Your liver sits on the right side of your body, tucked into the upper right portion of your abdominal cavity. It rests just beneath your diaphragm and is protected by your lower ribs, which is why you can’t normally feel it from the outside. Most of the liver’s bulk is on the right, but a smaller portion extends across the midline toward the left side of your abdomen.
Exact Position in the Body
The liver occupies what doctors call the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. It sits directly beneath the diaphragm (the muscle you use to breathe) and rests on top of the stomach, right kidney, and intestines. The lower ribs on your right side act as a shield for most of the organ. Because of this protected position, a healthy liver isn’t easy to feel by pressing on your abdomen. During a deep breath, the diaphragm pushes the liver down slightly, and a doctor can sometimes feel its lower edge just below the rib cage.
Size and Shape
The liver is the largest internal organ and the largest gland in the body, weighing about 1,500 grams (roughly 3.3 pounds). It’s shaped like a wedge or prism, with its broad base on the right side and a thinner edge tapering toward the left. On ultrasound, a normal liver spans less than 16 cm measured vertically. Men tend to have slightly larger livers than women, with a median span of about 14.5 cm compared to 13.4 cm.
The organ is divided into a larger right lobe and a smaller left lobe. The right lobe accounts for roughly 60% of the liver’s volume, which is why the organ is so dominant on the right side of the body. The left lobe, making up the remaining 40%, crosses the midline and sits partially over the stomach.
What Sits Next to the Liver
The gallbladder, a small pear-shaped organ that stores bile, hangs directly beneath the liver on its underside. Bile produced by liver cells drains through a network of small ducts that merge into two main channels (one from the right lobe, one from the left), which then join together and connect to the gallbladder. From there, bile flows into the first section of the small intestine to help digest fats. This tight plumbing connection between the liver, gallbladder, and small intestine means problems in one organ often affect the others.
The stomach sits just to the left and slightly below the liver. The right kidney is tucked behind and beneath it. These close relationships explain why liver swelling can create a feeling of fullness or pressure that seems to come from the stomach area.
Where Liver Pain Shows Up
When the liver is inflamed or enlarged, you’ll typically feel discomfort in the upper right abdomen, just under the ribs. But the liver itself doesn’t have many pain-sensing nerves inside it. Most liver pain comes from stretching of the capsule, the thin membrane that wraps around the organ. When the liver swells, this capsule stretches and triggers a dull ache or sense of pressure on the right side.
Sometimes liver problems cause pain in an unexpected place: the right shoulder or upper back. This happens because an enlarged liver presses on nerves that share pathways with nerves running to the shoulder, so the brain misinterprets the signal’s origin. This phenomenon, called referred pain, can be confusing if you don’t know the liver is involved.
How to Tell If Your Liver Is Enlarged
A healthy liver has a soft, smooth edge that’s barely detectable even during a physical exam. When a doctor checks your liver, they’ll have you lie on your back and take a deep breath while pressing gently below your right ribs. As you inhale, the diaphragm pushes the liver downward, and the doctor tries to feel the lower edge slide past their fingertips.
A normal liver edge feels soft and thin. A liver that feels firm, rounded, or bumpy at the edge suggests something is off, whether that’s inflammation, fatty buildup, or something more serious. Tenderness during this exam can point to active inflammation or congestion. An ultrasound measurement above 16 cm in vertical span is generally considered enlarged, though body size and sex factor into the interpretation.
When the Liver Is on the Left
In rare cases, the liver actually does sit on the left side. A genetic condition called situs inversus causes the major organs in the chest and abdomen to develop in a mirror image of their normal positions. The liver and gallbladder end up on the left, while the spleen and stomach shift to the right. This affects about 1 in every 10,000 people. Most people with situs inversus live completely normal lives and may not even know their organs are reversed until an imaging scan reveals it.