Plan your next cookout with the BBQ Party Calculator. Enter your number of guests, choose your main dish, beverage type, and select side dishes and sauces to get a complete BBQ shopping list — including total meat weight, drink quantities, and side dish portions. Whether you're feeding 10 or 100, you'll know exactly what to buy.
Total Meat Needed
--
Meat Per Person
--
Vegetarian Portions
--
Total Drinks Needed
--
Side Dishes Selected
--
Sauces Selected
--
It depends on the protein. As a general rule, plan for 0.5 lbs of burgers, 0.6 lbs of grilled chicken, 0.4 lbs of sausages, or 1.0 lbs of ribs per person. For a mixed platter, budget around 0.65 lbs per guest. These figures account for shrinkage during cooking and a modest appetite — bump them up by 10–15% for hungry crowds.
For pulled pork as the main entree, plan on ½ lb (about 225g) of cooked meat per person. If it's one of several proteins on the table, ⅓ lb per person is usually sufficient. Keep in mind that raw pork loses roughly 30–40% of its weight during smoking, so buy accordingly.
A good rule of thumb is 2–3 drinks per person for shorter events (2–3 hours) and 3–4 drinks per person for longer gatherings. For a mixed setup with beer, soft drinks, and water, variety helps ensure everyone finds something they enjoy. Don't forget extra water on hot days.
Yes — it's always a good idea to have plant-based alternatives available. A safe approach is to replace roughly 20% of your meat portions with vegetarian options (veggie burgers, grilled vegetables, plant-based sausages). This covers most guest lists without over-purchasing.
For cold sides like potato salad or coleslaw, plan on about 4 oz (½ cup) per person per side. For heartier sides like mac and cheese, budget 5–6 oz per person. If you're serving multiple sides, guests typically take smaller portions of each, so you can scale down slightly when offering 3 or more options.
A standard estimate is about 2 tablespoons of sauce per serving of meat. For a party of 20, that's roughly 1.5–2 cups of each sauce you plan to serve. If you're offering multiple sauces, guests will split their usage, so you can reduce per-sauce quantities when providing variety.
The simplest method is to calculate per-person quantities first, then multiply by your guest count. Add a 10% buffer to account for unexpected guests or larger appetites. Our calculator handles this automatically — just update the guest count and your totals recalculate instantly.
A Mixed Platter (averaging 0.65 lbs per person) is a crowd-pleaser because it offers variety. Combining burgers, chicken, and sausages means picky eaters and different dietary preferences are all covered. If simplicity is the priority, burgers are the easiest to prepare and serve at scale.