UniFi Network & AP Coverage Planner
Size a UniFi Wi-Fi deployment from your home's size, construction and usage: how many access points and which models, a switch with enough PoE, and the right gateway — with a bill of materials and a PoE headroom check.
Your home & usage
Recommended build
Bill of materials
| Item | Qty | Why | ~Price |
|---|
How this is calculated
AP count is the larger of two independent constraints, because either one alone makes Wi-Fi bad:
- Coverage: each AP has an open-plan cell area; we multiply it by a construction factor (drywall ≈ 0.70, brick ≈ 0.50, concrete ≈ 0.35) and, for multi-floor homes, an inter-floor reuse penalty. Required APs = total area ÷ effective per-AP area.
- Capacity: a radio only serves so many active clients well, and that ceiling drops sharply for 4K/gaming because each client needs more airtime. Required APs = peak clients ÷ per-AP client budget for your use profile.
Switch ports = APs + your other wired/PoE devices + uplink + a spare. PoE budget sums each AP's worst-case draw plus ~7 W per extra PoE device, then picks the smallest switch whose real PoE-watt budget clears that with >20% headroom (UniFi switches are frequently port-rich but PoE-light — the USW Lite 16 is 16 ports but only 45 W). The gateway is the cheapest tier whose IDS/IPS throughput (≈ half of raw, when you enable it) still meets your WAN speed and client count.
Coverage figures, client budgets, PoE draw and prices live in
src/data/unifi-gear.json (model v1.1.0). This is a deterministic planning estimate to
size a budget and a parts list — it is not a substitute for a WiFiman walk-through after
install. RF is environment-specific; treat AP counts as a confident starting point, then verify on site.