Ergonomic Desk Height Calculator
This desk height calculator gives you a sitting and standing desk height matched to your body, in inches or centimeters, based on the shoes you actually wear at your desk. There is no single perfect desk height. There is a correct range, and yours depends on your height, your proportions, and whether you sit or stand. Enter your height, pick sitting or standing, and read your range. The number is a starting point you tune over your first week.
How this desk height calculator works
The most common desk-height mistake is setting the surface too high and raising the chair to reach it, which lifts your feet off the floor and pushes the strain into your back and thighs. Fix height at the desk, not the chair. Your target is elbow height, where your forearms rest level and your shoulders stay down: about 24 to 30 inches (61 to 76 cm) sitting and 38 to 46 inches (97 to 117 cm) standing. The calculator works this out from your height and shoes and gives a range, since two people at the same height can need desks an inch apart, plus a seat height so the office chair follows the standing desk .
- 1. Put on the shoes you wear while working, then enter your height in inches or centimeters and pick sitting or standing.
- 2. Read your desk height range, set the desk to the middle, and adjust half an inch (1 cm) at a time over your first week, until your forearms sit level and your shoulders stay down.
- 3. Put the top of your monitor at or just below eye level with a riser or arm.
- 4. Then switch between sitting and standing more often than you do now, since the gain comes from changing position every 30 to 60 minutes, not from standing all day.