Take too little space and you are moving again in a year; take too much and you pay New York rent for empty desks. Here are the numbers planners actually use in 2026.
The working benchmarks
- Dense open plan: 60–80 ft² per person — startups, sales floors, hot-desking.
- Standard modern office: 100–150 ft² per person — the most common target today.
- Private-office layout: 200–250 ft² per person — law, finance, executive suites.
- Hybrid teams: plan for peak-day attendance, not headcount. If 40 people come on Tuesdays and 25 on Fridays, you size for 40.
Do not forget the shared space
Meeting rooms, a pantry, phone booths and reception typically consume 25–35% of the floor. Video calls have made small enclosed rooms the single most requested feature in New York — one booth per eight to ten people is a good rule.
Rentable versus usable
New York quotes rentable area, which includes a share of lobbies, corridors and mechanical rooms. The loss factor is typically 25–35%, so 5,000 rentable square feet may give you around 3,500 usable. Always ask for the usable number before you compare buildings.
A quick worked example
A team of 25 with a hybrid schedule, peak attendance 18, standard layout: 18 × 130 ft² ≈ 2,350 ft² usable, plus 30% shared ≈ 3,050 usable, which is roughly 4,000–4,300 rentable square feet. Use the size filter in our New York listings to see exactly what that budget buys in each district.