Can you take tools on a plane?
Carry-on: No Checked: Yes Same on domestic flights
Tools that could be used as weapons - screwdrivers, drills, crowbars, most things with a shaft - are banned from the cabin. Checked baggage takes them; battery tools follow the lithium rules for their batteries.
The test screening applies is not really about the tool, it is about the shaft. Anything with a rigid handle that could be used as a weapon - screwdrivers, drills, crowbars, wrenches - stays out of the cabin regardless of how small it is. A watchmaker’s screwdriver and a workshop one are treated the same way.
All of them are fine in checked baggage, which is usually the whole answer: pack the tools in the bag you are checking anyway.
Cordless tools add a second rule on top. The tool goes in checked baggage, but its lithium battery follows the spare-battery rules and has to come into the cabin with you - so the two halves of the same drill travel in different bags.
Multi-tools are the common casualty, because people think of them as pocket items rather than tools. If it has a blade or a rigid driver, it is checked baggage.
Flying within Australia? This rule does not change.
Screening treats sharp items the same domestically. The relaxed domestic rules are about liquids, not blades.
Two rules explain most of this page. Lithium batteries fly in the cabin so the crew can reach them, and the 100ml liquid limit is an international rule. Your flight home is screened under the departure country's rules, which are sometimes stricter than Australia's.
Tools: common questions
Can you take tools on a plane in Australia?
Not in the cabin. Tools that could be used as weapons - screwdrivers, drills, crowbars, spanners - are banned from carry-on whatever their size. All of them travel fine in checked baggage.
Can you take a screwdriver in hand luggage?
No. Size does not help here: a small precision screwdriver is treated the same as a full-size one. Put it in checked baggage instead.
Can you take a multi-tool on a plane?
Not in carry-on if it has a blade or a rigid driver, which most do. Multi-tools are among the most commonly surrendered items at screening because they feel like pocket items rather than tools.
Can you take power tools on a plane?
The tool goes in checked baggage, but its lithium battery has to travel in the cabin under the spare-battery rules. Expect to separate a cordless drill from its battery pack when you pack.
Do tool rules change on a domestic flight?
No. The relaxed domestic rules cover liquids, not sharp or weapon-like items, so screening treats tools identically on a domestic flight.
Flying soon? Screening is the easy part
What stops Australians at the airport is more often the passport, the visa or the phone than the bag. Say where you are going and we will show you the entry rules for an Australian passport, what an eSIM actually costs there, and what the insurance covers.
Sharp things & tools
What is actually worth booking.
New destination guides and side-by-side comparisons for Australian travellers - which eSIM, which travel card, which insurance is worth paying for, and what to sort before you go. Prices in Australian dollars, a few emails a year.
Packing something else? The full A to Z of what you can take on a plane covers 61 items, the domestic flight rules set out what changes when you are not leaving the country, and the pre-departure checklist puts the rest of the trip in order.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026. Screening, dangerous-goods and biosecurity rules change, and airlines can be stricter than the government baseline. For anything unusual, the linked source and your airline's dangerous-goods page are the final word.