How Much Office Space Does a 5-Person Startup Actually Need?
About 250 to 300 sq ft of carpet area, if you take your own office. We measured 1,120 workspaces on Dexwork to get the real sq ft per seat number, then worked out what five people cost either way.
Five people, five laptops, one whiteboard nobody uses. Founders ask us this question with a spreadsheet already open, and they are usually about to take twice the space they need because a broker told them to "plan for growth".
Here is the short version. A five person team needs roughly 250 to 300 sq ft of carpet area. In a coworking space you do not buy sq ft at all, you buy five seats. Most five person teams are better off doing exactly that, and the numbers below show why.
Where the 50 sq ft per seat figure comes from
We took every coworking space on Dexwork that publishes both its floor area and its seat count. That is 1,120 buildings across eleven cities. Divide one by the other and you get how much space an operator actually allows per person, lobby and pantry included.
| How generous the layout is | Sq ft per seat | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| Tight (bottom quarter) | 42 sq ft | Bench desks, narrow aisles, you hear every call |
| Typical (median) | 50 sq ft | Standard 4 ft desk, room to push your chair back |
| Roomy (top quarter) | 60 sq ft and up | Wider desks, more breakout space, quieter floor |
So for five people: 250 sq ft is workable, 300 sq ft is comfortable, and anything past 400 sq ft is space you are heating and paying rent on for no reason.
The trap in Indian office listings: carpet, built-up, super built-up
This is the part that catches first time tenants. Landlords quote super built-up area, which includes your share of the lobby, the lift, the corridor and the staircase. The usable bit is the carpet area. The gap between the two is called loading, and in most Indian office buildings it runs 25% to 35%.
Work it through with real numbers. You want 300 sq ft of carpet. At 30% loading, the landlord will bill you for about 430 sq ft. If the building quotes ₹95 per sq ft per month, your rent is not ₹28,500. It is ₹40,850, and maintenance of ₹12 to ₹20 per sq ft sits on top of that.
Always ask for the carpet area in writing. If the answer is vague, that is an answer.
What five people need besides five desks
- One meeting room for four. Not six, not eight. A four seater is about 80 to 100 sq ft and you will use it for interviews and investor calls.
- One quiet corner for calls. A phone booth is 15 sq ft. Skipping it is the single most common regret we hear.
- A pantry counter, not a cafeteria. Fridge, microwave, kettle, sink. 40 sq ft is plenty.
- Storage. One cupboard for laptops, cables, signed contracts and the branded merchandise you over ordered.
Add those and your own office lands at 300 to 380 sq ft carpet. In a coworking space every one of them already exists and is shared, which is the whole point of the model.
Five seats, two ways: what it costs a month
The coworking column uses the median coworking price on Dexwork, ₹8,500 per seat per month. The own office column uses the 430 sq ft super built-up example above in a decent Bengaluru suburb.
| Line item | 5 coworking seats | Your own 430 sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Rent or seat fee | ₹42,500 | ₹40,850 |
| Maintenance (CAM) | Included | ₹6,450 |
| Electricity and water | Included | ₹6,000 |
| Internet with backup line | Included | ₹2,500 |
| Housekeeping and pantry supplies | Included | ₹8,000 |
| Monthly total | ₹42,500 | ₹63,800 |
| Deposit | 1 to 2 months | 6 to 10 months |
| Fit out, one time | Nil | ₹4,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 |
| Lock in | 3 to 6 months | 3 years, typically |
The monthly gap is about ₹21,000. The real gap is the ₹6 lakh you spend on furniture, cabling and an air conditioner before anyone sits down, plus a deposit that ties up another ₹4 lakh, plus a lease you cannot walk away from when the team turns out to be nine people in Pune rather than five in Bengaluru.
So when does your own office start making sense?
Two signals, and you usually need both.
Headcount. Somewhere around 25 to 30 people the per seat coworking price stops being a bargain. That is not a coincidence: the median managed office on Dexwork starts at a 25 seat unit, because that is the size at which operators can carve out a private floor plate for one company.
Stability. You know where your people live, you know your headcount for the next eighteen months, and your revenue is predictable enough to sign a three year lease without flinching.
If either one is missing, stay flexible. A managed office is the halfway house: your own locked floor, your branding at the door, but the operator still owns the furniture and the internet contract.
The sizing rule, in one line
Take your headcount for the next six months, not the next two years. Multiply by 50 sq ft for carpet area. Add 20% if you want your own meeting room. Then ask what that same money buys you in seats, and take whichever leaves you free to change your mind.
Bengaluru rents crossed ₹100 per sq ft per month on average for the first time this year, according to Knight Frank India, so every extra 100 sq ft you take "for growth" is about ₹1.2 lakh a year.
Browse what is actually available: coworking spaces, managed offices and day passes if you are not ready to commit at all.
Tell us what you need. We do the rest, across 11 Indian cities.
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