How to Plan an Office Layout and Estimate Fit-Out Cost in India: 50-Seat and 250-Seat Examples

Most office budgets start with a guess: a number of seats and a rough rate. The guess usually misses the rooms around the seats. Cabins, meeting rooms, a board room, reception, a pantry, a server room and walkways all take floor area, and every sq ft is charged at the fit-out rate.

Officea has just launched a complimentary office layout planner and fit-out cost calculator that does this arithmetic for you. You set the numbers, see a floor plan, and get an indicative cost from Officea's published 2026 rate card. This article explains how it works, and walks through two real-sized examples so you can check your own plan against them.

What is an office layout planner?

An office layout planner turns the number of seats and rooms you need into a floor plan, a floor area and a budget. You do not need drawings or a site visit to start.

Officea's planner asks for four things: workstations, cabins, meeting rooms and a board room. Reception, a pantry, a server room and a print and store room are added as standard, because every working office needs them and they are the items people most often forget when they budget. The plan redraws as you change the numbers, and the cost updates with it.

The result is not a design. It is a planning tool that answers the first questions a CEO, CFO or facilities head asks before anything else is decided: how much floor do we need, and roughly what will it cost? Those two answers shape which building you look at, which floor you can afford to lease, and how much to set aside for the fit-out.

If you already know your area, you can skip the layout and type it in. The planner has two modes, I know the area and Plan by layout, and the cost uses the same rate card in both.

How does the planner turn seats into area?

It adds up the planning size of every space, adds 25% for circulation, and rounds the total up to the next 100 sq ft. The sizes are planning assumptions, not design drawings.

The table below lists the sizes. Circulation covers corridors, walkways and clearances between rooms. Rounding up to the next 100 sq ft keeps the budget on the safe side, because a slightly larger area is a safer number to plan around than a slightly smaller one.

The pantry grows with the headcount. A 50-seat office gets a pantry of 300 sq ft, while a 250-seat office gets 1,500 sq ft, because more people use the pantry at the same time. The final plan follows a site survey and your own preferences, so treat these as starting points.

How much does a 50-seat office cost to fit out?

A 50-workstation office with 3 cabins, 2 meeting rooms and a 12-seat board room needs about 4,800 sq ft. At the Medium tier in Delhi NCR that is about ₹1,05,60,000, GST extra, with furniture included.

This is the first example in the video. The seats take 2,250 sq ft, but the whole plan comes to 4,800 sq ft once the cabins, meeting rooms, board room and support rooms are added, with 25% on top for circulation. That is about 96 sq ft for every workstation.

The board room is worth looking at. Without it, the same 50-seat layout comes to 4,400 sq ft, or about ₹96,80,000 at the Medium tier. Adding a 12-seat board room adds 400 sq ft and about ₹8,80,000 at that tier. That is a real decision, and it is better to take it deliberately than to discover it in a quote.

Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa run about 10% above Delhi NCR. The same layout at the Medium tier is about ₹1,15,20,000 there.

How much does a 250-seat office cost to fit out?

A 250-workstation office with 15 cabins, 10 meeting rooms and a 20-seat board room needs about 20,900 sq ft. At the Medium tier in Delhi NCR that is about ₹4,59,80,000, GST extra, with furniture included.

This is the second example in the video. Notice that the area per workstation falls to about 84 sq ft, compared with about 96 sq ft in the 50-seat office. The reason is that the number of cabins, meeting rooms and the board room grow more slowly than the seats. Large floors share their meeting rooms across more people, so each seat carries less room overhead.

The planner assumes a 20-seat board room here, which takes 450 sq ft. If your company does not need one, remove it and the area and the cost drop. Ten meeting rooms of 140 sq ft each take 1,400 sq ft, which is nearly as much as the 15 cabins at 1,800 sq ft.

The same layout at the Medium tier in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai or Goa is about ₹5,01,60,000.

How many sq ft do you need per employee?

In the planner, a workstation is 45 sq ft, and a whole office works out at about 96 sq ft per workstation for the 50-seat example and about 84 sq ft for the 250-seat example.

A single sq ft per employee number is only a rule of thumb, and it hides the choices that matter. Two companies with 100 employees can need very different floors: one with mostly open desks and a few meeting rooms, another with many cabins, a training room and a large pantry.

It also depends on attendance. If your team works in a hybrid pattern, the number of people in the office on a busy day is what drives seats and meeting rooms, not the total headcount. Our guide on how much office space you need covers how to plan for attendance and growth before you choose a number.

Use the planner to test your own mix. Change the cabins and meeting rooms first, because they move the area more than a few extra desks do.

What does the 2026 rate card say?

Officea's 2026 rate card runs from ₹1,800 to ₹5,000 per sq ft, GST extra, with furniture included. The rate depends on the city group and the finish tier.

The planner multiplies the area by the rate for your city and tier. The four tiers are Basic, Medium, Good and High end. Basic is an essential, value fit-out. Medium is the corporate standard. Good is premium and executive. High end is a flagship headquarters.

Rates cover civil work, MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), flooring, ceiling and standard finishes, as well as furniture. Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa run about 10% above Delhi NCR, rounded to the nearest ₹100. See the full India office fit-out cost index for every city, or read our detailed guide to office fit-out cost in India in 2026.

