Towel GSM Explained: What It Means and Which Weight to Choose

Rated 4.9 out of 5 for service by Feefo reviewers over the past year, with more than 6,600 verified reviews since 2013. Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award. Read the reviews

What does GSM mean on a towel?

GSM is measured on the fabric rather than on a finished towel, so it tells you how dense the cotton is, not how big or heavy a particular towel will be, and a hand towel and a bath sheet from the same range share one figure. In our ranges every size, from hand towel to bath sheet, is made at the range’s weight, and only a jumbo towel may differ. To work out what a towel weighs, multiply its GSM by its area: a 600gsm bath sheet at 100 x 150cm carries about 900g of cotton when it’s dry. Our bath sheet vs bath towel guide works out the same sum for every size we make.

The figure is measured before a towel is washed, and we make each range to within 5% of its stated weight. Washing changes it a little, because cotton shrinks, so a towel you’ve owned for a while won’t match its label exactly. The figure is where the choice starts rather than where it ends. It says nothing about the cotton itself, how the yarn was spun or how the loops were woven, and each of those changes how a towel of a given weight feels in the hand and how it behaves in the wash.

What a heavier towel changes

The first thing a heavier towel changes is how it feels in your hands, and that’s usually what people are remembering when they describe a hotel towel. More cotton in every square metre makes a deeper, denser towel that feels substantial when you wrap it round you, while a lighter towel of the same size feels flatter and thinner by comparison. The extra cotton also holds more water, so a heavier towel takes up more before it starts to feel damp. For a home bathroom we recommend 600gsm and above for this reason, because below that weight a towel tends to feel thin in the hand.

When towels disappoint, it’s often because they feel thinner than expected, and the weight usually explains it. Our 450gsm and 500gsm towels aren’t made for home bathrooms. We make them for budget properties, caravan parks and three-star hotels, where a towel is washed after every stay and quick drying and low laundry costs matter more than a deep pile. Bought for a home, they can feel light next to the towels you remember from a good hotel, so check the weight before you compare prices.

Weight also travels with the towel into the wash. Every extra gram is cotton that has to be wetted, spun and dried, so a heavier towel takes longer to dry through, and a bath sheet, with about 60% more fabric than a bath towel, adds to the difference. A tumble dryer narrows the gap. On an airer or a radiator, a 600gsm bath sheet dries best hung open across its full width, and our heaviest towels need longer again. Our towels don’t all take the same heat in the dryer either: Chelsea, Dunham and Madison can be tumble dried on a medium setting, while Brampton and Calgary should be dried on low, which adds time to a heavy load.

Size and weight work together, and it helps to keep both in mind if you’re replacing towels of every size at once. A 600gsm bath sheet carries about 60% more cotton than a 600gsm bath towel, so moving up in size adds weight in the same way as moving up in GSM, and doing both at once adds the most. What makes a towel feel like a hotel’s is usually the combination of the two, and our guide to bath sheet vs bath towel covers the size side of the choice. Choosing the weight first, then the size, keeps the two decisions separate.

In a hotel, the same weight shows up in every load and in the turnaround. Most hotels send their towels to an external commercial laundry, where a heavier towel adds weight to each load and takes longer to dry and finish before it comes back. So hotels match the weight of their towels to their standard rather than simply buying the heaviest they can find, as we explain in What GSM do hotels use?

What each towel weight feels like

Bath towels are usually sold somewhere between about 400gsm and 900gsm, and each step up changes the feel and the drying time a little. The table sets out what each weight is like and what we make it for, so you can see where a towel you’re considering sits against ours.

At 450gsm, Porto is a step up from Dunham for budget properties. Warwick (500gsm) and Westbourne (600gsm) are made from zero twist yarn and come in colours as well as white, which suits smaller properties, since most hotels choose white. Brampton is a 600gsm towel with a chunky rib, for four-star and boutique hotels. You’ll find every range in our towels collection.

