Office Space Calculator
This office space calculator works both ways. From the floor area, area per person and desk sharing it gives the office capacity: desks and people. Add a team size, meeting rooms and shared space to get the total area your team needs.
Office space calculator
In m², or type a value in sq ft (e.g. 3200 sq ft).
Your planning figure for one workplace, including its share of aisles.
100% gives everyone a desk; 70% means 7 desks for every 10 people.
People who will use the office, to see how many desks and how much area they need.
- Desks that fit
- 25
- floor area ÷ area per person, rounded down
- People supported
- 25
- desks ÷ desks per person, rounded down
- Desk-sharing ratio
- 1.00 : 1
- people per desk
How this was calculated
- Desks that fit = floor area ÷ area per person, rounded down; people supported = desks ÷ desks per person
- Desk-sharing ratio = 1 ÷ desks per person (people per desk)
- Team: desks = team × desks per person, rounded up; total = (desks × area per person + meeting rooms × room area + shared space) × (1 + allowance)
- Desks that fit = 250.00 m² ÷ 10.00 m², rounded down = 25
- People supported = 25 ÷ 100%, rounded down = 25
- Desk-sharing ratio = 1 ÷ 100% = 1.00 : 1
How the numbers are worked out
Desks that fit is the floor area divided by the area per person, rounded down: 250 m² at 10 m² per person gives 25 desks, and so does 2,700 sq ft at 108 sq ft per person. People supported is the desks divided by the desks per person: with 70% desk sharing, 25 desks support 35 people (25 ÷ 0.7 is 35.7, rounded down).
For a team, the desks needed are the team size times the desks per person, rounded up, and the desk area is those desks times the area per person. A team of 40 at 70% needs 28 desks, which is 280 m² at 10 m² per person. The desk-sharing ratio is 1 ÷ 0.7 = 1.43 people per desk.
How much office space do I need?
Add the rooms the desks do not cover. Total area = (desk area + meeting rooms × area per meeting room + other shared space) × (1 + circulation allowance). Area per person is the total divided by the team size.
The same team of 40 at 70% with 10 m² per desk, two 15 m² meeting rooms and 40 m² for a kitchen and reception: 280 + 30 + 40 = 350 m² (3,767 sq ft), or 8.75 m² per person. With a 10% allowance for circulation between zones: 350 × 1.1 = 385 m² (4,144 sq ft), or 9.63 m² per person.
In feet: 25 people with a desk each at 108 sq ft, one 200 sq ft meeting room and 300 sq ft of shared space is 2,700 + 200 + 300 = 3,200 sq ft; with a 15% allowance, 3,680 sq ft, or 147.2 sq ft per person.
Leave the allowance at 0 if your area per person already includes aisles, or you count them twice. For the size of a meeting room around its table and chairs, see the meeting room layout guide. None of these inputs has a standard default: use figures from premises you know or from whoever plans your workplace.
How to use it
Pick your units
Metric or imperial. You can also type the other unit into a field, for example 3200 sq ft while in metric mode.
Enter the floor area
The usable area you are planning, measured the same way as the area per person you use. The editor measures room areas to wall center lines, so they include half of each wall.
Set the area per person and desk sharing
Area per person is your planning figure for one workplace with its share of aisles. Desks per person is 100% when everyone has a desk of their own.
Add a team size
Optional. The calculator then shows the desks that team needs and asks for meeting rooms, other shared space and a circulation allowance, all of which can stay at 0. It returns the total area, the area per person and whether the floor area is enough.
Plan it on the office template
Opens the office template in the editor, where its desks already count as seats. In the Seats panel, add colored zones for teams, number the seats and download the seat schedule as CSV or PDF.
Choosing an area per person
The right figure depends on how much of the floor goes to meeting rooms, kitchens, storage and aisles, and on whether those are included in the area you enter. Take a figure from premises you know, or from whoever plans your workplace, and try a few values: the result changes as you type.
Use the same kind of area for both numbers. A lease or listing may quote a different measure from the floor you can furnish, so check which one you have before you divide it by a per-person figure.
The result is a planning estimate. It says nothing about how many people a building may hold, how wide exits must be or how far anyone may be from an exit; those are set by the rules where the building is, so check them with your landlord, building manager or a qualified professional.
From a number to a seating plan
In the editor, workstation desks count as seats as soon as you place them, whether one by one, as bench desks or with desk auto-fill, and any other item can be switched on as a seat. The Seats panel keeps a live count per room, per floor and for the whole project, and works out capacity from the floor area of the rooms you have drawn, with the same area per person and desk sharing as this calculator.
Seats can be grouped into colored zones for teams, numbered in reading order with a pattern such as 1F-SAL-001, and listed in a seat schedule with each seat’s code, zone, floor and room, downloadable as CSV or as PDF pages.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate office space per person?
Add the desk area, the meeting rooms and any other shared space, add your circulation allowance, then divide by the number of people. With a team size entered, the calculator shows this as the area per person under the total area.
How many desks fit in my office?
Divide the usable floor area by the area you allow per person and round down. The calculator does this in square meters or square feet and also shows the people those desks support with desk sharing.
What does desks per person mean?
It is how many desks you provide for each person. At 100% everyone has a desk of their own; at 70% there are 7 desks for every 10 people, which suits teams that are not all in the office on the same day.
Does the result tell me how many people my office may legally hold?
No. It is an estimate from the figures you enter. Occupancy limits, exit widths and escape routes are set by the rules where the building is; check them with your landlord, building manager or a qualified professional.
Why does my floor plan hold fewer desks than the calculator says?
The calculator only divides an area. Real rooms lose space to columns, doors, odd shapes and aisles that do not line up with the desks. To see what fits, select a room in the editor and run desk auto-fill, which places desks with the chair zone and aisle widths you set and shows the seat count first.
Can I count the seats on my own floor plan?
Yes. Open the office template or your own project in the editor: its desks count as seats. The Seats panel counts them per room and floor, compares them with the capacity of the drawn floor area and exports a seat schedule.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The numbers you type stay in your browser. A project you open in the editor is saved in this browser only.
Ready to plan your space?
It is free, runs in your browser and needs no account. Projects are saved privately on this device.