Which choices move the cost most?

Floor area and finish tier move the cost most. In the planner, area follows the number of seats and rooms, so cabins, meeting rooms and the board room matter more than they look.

Moving from the Medium tier to the Good tier in the 50-seat example adds about ₹19,20,000. Moving from Medium to High end adds about ₹1,10,40,000. The tier changes every sq ft, so it multiplies the area.

Area works the same way. Each cabin takes 120 sq ft plus its share of circulation, which is about 150 sq ft in the planner, or about ₹3,30,000 at the Medium tier in Delhi NCR. One meeting room of 140 sq ft is about 175 sq ft with circulation, or about ₹3,85,000. A 12-seat board room takes 300 sq ft, which is 375 sq ft with circulation, or about ₹8,25,000.

This is why a plan that looks like a small change on paper can move the budget by lakhs. It is also why contractors quote different prices for the same office when the brief is loose: they are assuming different rooms and different finishes. Fix the room list first, then compare quotes.

Should you plan by layout or by area?

Plan by layout if you know your people and rooms but not your area. Plan by area if the lease or the floor plate already fixes the size.

Many companies start from a lease. The building offers a floor of, say, 5,000 sq ft, and the question is what fits. In that case type the area into the planner to get a cost, then use the layout mode to check whether your seats and rooms fit inside it.

Others start from the team. They know they need 80 seats, a few cabins and a handful of meeting rooms, and want to know which floor size to look for. In that case use the layout mode, and carry the resulting area into your search.

In both cases, the next step before you sign a lease is a test-fit plan, which places your rooms on the actual floor, with its columns, shafts and window lines. The planner tells you what to look for. A test-fit tells you whether a particular floor delivers it.

How accurate is the planner, and what comes next?

The planner is accurate enough for early budgeting, and it is not a quote. An exact number comes from a written proposal after Officea understands your floor, your layout and your timeline.

The cost is the area multiplied by the rate card, so it is only as precise as the area and the tier you choose. A real floor has columns, a core, an awkward shape or an inconvenient window line, and those change what fits. Specification choices such as glass cabins, acoustic treatment or a large reception also move the rate within a tier.

Use the figure to set a range with your finance team and to compare against the quotes you receive. If a quote comes in far from it, ask for a bill of quantities with named materials and check what is included. Our fit-out checklist for CFOs lists the checks to run before you sign.

When you are ready, Officea plans, designs and builds under one contract, with studios in Delhi (Nehru Place), Gurgaon (DLF Grand Mall), Noida (Sector 3) and Bangalore (Residency Road), and serves other cities from them. See our services or our work.

How do you use the planner, step by step?

Choose your numbers, check the plan, pick a tier, and send yourself the layout. It takes about a minute and it is complimentary.

The steps are:

1. Open the office layout planner and choose Plan by layout.
2. Set the number of workstations, cabins and meeting rooms. Add a 12-seat or 20-seat board room if you need one.
3. Watch the plan redraw. Check that reception, the pantry, the server room and the print and store room look right for your team.
4. Pick your city and finish tier to see the indicative cost, GST extra, with furniture included.
5. If you want the layout and an exact number, enter your email and mobile number and tap Send me this layout. Officea will email you the layout and call to confirm your requirement.

You can also switch to I know the area and type your sq ft. Whichever mode you use, the cost comes from the same rate card, so the two modes agree.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to fit out a 50-seat office in India?

A 50-workstation office with 3 cabins, 2 meeting rooms and a 12-seat board room comes to about 4,800 sq ft in the Officea planner. At the Medium tier in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Chandigarh that is about ₹1,05,60,000, GST extra, with furniture included. At the Basic tier it is about ₹86,40,000, and at the High end tier about ₹2,16,00,000.

How much does it cost to fit out a 250-seat office in India?

A 250-workstation office with 15 cabins, 10 meeting rooms and a 20-seat board room comes to about 20,900 sq ft in the Officea planner. At the Medium tier in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Chandigarh that is about ₹4,59,80,000, GST extra, with furniture included. At the Basic tier it is about ₹3,76,20,000, and at the Good tier about ₹5,43,40,000.

How many sq ft do I need per employee in an office?

In the Officea planner a workstation is 45 sq ft, and a whole office works out at about 96 sq ft per workstation for the 50-seat example and about 84 sq ft per workstation for the 250-seat example. The figure depends on how many cabins, meeting rooms and support rooms you add. Always plan from the rooms you need, not from a single sq ft per head number.

Is the cost from the office layout planner a quote?

No. It is an indicative figure from Officea's published 2026 rate card, before GST, meant for early budgeting. An exact number is confirmed in a written proposal after Officea understands your floor, your layout and your timeline.

Does the planner cost include furniture and GST?

Furniture is included in every Officea quote and in the planner's indicative cost. GST is extra. The cost covers civil work, MEP, flooring, ceiling, finishes and furniture at the finish tier you pick.

What does Officea ask for when I send my layout?

Only an email address and a mobile number. Officea emails you the layout you planned and calls you to confirm your requirement. The layout, the area and the indicative cost reach the team with your enquiry, so the call starts from your plan.

Ready to plan your own office? Try the complimentary layout planner, or tell us your city, area and move-in date and we will prepare a costed proposal.