Party Food & Drink Calculator
How much food do you actually need? Pick your headcount and what you're serving — standard catering portions with package counts, so the shopping list writes itself.
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Popular answers
How to plan how much food and drink to buy
Start with an honest headcount, then decide what job each dish is doing. Every calculator here works the same way: type in the number of guests and you get the amount to buy plus the package counts to hit it — how many 8-count bun packs, 10-lb bags of ice, cases of beer, or sheet cakes, not just an abstract total. Use the individual item calculators when you're buying one thing (how many pizzas, how much pulled pork), or the Full Menu Planner when you're pricing a whole spread and want every quantity at once.
The portions follow standard catering rules. Pizza is figured at 3 slices per adult with 8 slices to a large pie; burgers at 1.5 quarter-pounders per person; wings at 6 each as an appetizer or 10 as the main event; pulled pork at a third of a pound cooked per person, which means buying roughly double that in raw shoulder because it loses about half its weight in the smoker. Drinks lean on the bartender's rule — two in the first hour, one each hour after — so a three-hour party runs about four beers per beer drinker.
Then adjust for your actual crowd. Kids eat roughly two-thirds of an adult portion, while teenagers and a hungry game-day crowd run about 25% over. A longer party means more drinks and snacks but not many more mains — people top up, they don't eat a second dinner. And when several mains share the table, nobody takes a full portion of each: that's what the planner's balanced menu mode handles, scaling each dish down (about 60% each for two mains, 40% for three) while ice and coffee stay at full strength, because a pound of ice per person is a pound of ice per person no matter how much food is out. Switch to full portions of everything when you'd rather have leftovers than any chance of running short.
One rule ties it together: round up on the cheap, forgiving items — buns, chips, ice, cups — and stay exact on the expensive proteins.
Party quantity FAQ
How many pizzas do I need per person?
Plan on 3 slices per adult and 2 per child. A large pizza has 8 slices, so a party of 25 works out to about 10 large pizzas. The pizza calculator rounds slices up to whole pies and also shows medium-pizza and mostly-kids counts.
How much ice do I need for a party?
The catering rule is 1 pound of ice per person for drinks served in cups, and 2 pounds per person outdoors in warm weather or when you're chilling cans and bottles in a cooler — a packed cooler is about two-thirds ice, one-third drinks. Ice is cheap insurance, so buy the extra bag.
How do I account for heavy versus light drinkers?
The drink calculators assume everyone in that lane drinks. For a mixed crowd, the beer and wine results include a "half the guests drink this" line — use it when beer and wine share the bar, since people usually pick one and stick with it rather than drinking full amounts of both.
Should I plan for leftovers or exact amounts?
In the Full Menu Planner, balanced menu sizes dishes to share the table the way caterers do, while full portions of everything gives each item enough for all your guests. Pick full portions when you'd rather have leftovers than risk running out, or when foods are served at different times.
How many appetizers should I plan per person?
Six pieces per person before a meal, or 12 or more if appetizers are the meal. Offer more variety as the guest list grows — three types for a small group, six to eight for a big one.