For a full meal, plan about 6 ounces of cooked meat or fish, two side dishes of about half a cup each, one or two rolls and a dessert per adult, and count children as half. For appetizers only, plan 8 pieces per person for the first hour and 4 for each hour after.
By the InviteBird team · Updated October 17, 2026
Your food shopping list
30 adults, a full meal: about 1.3 lb of food per adult before dessert.
Rounded up to whole pieces, half pounds and packs. Nothing you enter is saved or sent.
How do you know how much food to prepare for a party?
Count your guests, decide what kind of food you will serve, then multiply a per-person amount by the headcount. The calculator does it in four steps. It is one of our party planning tools.
Count adults and children. Children under 10 eat about half the savory food of an adult, but everyone gets cake.
Choose the style. A full meal, a light meal, or appetizers only. Appetizer-only parties are planned by the hour.
Pick the menu. Choose the main or pizza, sides, salad, bread, fruit, dessert and cake, and the share of vegetarian guests.
Buy what stores sell. The calculator turns servings into raw pounds of meat, pieces, packs of rolls, large pizzas and sheet cakes.
With the default settings (30 adults and a full meal), the calculator plans about 1.3 lb of food per adult before dessert. The meal itself is close to the common rule of about one pound; the appetizers add the rest.
Digital illustration. A main, two sides, a salad and rolls is a full meal for most parties.
How much food per person do you need?
Plan a little over 1 pound of food per adult before dessert: 6 ounces of cooked main, two 4-ounce sides, a cup of salad and 1.5 rolls, with 5 appetizers first. These are InviteBird’s planning rules, set close to the usual rules of thumb.
Food
Full meal
Light meal
Appetizers before the meal
5 pieces
3 pieces
Main dish, cooked
6 oz
4 oz
Each side dish
4 oz (about ½ cup)
3 oz
Salad
1 cup (about 1 oz of greens)
1 cup
Rolls
1.5
1
Pizza instead of a main
3 slices (2 a child)
2 slices (1 a child)
Fruit tray
4 oz
4 oz
Dessert or cake
1 serving
1 serving
Raw meat weighs more than cooked. Boneless meat loses about a quarter of its weight as it cooks, so buy about 8 ounces raw for each 6 ounces cooked. For bone-in cuts such as wings, ribs or a whole bird, buy about two and a half times the cooked weight.
How many appetizers per person for a cocktail party?
When appetizers are the meal, plan 8 pieces per person for the first hour and 4 more for each hour after. A 3-hour party for 30 needs about 480 pieces.
Before a dinner, 5 pieces a guest is enough, since you want people hungry for the meal. Offer four to six kinds, with something vegetarian and something without nuts.
Digital illustration. Four or five kinds of bite-size food go further than a big tray of one.
How much food do you need for 20, 50 or 60 guests?
A dinner for 20 needs about 9 pounds of raw boneless meat, a pizza lunch for 40 adults and 10 children needs 12 large pizzas, and a 3-hour cocktail party for 60 needs 1056 appetizer pieces. Change the numbers above to match your own.
Example: a dinner party for 20 adults
A full meal with appetizers first, a boneless main, two sides, salad, rolls and a sheet cake. Two of the guests are vegetarian.
Item
Buy or make
Based on
Appetizers
100 pieces
5 a guest before the meal
Main dish
9 lb raw boneless
6 oz cooked a guest; 18 meat servings
Vegetarian main
2 servings
Your setting: 10% vegetarian
Side dishes
2 sides, 5 lb each
4 oz (about half a cup) a guest per side
Salad
4 bags of greens (5 oz each)
About 1 oz of greens (a cup of salad) a guest
Rolls
30 (3 packs of 12)
1.5 a guest
Cake
quarter sheet (9 × 13 in)
Serves 20; cuts into about 24 squares of 2 inches
Example: a birthday lunch for 40 adults and 10 children
A light meal of pizza with one side, a fruit tray and a sheet cake. Children eat half portions of the savory food, so 1 slice of pizza at a light meal, and get a full piece of cake.
Item
Buy or make
Based on
Pizza
12 large pizzas
8 slices each; 2 a guest, 1 a child
Side dishes
1 side, 8.5 lb each
3 oz a guest per side
Fruit tray
11.5 lb cut fruit
About 4 oz of cut fruit a guest
Cake
half sheet (12 × 18 in)
Serves 50; cuts into about 54 squares of 2 inches
Example: a 3-hour cocktail party for 60
Appetizers only, with no meal, plus 10% spare because it is a buffet.
Item
Buy or make
Based on
Appetizers
1056 pieces
8 a guest the first hour, then 4 an hour
How many pizzas do you need for a party?
At a full meal, plan 3 slices for each adult and 2 for each child, and divide by 8 slices in a large pizza. Twelve adults and six children need 6 large pizzas. At a light meal, plan 2 slices an adult and 1 a child.
For cake, a sheet cake cut into 2-inch squares feeds about 24 from a quarter sheet (9 × 13 in), 54 from a half sheet (12 × 18 in), and 108 from a full sheet (18 × 24 in). Pan sizes vary a little by bakery.
Digital illustration. Pizza and a sheet cake are the easiest way to feed a big birthday crowd.
How long can party food sit out?
Put perishable food away within 2 hours, or within 1 hour when the food is somewhere hotter than 90°F, such as a hot car or a picnic, according to the CDC. Bacteria grow fastest between 40°F and 140°F.
At a buffet, the FDA says to keep hot food at 140°F or warmer and cold food at 40°F or colder. Put out several small platters and swap in freshly filled ones as they empty, rather than adding new food to a platter that has been sitting out.
Planning a potluck instead? Our potluck sign-up guide covers how to split the dishes so you don’t end up with six desserts.
This calculator works out amounts. To ask guests for their meal choice and allergies in the RSVP, use InviteBird’s menu and meal choices. Design free, pay when you send, from $9.99.
For a full meal for 200 adults, 20 of them vegetarian, plan about 67.5 pounds of cooked boneless meat (90 pounds raw) for the other 180, 20 vegetarian mains, 50 pounds of each side dish, 300 rolls and 1000 appetizer pieces before the meal. At this size most hosts use a caterer; give them the final count from your RSVPs.
How much fruit for 75 guests?
About 4 ounces of cut fruit per guest, which is about 19 pounds for 75 adults on a fruit tray. Buy a little more whole fruit, since peels and cores are thrown away.
How many canapés per person?
Canapés are bite-size appetizers, so the same rule applies: about 5 a guest before a dinner, or 8 in the first hour and 4 for each hour after when they are the whole meal.
How do you calculate catering per person?
Multiply the per-person amount by the number of guests, counting children under 10 as half. For example, 6 ounces of cooked main dish for each of 50 adults is 300 ounces, or about 19 pounds cooked. Ask your caterer how they count, since many price by the head.
Should you serve a buffet or a plated meal?
A plated meal uses exact portions, so the amounts above are enough. At a buffet, guests serve themselves and the first in line take more, so tick “Add 10% spare”. A buffet is easier for a crowd; plates suit a small sit-down dinner.
How do you plan a menu for a dinner party?
Pick one main, two sides, a salad or bread, and one dessert, then check the guest list for allergies and diets. Make as much as you can the day before. Find a design among our dinner party invitations.
Does the calculator save what I type?
No. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent to InviteBird. The page address keeps your guest count and hours, so you can bookmark it, and you can print the list or download it as a CSV.