The step most people notice at home is from 500gsm to 600gsm, because that’s where a towel stops feeling thin in the hand. Below it, towels are built for quick drying and low laundry costs, which suits a busy hotel laundry better than a home bathroom. Above it, each extra 50 or 100 grams adds thickness, and drying time with it, so the heavier weights are a choice about how plush you want a towel to be rather than a fix for one that feels thin.

You’ll usually find the GSM in a towel’s specification rather than its name. Ours is listed as the weight in gsm on every product page, and each range uses the same figure across its sizes. If a listing doesn’t give a GSM, compare the weight of the towel against its size instead, because a towel described as luxurious with no weight given can be anywhere on the scale.

Why towel GSM bands vary between brands

Towel GSM bands aren’t a standard, which is why the same towel can be called lightweight on one website and heavy on another. One guide puts 550 to 700gsm in its medium band and calls anything from 700gsm high, a high-street retailer describes 450 to 600gsm as lightweight, and press reviews of bath towels suggest at least 500gsm without saying what for. Each seller draws the lines around its own range, so the same band name can mean different weights from one shop to the next.

The number itself is consistent, because it’s a measurement, so compare numbers rather than labels. Better still, compare them with a towel you already own and like. If your favourite bath towel is about 600gsm, a listing at 500gsm will feel lighter and one at 700gsm heavier, whatever band either seller puts it in. The descriptions in our table say what we make each weight for, which is a more useful guide than a label because it tells you who the towel was designed around.

Is a higher GSM always better?

GSM is often sold as a score, so a 700gsm towel sounds better than a 500gsm one, but every gram that makes a towel feel thicker also has to be washed and dried. In a hotel that sends its towels to a commercial laundry, a heavier towel adds weight to every load and takes longer to dry, which is why we make our 450gsm and 500gsm ranges for budget properties and three-star hotels, where quick drying and low laundry costs matter more than a deep pile.

At home the cost is drying time and the energy that goes with it. A heavier bath sheet takes longer to dry through on an airer or a radiator, and the heaviest towel we make, our 770gsm Fitzroy, is also the most demanding one to dry at home. At the other end, our 450gsm Dunham needs the least drying time, so it suits anyone who wants to keep the cost of laundering as low as possible, although at home it feels thin in the hand next to the 600gsm we’d recommend.

Some people simply prefer a lighter towel, and one reviewer of our 500gsm Chelsea towels explained why.

For most homes, then, the better question is how heavy a towel your washing routine can comfortably dry, and we’d start that search at 600gsm. Towels heavier than ours are easy to find, and some are sold at 800 to 900gsm. We stop at 770gsm with Fitzroy, our most luxurious towel, which we make for ultra-luxury hotels and homes. Above that weight, fewer towels fit in each wash and every load takes much longer to launder, which makes the cost too high for hotels. At home the same extra cotton has to be washed and dried, so before paying for a higher number, think about where the towel will dry and how often you’ll wash it.

Weight doesn’t tell you how long a towel will last, either. In a hotel laundry, heavier and lighter towels last about as long as each other, and what changes with weight is how a towel feels and what it costs to launder. We’ll cover what does make a towel last in What Makes a Hotel Towel Durable, a guide we are preparing.

Why two towels of the same weight feel different

Weight is only one of the things you feel in a towel. Two towels at the same GSM can feel different because of the cotton they’re made from and how its yarn was spun, which is why we describe our ranges by construction as well as weight. Most of our ranges, from Dunham and Porto up to Madison and Brampton, are made from ring spun cotton. Mayfair and Fitzroy, our two heaviest, use combed cotton. Warwick and Westbourne are made from zero twist yarn, with Westbourne also combed, and Calgary is made from Microcotton. The surest way to tell which you prefer is to feel them, and you can request a swatch before you order.

Waffle towels are a different case, and their GSM can’t be compared with a terry towel’s, because they aren’t designed to dry you in the same way. Our Bliss range is a lightweight waffle towel made for spas and leisure clubs, where towels are washed and dried quickly between uses, so we don’t recommend it for home use.

Which GSM should I choose?

Most people know roughly how they like a towel to feel, and the harder part is matching that to the way the towel will be used and dried. The scale shows what each weight is for and where our ranges sit, from our lightest at 450gsm to Fitzroy at 770gsm.

