TOOLS / FOR EVERYONE

How much food to order

Enter your guests, the meal type, and a per-head budget to get portion guidance and a total cost. A planning estimate to brief a caterer against.

Everyone you're feeding, including yourself.
Sets the portion assumptions below.
$
Your budget or a caterer's quoted price per guest. Adjust to your menu and region.
TOTAL FOOD COST$—
GUESTS—
PER HEAD$—

Planning estimate only — portions vary with your menu, timing, and crowd. Confirm quantities with your caterer.

How this is estimated

Total cost is simply guests × cost per head. The portion guidance uses common catering rules of thumb that shift with the meal type: a served meal plans around half a pound of main protein and roughly three-quarters of a pound of sides per person, while an appetizer reception plans by the piece — a handful per guest before a meal, ten or more if the bites are the meal. These are starting points to brief against, not exact orders.

Use the numbers to sanity-check a quote and shape the brief, then let a pro finalize quantities. See what catering runs and covers in the caterer guide, drop the food line into the full plan with the event budget calculator, and readhow to budget an event for the rest of the line items.