Engineering tools · UniFi sizing
Six free UniFi sizing calculators.
Pick the calculator for the question in front of you — how much UniFi Protect storage to buy, how many access points a building needs, PoE budget and UPS runtime per switch, a VLAN and subnet plan, cable footage per zone, or a full project budget. Each runs in the browser, takes no sign-in, and gives you a number you can share by URL.
The toolkit
Six calculators, one for each question we answer before a UniFi job. Free, no sign-in, every result shareable by URL.
Project cost estimator
A realistic UniFi budget — equipment, drops, racks, UPS, labor, and contingency — itemized line by line, with a Low / Expected / High range you can hand to anyone.
WiFi coverage calculator
Access-point count and spacing for a real building, not a rectangle — wall-material attenuation, device density, and capacity headroom by AP tier.
VLAN & subnet planner
A best-practice VLAN segmentation and IP plan with deny-by-default firewall rules, exportable straight into the UniFi controller.
Protect storage calculator
Per-camera bitrate × retention × motion-vs-continuous, run against real UNVR / UNVR Pro / Cloud Key bay counts. Tells you the NVR class and drive layout before you order — not after the mid-deployment “we need another NVR” call.
PoE & UPS planner
Per-switch PoE budget, UPS runtime for a graceful shutdown, and headroom checks — the math behind every switch order.
Cable length calculator
Footage, cable boxes, and patch panels per zone, with TIA-568 channel limits respected by default.
Common UniFi sizing questions
The questions we get asked before a job, answered with the same numbers the calculators use. Each one links to the tool that works it out.
How many UniFi access points does my building need?
As a starting point, one Wi-Fi 6 access point covers roughly 3,500 sq ft of typical office space or about 2,000 sq ft of denser residential construction — but wall material, device count, and AP tier move that number a lot. The WiFi coverage calculator runs those factors for your building and returns a minimum, typical, and maximum AP count.
What size NVR do I need for 30 days of UniFi Protect?
It depends on camera count, resolution, frame rate, and whether you record continuously or on motion. A 16-camera 1080p system on 30-day motion recording lands around 12–16 TB; 4K continuous can be several times that. The Protect storage calculator sizes the drives, adds RAID overhead, and recommends a Cloud Key, UNVR, or UNVR Pro class.
What is the maximum Ethernet cable run?
TIA-568 caps a structured copper channel at 100 m (about 328 ft) end to end, so the fixed horizontal run should stay within roughly 90 m (295 ft) to leave room for patch cords. The cable length calculator adds vertical drop, IDF dress, and slack to your floor-plan distance, then rounds to whole 1,000 ft boxes per zone.
How do I plan VLANs and subnets for UniFi?
Segment by trust and traffic type. A typical residential-AV build uses five VLANs — trusted, IoT, AV, cameras, and guest — with deny-by-default firewall rules between them. The VLAN & subnet planner emits the VLAN IDs, a 10.250.0.0/16 addressing scheme, and the per-VLAN settings you can paste straight into the UniFi controller.
How much PoE budget does my switch need?
Add up each device’s PoE class — 15.4 W for 802.3af, 30 W for 802.3at, and 60–90 W for 802.3bt — and keep sustained load under about 70% of the switch budget for headroom. The PoE & UPS planner totals the fleet, checks it against the switch, and sizes a UPS for 15–30 minutes of graceful-shutdown runtime.
What does a UniFi installation cost?
Equipment is usually 35–45% of an all-in UniFi project; the rest is cabling, racks, UPS, labor, and contingency. The project cost estimator returns a Low / Expected / High range from the same model behind our quotes. For our published rates, see the pricing page.
Want these numbers turned into an installed, documented network?
The calculators size the system. Turning the numbers into a network you can run — a site walk, a coverage plan, a scoped quote, the install, and an as-built report when we leave — is the part we do, on-site across the New York tri-state area.