The most common unit cells found in metals are cubic and hexagonal. This page shows the three cubic cells, which differ in number and location of lattice points in the cube.

The simple cubic cell has lattice points at the corners of a cube.

The body-centered cubic cell has lattice points at the corners and in the center of the cube. Whatever is located at the corners of the cube is repeated in the center of the cube.

The face-centered cubic cell has lattice points at the corners and in the center of each face of a cube. Whatever is located at the corners of the cube is also located in the center of each face.