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Home WiFi Coverage Calculator

Estimate the radius and floor area one access point covers indoors, and how many you need for the whole home.

About Home WiFi Coverage Calculator

The link budget is the difference between transmit power and the weakest usable signal, less the loss from interior walls at roughly 5 dB each. Inverting an indoor log-distance path-loss model with an exponent of 2.5 converts that budget into a radius, which is then turned into a circular coverage area. Coverage estimated from marketing range figures is wildly optimistic indoors; a budget that accounts for walls is what predicts the dead spot in the back bedroom.

Formula

Home WiFi Coverage

Path loss budget = transmit power − target signal − wall loss; radius follows the indoor log-distance model

transmit power
Access point EIRP in dBm
target signal
Weakest RSSI that still supports the data rate you want

Worked example

With the default values below, Home WiFi Coverage Calculator returns Usable Coverage Radius of 17.41. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Access point transmit poweraccepts 0–30 dBm
20 dBm
Minimum usable signalaccepts -90–-40 dBm
-67 dBm
Bandaccepts 2–6 GHz
5 GHz — balanced
Interior walls the signal must crossaccepts 0–10
2
Total floor area to coverminimum 10 m2
160 m2

Results

Usable Coverage Radius
17.41 m
Area Covered by One Access Point
952.4 m2
Access Points Required
1
Path Loss Budget
77.0 dB
Loss Attributed to Walls
10.0 dB

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Home WiFi Coverage
  3. 3Usable Coverage Radius= 17.41 m
  4. 4Area Covered by One Access Point= 952.4 m2
  5. 5Access Points Required= 1
  6. 6Path Loss Budget= 77.0 dB
  7. 7Loss Attributed to Walls= 10.0 dB

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Home WiFi Coverage calculated?

Path loss budget = transmit power − target signal − wall loss; radius follows the indoor log-distance model The link budget is the difference between transmit power and the weakest usable signal, less the loss from interior walls at roughly 5 dB each. Inverting an indoor log-distance path-loss model with an exponent of 2.5 converts that budget into a radius, which is then turned into a circular coverage area.

Why does Home WiFi Coverage matter?

Coverage estimated from marketing range figures is wildly optimistic indoors; a budget that accounts for walls is what predicts the dead spot in the back bedroom.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Access point transmit power, Minimum usable signal, Band, Interior walls the signal must cross, Total floor area to cover. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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