Which GSM honeycomb paper should you buy? 50 to 120 GSM explained

"Which GSM should I take?" It is the natural first question for anyone buying honeycomb paper. The honest answer is that it depends on your product, but it does not depend on very much, and you can settle it in an afternoon.

Here is the short version. For most ecommerce parcels with light or medium fragile items, 80 GSM is the everyday grade. Go lighter (50 to 70 GSM) for light items, inner layers and gift wrapping. Go heavier (90 to 120 GSM) for heavier glass and ceramic products, long export transit, or packers who pull fast. Then test two neighbouring grades on your own products before you buy in bulk.

We make honeycomb paper in Jaipur from 50 to 120 GSM. So I have no reason to push you to one grade over another.

I would rather you buy the right one and stay with us for years.

What does GSM actually measure?

GSM is grams per square metre. It is the weight of the flat kraft paper before the cutting die puts slits in it. The international test method is ISO 536:2019, published by the International Organization for Standardization.

GSM is a weight, not a thickness. Two papers of the same GSM can feel different, because fibre, pressing and moisture all change how thick and stiff a sheet is. Think of two rotis made from the same 50 grams of atta. One is rolled thin and wide, the other thick and small. They weigh the same, but nobody would call them the same roti.

Still, for the same kind of kraft, more grams means more paper in every cell wall.

That is why GSM is the first number on any honeycomb specification, and one of the numbers we test on every reel of kraft that arrives at our plant.

What changes when you go up a grade?

Heavier paper changes six things, and only some of them help you.

1. The cell walls get stiffer, so they spring back after a knock instead of folding flat.
2. The paper tears less at the ends of the slits when a packer pulls fast.
3. Each roll gets heavier for the same length, which matters at the dispenser and in freight.
4. You get fewer metres from every kilo of paper.
5. The wrap folds less tightly around small, curved items.
6. The roll costs more, because you are buying more paper.

So the heaviest grade is not "the safest". It is the stiffest and the most expensive.

For a 50 gram lipstick it is simply wasted paper.

A starting grade for each kind of product

This table is where I would start a test. It is not a rule. The metres per kilo column is plain arithmetic for a 380 mm wide roll: 1,000 ÷ (GSM × 0.38).

Look at the last column for a minute. A kilo of 50 GSM paper gives you more than twice the length of a kilo of 120 GSM paper. This is why price per roll means little until you know the grade.

How do you pick a grade by product weight and fragility?

Answer five questions about your heaviest common product, not your average one.

1. How heavy is it in the hand? A product that feels heavy for its size pushes harder into the cells when a parcel is dropped.
2. Where does it break? A thin rim or a handle needs the cells to stay open around one weak point.
3. Does it have corners or points? Sharp corners cut through light paper. Heavier paper resists longer, but no grade fixes a sharp point on its own.
4. How long is the transit? A courier parcel across one city is handled a few times. An export carton may change hands many times over several weeks, in different climates.
5. How fast do your packers pull? Fast pulls tear light paper at the slit ends. If your team works at speed, a grade up can save more paper than it costs.

If most answers point to "light, simple, short trip", start at 70 or 80. If two or more point to "heavy, weak spot, long trip", start at 90 or 100.

More layers or a heavier grade?

You can protect a product with three turns of light paper or two turns of heavier paper. Both can pass a drop test. The difference shows up in time and in grams.

Picture a home fragrance seller with one awkward product, say a 1.2 kg glass lamp. These numbers are made up for the example. Suppose 70 GSM needs three layers, which is 1.2 m of flat paper from a 380 mm roll. Suppose 100 GSM needs two layers, which is 0.8 m.

Now weigh the paper per pack. At 70 GSM it is 70 × 0.38 × 1.2 = 31.9 g. At 100 GSM it is 100 × 0.38 × 0.8 = 30.4 g.

That is almost the same paper.

But the heavier grade takes one wrap less per lamp, and on a busy day that is real packing time. The opposite can be true for a small jar, where light paper hugs the shape and the heavy grade just bulks up the box.

This is why I compare grades in grams of paper per safe pack, never in price per roll.

A two-grade test you can run this week

Ask your supplier for two neighbouring grades, for example 80 and 90 GSM, in the width you will use.

1. Weigh a 10 cm x 10 cm square of each flat paper and multiply by 100, to confirm the grade. Our guide to writing a bulk purchase order explains this check in more detail.
2. Pull 20 sheets of each at your packers' normal speed and count the tears.
3. Wrap ten of your heaviest products in each grade, using the fewest layers that feel secure.
4. Drop the packed cartons from table height onto a corner, an edge and a face.
5. Open them and look at the cells under the product. Flattened cells mean the grade or the layer count is too low.
6. Weigh the paper used per product in each grade.

Pick the grade with the fewest failures. If both pass, pick the one with fewer grams per pack. Our desk strength test guide adds a few more checks if you want to go further.

Four GSM mistakes to avoid

The first is buying the heaviest grade "to be safe". It costs more per metre, and on small items it does not protect any better.

The second is the opposite. A buyer picks the lightest grade on price. Then packers wrap twice because it tears, and the paper per order goes up. Buyers who move to a cheaper roll for this reason usually come back.

The third is judging GSM by feel. Fingers are not a scale. Weigh a square.

The fourth is forgetting the American unit. If your supplier or customer talks in pounds, 80 GSM is about 49# basis weight and is sold as 50#. Our GSM to pounds conversion chart covers the full range.

Where we fit

We make honeycomb paper from 50 to 120 GSM on multiple production lines in Jaipur. We test the raw paper before it reaches the cutting line, and we check every lot for GSM, roll weight, moisture and cut quality. We also run usage tests on a dispenser, because a grade that looks right on paper can still tear at a packer's speed. The products page lists the full range of grades, widths and colours.

I will admit one limit. I cannot pick your grade from Jaipur with confidence until your product has been through a test.

Any supplier who names a grade without asking what you ship is guessing, and that includes us on a bad day.

Send us the weight and a photo of your three heaviest products through our contact page, and we will send two grades to test side by side.