Free — no signup, no email
Seating chart maker: paste the list, get the tables.
Paste your guest list, say how many sit at a table, and get a seating chart that keeps families and groups together. It runs in your browser, it never sees a server, and it tells you which parties it had to split rather than quietly splitting them.
The seating chart maker needs JavaScript. The method it uses is described in full below.
How to use it
One guest per line, a comma for the group
The only formatting rule is a comma. A line that reads Ana Whitfield, Whitfield puts Ana in the Whitfield party; a line with just a name is a party of one. The group name can be anything you sort by — a family, a side of the wedding, a company, a department, a coach party, a table you have already promised someone.
Everything in a group is kept at one table wherever the arithmetic allows it. When it does not allow it — a party of twelve at tables of ten — the chart still gets built, and the parties that had to be split are named in a warning above the tables. That is the part most seating tools leave out, and it is the only part anyone gets upset about.
The method, stated
Largest party first, into the table that wastes least
Seating a guest list is a bin-packing problem, and packing bins perfectly is one of those problems a computer cannot solve quickly for any interesting number of guests. So this does what a good planner does by hand: it sorts the parties biggest first, and puts each one into the table that will have the least space left over afterwards. When nothing can take a party whole, it opens a new table rather than breaking the party up — the split only happens when a party is genuinely bigger than a table, or when you have capped the table count.
The result is stable: the same list gives the same chart every time, so you can tweak one line and see exactly what moved rather than watching the whole room reshuffle. It also packs well. Two hundred guests in forty families of five, at ten to a table, comes out as twenty full tables with no family split at all.
| Situation | What it does |
|---|---|
| A party fits a table with room to spare | Chooses the fullest table it still fits, so the spare seats stay together for a later party |
| No table can take the whole party | Opens a new table rather than splitting them |
| A party is bigger than one table | Splits across consecutive tables and names the party in a warning |
| You set a table limit and it runs out | Fills the emptiest table instead — it will over-run the limit rather than leave a guest unseated |
| Single names with no group | Treated as parties of one and used to fill the gaps |
Nothing leaves your browser. The guest list is never sent anywhere, never stored, and never seen by us — which is the honest answer to the question anyone should ask before pasting a hundred real names into a website.
Before the chart
Get the table size right first
A seating chart is downstream of a decision most people make backwards: how many to a table. A 60″ round seats eight comfortably and ten at a squeeze — the difference is about 4.8 inches of elbow room each, which is a whole evening’s comfort. A 72″ round takes ten comfortably and twelve at most. Going up one table size is almost always a better answer than adding two more chairs to the round you have.
| Table | Comfortable | Maximum | Floor it takes with chairs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48″ round | 6 | 8 | 8ft 7in square |
| 60″ round | 8 | 10 | 9ft 7in square |
| 66″ round | 9 | 11 | 10ft 1in square |
| 72″ round | 10 | 12 | 10ft 7in square |
| 6ft banquet | 6 | 8 | 10ft 7in × 7ft 1in |
| 8ft banquet | 8 | 10 | 12ft 7in × 7ft 1in |
The full arithmetic behind those counts — place width, elbow room and the floor each seat really costs — is in how many people fit at a 60-inch round table. If the tables have to fit a room as well as a guest list, the room capacity calculator answers that half.
FAQ
Seating chart questions
Is there a free seating chart maker?
This one. No signup, no email, no watermark and no limit on the guest list. It builds the chart in your browser and gives you a copy button. What it does not do is draw the room — for tables placed to scale against real walls, that is the free plan of the app.
How do I make a wedding seating chart?
Decide the table size first, then group the list — families, the two sides, university friends, work — and let the groups drive the tables. Paste it in with a comma after each name and the group behind it. Expect to hand-move two or three people afterwards; every wedding has a pair who cannot sit together, and no algorithm knows that.
Can it keep families together?
Yes, that is the point of the group column. A party is only ever split when it is physically larger than a table, or when you have capped the number of tables — and when that happens the party is named above the chart so you can fix it rather than discover it on the night.
Can I stop two people sitting together?
Not automatically, and I would be wary of a tool that claimed to. Put them in different groups, build the chart, then move one line. The ten seconds of manual work is more reliable than a constraint solver you cannot see inside.
Is my guest list private?
Completely. The assignment runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded, stored or logged. You can turn your wifi off and it still works.
How many people should I put at each table?
Eight at a 60″ round, ten at a 72″, and six a side plus two ends on an 8ft banquet table. Those are the comfortable numbers rather than the maximums — the maximum figures on a rental list assume nobody needs elbow room for three hours.
Now put the tables in the room
A chart says who sits together. A plan says whether the tables fit, where the dance floor goes, and what the servers walk through.
No credit card required