Table Plan Generator
The difficulty with a table plan is not the people, it is the groups. A family of five cannot be split across two tables to make the numbers work, and once you refuse to split anybody, tables start needing more capacity than a simple head count suggests. This assigns whole groups to tables, never splitting one, and shows how many tables that costs against the theoretical minimum.
What this generator does
Places each group of guests on a table with room for all of them, seating the largest groups first, and reports the occupancy of every table alongside the smallest number of tables the total guest count could possibly need.
How to use this tool
- Set how many groups there are and how many seats each table has.
- Read which groups share a table and how many seats each uses.
- Compare the tables used against the fewest possible.
- Increase the table size and watch the gap close.
Understanding the controls
- How many groups
- Between 2 and 12 families, couples or singles. Each is kept whole — that constraint is what makes this harder than dividing a head count.
- Seats per table
- Between 2 and 12. No group is ever generated larger than a table, since it could not be seated at all.
- Seed
- Any word reproduces exactly the same groups and the same plan.
Common use cases
- Planning wedding or event tables with families kept together
- Working out how many tables to hire for a guest list
- Showing why the head count alone understates the tables needed
- Teaching bin packing with a problem people immediately recognise
- Setting the same plan twice from a seed
How this generator works
Largest groups are placed first, into the first table with room. That ordering matters: fitting the big groups last tends to leave a scatter of gaps too small to use, and needs an extra table. The floor shown is simply the guest count divided by the table size — no plan can beat it, and the gap above it is precisely the price of never splitting anybody up.
Randomness and fairness
The group sizes are random; the assignment is then deterministic. A seed reproduces the same plan exactly and is therefore explicitly not cryptographically secure. Without a seed the browser's cryptographically secure generator is used.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- Groups are kept together, but no preference about which groups sit near which is modelled.
- First-fit is a good heuristic, not an optimum. Occasionally a cleverer arrangement saves a table.
- Every table is the same size, which real venues often do not manage.
- Group sizes are generated rather than entered from a real guest list.
- A plan is gone once you leave, so copy it before closing the page.
Privacy and your data
The groups and the plan are computed on your own device. Neither the arrangement nor your seed leaves the browser.
Related generators
- Round Table Seating GeneratorSeats guests around one table honouring who must sit together and who must not, with the wrap-around pair checked like every other.
- Bin Packing Problem GeneratorPacking instances with bins of one size or several at different prices, each with an answer, a lower bound, and a plain statement of when the two meet.
- Seating Plan GeneratorRandomly assign guests or students to numbered seats.
- Potluck Coverage PlannerAssigns each guest one dish so every course is covered, and when that is impossible names the courses that ran out of cooks.