Determine the ideal number of WiFi access points (APs) for your facility based on floor area, user count, usage patterns, and WiFi standards. Get cost estimates and placement recommendations for offices, schools, warehouses, and more.
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Deploying WiFi in commercial spaces requires careful planning to ensure adequate coverage and capacity. Unlike home networks, enterprise environments must support dozens to thousands of concurrent users with varying bandwidth demands. This calculator helps IT professionals and network designers determine the optimal number of access points using industry-standard planning guidelines.
Access point planning involves two parallel calculations: coverage-based (how much area each AP can serve) and capacity-based (how many users each AP can support). The final recommendation uses the higher of these two values to ensure both spatial coverage and bandwidth availability. Modern WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 access points support more clients per device but still require proper density planning.
AP Planning Formula
APs = max(⌈Area ÷ Coverage/AP⌉, ⌈Users ÷ Users/AP⌉)Know exactly how many APs you need before purchasing equipment, avoiding both under-provisioning and overspending.
Ensure every user gets adequate bandwidth for their applications, from email to video conferencing to real-time applications.
Guarantee seamless WiFi throughout your facility with proper overlap for roaming without disconnections.
Plan for growth by understanding how user density and application demands affect network infrastructure.
Plan WiFi for open offices, meeting rooms, and common areas where employees rely on cloud applications and video conferencing.
Design high-density coverage for classrooms, libraries, and auditoriums where students bring multiple devices.
Ensure reliable connectivity for medical devices, patient monitoring, and staff communications with redundancy for critical systems.
Cover large open spaces with challenging RF conditions, supporting scanners, tablets, and IoT devices throughout.
This depends on the WiFi standard and usage pattern. WiFi 5 (802.11ac) typically supports 30-50 users, WiFi 6 (802.11ax) handles 50-75 users, and WiFi 7 (802.11be) can support up to 100 users per AP. However, for bandwidth-intensive applications like video streaming, reduce these numbers by 50-75%.