How Much Office Space Do We Need?
How many square feet does your office need? Enter your headcount and layout style below and get a full square footage breakdown before you sign a lease.
How Much Office Space Do We Need?
Work out your square footage before you sign a lease.
| Area | Estimated sq ft |
|---|---|
| Open workspace | |
| Private offices | |
| Conference and meeting | |
| Reception and lobby | |
| Break room | |
| Circulation, storage and support | |
| Growth headroom |
How We Built This Calculator
This tool uses standard commercial space planning rules of thumb, expressed as usable square feet per person, and adds a line for every area a real office needs.
- Open workstations scale with your layout style, from dense benching to mostly private offices.
- Private offices, conference rooms, reception and break rooms each get their own line.
- Circulation, storage and support space add 25% on top of the core areas.
- You can add 15% or 30% headroom for planned growth, or skip it.
- The result shows both usable square feet and a rough rentable number, since most leases quote rentable.
Treat the result as a starting point for a conversation with your broker or with us, not a final lease number. We will draw your actual layout in 3D for free before you commit to anything.
Questions We Hear a Lot
How many square feet per employee does an office need?
Usable space runs from 50 to 70 square feet per person in a dense, open layout up to 150 to 200 square feet per person in a mostly private-office layout. Enter your headcount and layout style above for a number built around your own team.
What is the difference between usable and rentable square feet?
Usable square footage is the space your team actually occupies. Rentable square footage adds a load factor for shared building areas like lobbies and hallways, which is the number most landlords quote in a lease. The calculator shows both.
Does this include conference rooms and break rooms?
Yes. Add your conference rooms, seats in the largest room, and whether you need a break room or reception area, and the calculator adds a line for each.
Should I plan extra space for growth?
Most companies add 15% headroom for planned hiring, and fast-growing teams add 30%. The calculator lets you choose either, or none.
Can Capital Choice help me plan the actual layout?
Yes. We draw a free 3D layout of your space before you buy anything, so you can see how the furniture actually fits before you sign a lease or place an order.
Ready to See It Laid Out?
Your calculator result carries straight into a request, so we start with the details you already entered. We reply within two business days.