The bearing capacity of open-ended piles is affected by the degree of soil plugging, which is quantified by the incremental filling ratio, IFR. There is not at present a design criterion for open-ended piles that explicitly considers the effect of IFR on pile load capacity. In order to investigate this effect, model pile load tests using a calibration chamber were conducted on instrumented open-ended piles. The results of these tests show that the IFR can be estimated from the plug length ratio PLR, which is defined as the ratio of soil plug length to pile penetration depth. The unit base and shaft resistances decrease with increasing IFR. Based on the results of the model pile tests, new design equations for calculating base load capacity and shaft load capacity of open-ended piles are proposed.