Under 450gsm

Lighter than any terry towel we make

450gsm

Budget properties and caravan parks

Dunham, Porto

500gsm

Three-star properties

Chelsea, Luxus, Warwick

600gsm

Four-star and boutique hotels; where we start for home

Madison, Calgary, Brampton, Westbourne

650 to 770gsm

Ultra-luxury hotels and homes

Mayfair, Fitzroy

Over 770gsm

Heavier than we make, and slow and costly to launder

The selector asks three questions: where the towels will be used, how you like a towel to feel and how they’ll be dried. It recommends a weight, highlights it on the scale and names the ranges we make at that weight, with what you give up for it. For a home bathroom it won’t suggest anything lighter than 600gsm, because that’s where we’d start.

What GSM do hotels use?

Hotels choose a towel weight to match their standard, because the weight a guest feels and the weight the laundry handles are the same cotton. Our lightest ranges, at 450gsm, are made for budget properties and caravan parks, where quick drying and low laundry costs matter most. We make 500gsm ranges for three-star hotels, 600gsm for four-star and boutique hotels, and 650gsm and 770gsm for ultra-luxury hotels that want to give guests the heaviest towels and aren’t concerned about the cost of the towels or their laundering. Most hotels also put bath sheets rather than bath towels in their bathrooms, which adds more cotton again, and our guide to bath sheet vs bath towel explains that choice.

Most hotels send their towels to an external commercial laundry, so the weight of a towel shows up in every load and in the time it takes to dry and finish before it comes back. Moving up a weight is a decision about the laundry as much as about comfort. Most laundries price towels by both the number and the weight, so a heavier towel raises the cost of every load. Before you change, ask your laundry how it charges and whether heavier items change its turnaround. If you launder on site, the limit is your drying capacity, since a heavier towel keeps each load in the dryer for longer.

Holiday lets, Airbnbs and B&Bs face the same trade-off, usually with a domestic machine and less drying space. A host washing towels between guests is limited by the drum and the drying, and on a same-day changeover a lighter towel that dries quickly can be the difference between towels folded before check-in and towels still on the airer. Some hosts choose bath towels rather than bath sheets for the same reason.

We’d choose a weight for a let in the same way as for a hotel, with 450gsm at the budget end, 500gsm to 600gsm in the middle and 650gsm and above for a more luxurious let. If you want guests to find the weight they’d expect at home, 600gsm is where we’d start, while a lighter towel is a practical choice where you launder at home and turn rooms round quickly. Our Warwick and Westbourne towels come in colours as well as white, which suits smaller properties.

Spa and pool areas are a separate case. Towels there are made to be washed and dried quickly between uses, so we make our lightweight Bliss waffle towels for them rather than using the weight in your guest bathrooms. We’ll cover spa and treatment-room linen in Spa and Wellness Linen for Treatment Facilities, a guide we are preparing.

Before you order for a whole property, feel the weights for yourself. You can request a swatch, or call our trade team on 0845 337 7732 (call charges may apply). How many sets to hold, and when to replace them, depend on your changeover pattern and laundry turnaround, and we’ll cover both in How Often Should Hotels Replace Their Towels?, a guide we are preparing.

Our towels by weight

For a home bathroom we recommend 600gsm and above, and the first three cards meet that mark. The fourth is a lighter range we make for three-star properties, included so you can see plainly what a lighter towel gives up.

Every range we make is set out below, from our lightest to our heaviest, with who we make it for. Each range is made at one weight across its hand towel, bath towel and bath sheet, so a set feels the same in every size.

You can see every range in our towels collection.

Towel GSM questions

Where to start

Choose the weight first, then the size. For a home bathroom, 600gsm is where we’d begin, moving up to 650 or 770gsm if you want a thicker towel and have the room to dry it. For a hotel, B&B or let, match the weight to your standard and to how your towels are laundered. You can compare every range in our towels collection, or request a swatch to feel the weights side by side.

View our towels collection Request a swatch