simply is not settled yet. So in 2026, each airline's own current rules still apply. We track the reform as it develops in our EU hand luggage reform article.

Something else is running in parallel. The Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, Germany's federation of consumer organisations, considers hand-luggage fees unlawful and has sued easyJet, Wizz Air and Vueling, with cease-and-desist letters sent to Ryanair and others (press release dated 4 August 2025). The basis is a 2014 European Court of Justice ruling that hand luggage is an essential part of carriage, not an optional paid extra. How does it end? Nobody knows. But it shows the current fee practice is legally contested.

If you fly all three airlines, or you just never want to pay at the gate again, pack to the smallest size. That is the simplest rule in this whole article. Stick to 40x30x20 cm for the free slot, or the 55 cm trolley sizes if you are buying Priority anyway. If you are not sure which model actually delivers on that in practice, our full buying guide to which carry-on suitcase actually fits can help.

Size is not the only thing gate staff check. The carry-on liquids rules are essentially the same at Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air, whichever bag you end up packing.

For the Free Under-Seat Slot

For the free bag you want something soft that can squeeze into the frame if needed and stays safely inside 40x30x20 cm.

The Hayayu backpack measures 40x28x20 cm, sitting comfortably inside the new 40x30x20 limit. More than 9,720 reviews suggest it holds up in practice. A solid default for the free slot. Hayayu Handgepäck 40x28x20 Rucksack für Ryanair

Even more compact is the KIRFEIHT backpack at 40x20x25 cm. It is actually smaller than the current free limit, which as a soft bag makes it a very relaxed pass through any check. If you would rather have headroom, go for the larger model instead. KIRFEIHT Handgepäck 40x20x25 Rucksack für Ryanair

For the Priority Slot, the Real Trolley

If you book Priority, Speedy Boarding or WIZZ Priority, you need a trolley that hits the tightest of the three trolley sizes. Ryanair is strictest here at 55x40x20 cm, Wizz allows 23 cm of depth, easyJet is most generous at 56x45x25 cm.

The Aerolite cabin case measures 55x40x20 cm and expands to 55x40x23 cm. Folded down it fits Ryanair's Priority frame, expanded it uses the 23 cm at Wizz and still stays inside easyJet's dimensions. Built for all three. Aerolite Handgepäck Koffer 55x40x20cm erweiterbar auf 55x40x23cm für Lufthansa Eurowings Condor mit 2 Rollen

If you prefer hard and protective, look at the KONO trolley at 55x38x20 cm. Its trim dimensions leave a little slack in all three trolley frames, which matters for a hardshell because you cannot squeeze it. KONO Handgepäck Trolley 55x38x20cm mit TSA-Schloss

The one sentence to remember: 40x30x20 cm is the shared free hand luggage size at Ryanair and Wizz Air in 2026, and easyJet gives you a bit more. Pack to the smallest size and you are safe on all three, and you skip the gate fee, which in the worst case costs more than your ticket did.

And if the EU reform eventually lands, all the better. Until then, you decide at the luggage shelf, not at the gate. Give the right airline guide a quick read before you book, and there is no surprise at boarding.