Planner › How many access points do you need? A Wi-Fi AP placement guide

How many access points do you need? A Wi-Fi AP placement guide

Last updated: 9 October 2026.

Good Wi-Fi design answers two questions: where does the signal reach, and how many people can the network serve at once. The answer to the first sets a minimum number of access points; the answer to the second can raise it. Plan for both, then verify on site.

Coverage and capacity are different problems

Coverage is about signal strength at every point on the floor. Capacity is about how many clients and how much throughput each access point can carry. A small office may be covered by one access point but need several to serve its devices, while a warehouse may need many access points for coverage and few for capacity.

A simple planning process

1. Get an accurate floor plan and calibrate its scale with a known dimension.
2. Mark the walls and heavy obstructions, such as concrete and lift cores.
3. Choose a minimum signal target. About -65 dBm is common for voice and video, and -67 dBm for general enterprise data (see the RSSI guide).
4. Estimate demand: concurrent clients and the Mbps each should get.
5. Place access points so that every area meets the target, then add more where capacity requires it.
6. Check the forecast, adjust positions, and verify on site.

Worked example: a 60 by 40 m office

The floor is 2,400 m². With a 20 dBm EIRP ceiling access point on 5 GHz, a typical office (exponent 2.25), the 8 dB link margin and a -65 dBm target, the signal reaches about 21.3 m in open space. Only about half of the circle around an access point is usable once overlap and corners are accounted for, so one access point covers roughly 714 m², and the floor needs at least 4 access points for coverage.

Now add partitions. If most paths cross a 3 dB drywall wall, the reach falls to about 14.8 m, one access point covers roughly 342 m², and the same floor needs 8. Then check capacity: with 150 active clients, 4 access points means about 38 clients each, which is within what a typical Wi-Fi 6 radio carries, but video calls for everyone could change that. The planner runs this arithmetic for you, place by place, with your actual walls.

Placement rules that matter

• Mount access points on the ceiling in open space; closets and corridor ends waste range.
• Stagger positions instead of aligning them in a grid, and keep a clear line of sight to where people sit.
• Reuse channels as little as possible: on 5 GHz use 20 or 40 MHz channels in dense designs so neighbouring access points can use different channels.
• Do not run every access point at maximum power; clients cannot answer at that level and it increases interference.

Common mistakes

• Designing only for coverage and ignoring client count.
• Ignoring that 5 GHz and 6 GHz signals lose more strength through walls than 2.4 GHz.
• Placing access points in closets or above dense obstacles instead of in open ceiling space.
• Reusing the same channel on neighbouring access points.
• Trusting a prediction without a survey.

Always validate

A predictive heatmap is a planning estimate. Confirm it with an access-point-on-a-stick survey before buying, and with a survey after installation. You can build a first-pass layout in minutes with our free planner; the methodology page explains exactly how the numbers are produced. For specific settings see the guides for offices, hotels, warehouses, schools and restaurants.

Open the free Wi-Fi heatmap planner

← Back to the planner · All brands · AP placement guide · RSSI guide · About · Methodology