Ergonomic Desk Height Calculator
Desk, chair, keyboard and monitor heights for your body, sitting or standing.
Sitting
Standing
With your fixed desk
Body dimensions used
| Dimension | Value | Source |
|---|
Estimates come from your height and ANSUR II body proportions (the ± figure is one standard error); your shoe height is added to the floor-based ones. Elbow height above the seat varies most between people of the same height, so measuring it improves the desk height most.
For general information only, not medical advice. Consult a qualified health professional for advice about your situation.
About the Ergonomic Desk Height Calculator
A comfortable workstation puts the keyboard at elbow height, the feet flat with the thighs level, and the top of the screen at or a little below eye level. This calculator turns those targets — from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) computer workstation guidance — into numbers for your body: the chair seat height, the desk surface and keyboard height, armrests, and the height of the top of the monitor, both sitting and standing.
Enter your height and it estimates the body dimensions that matter (knee height, elbow and eye height) from the body proportions measured in ANSUR II, a public survey of 6,068 adults. Better still, measure those five dimensions yourself and the calculator uses them instead. With a fixed desk it works out the chair height, footrest or keyboard tray you need. Results are shown in centimetres and inches; nothing leaves your browser.
How to use it
- Enter your height, choose female, male or average body proportions, and the heel height of the shoes you wear at your desk.
- For the best result, open Measure yourself and enter your knee, elbow and eye heights — any box left blank is estimated from your height.
- Enter your keyboard height, screen size and shape, and how far your eyes are from the screen. If your desk does not adjust, enter its height.
- Read the chair, desk, keyboard, armrest and screen heights for sitting and standing, and the fixed-desk advice. Copy settings saves them as text.
Examples
Chair seat 44 cm (17 in) · sitting desk 64 cm (25.5 in) · keyboard home row 67 cm · screen top 113–119 cm · standing desk 104 cm (41 in).
Raise the chair to 53 cm with a 7 cm footrest, or fit a keyboard tray at 67 cm (7 cm below the desktop) and keep the chair at 45 cm.
Chair seat 46 cm · keyboard home row 69 cm · desk surface 66 cm · eyes at 124 cm, screen top 115–122 cm.
Chair seat 40 cm (16 in) · sitting desk 61 cm (24 in) · standing desk 98 cm (38.5 in).
Common uses
- Setting up a new standing desk: the sitting and standing heights to save as presets.
- Adjusting an office chair and monitor arm at a shared desk.
- Working out the footrest or keyboard tray a fixed-height desk needs.
- Checking whether a desk on a shop’s product page adjusts low or high enough for you.
What the calculator aims for
From OSHA’s computer workstation eTool:
- Chair: feet flat on the floor (or a footrest), thighs about level, and the back of the knee slightly higher than the seat. If the seat cannot be lowered because the desk is too high, use a footrest.
- Keyboard: elbows about the same height as the keyboard, close to the body and bent between 90° and 120°, shoulders relaxed and wrists straight.
- Armrests (optional): just touching the forearms with the arms relaxed at the sides.
- Monitor: directly in front of you, the top of the screen at or slightly below eye level and its centre normally 15° to 20° below horizontal eye level, at a viewing distance of 50 to 100 cm (20 to 40 inches); no part of the screen more than 60° below the line of sight. With bifocals, lower the monitor further and tilt it up.
- Standing: the same arm and eye rules apply, with the desk set to standing elbow height.
The calculator turns these into heights: chair seat = knee (popliteal) height in shoes; keyboard home row = seat + elbow height above the seat; desk surface = keyboard home row − keyboard height; screen top = between the heights that put the screen centre 20° and 15° below your eyes, never above eye level.
How the body dimensions are estimated
Each dimension you do not measure is estimated with a straight-line fit to stature in ANSUR II (US Army personnel, 4,082 men and 1,986 women, measured barefoot), in millimetres:
- Knee (popliteal) height: men −107.0 + 0.3056 × stature · women −94.1 + 0.2962 × stature
- Elbow height above the seat: men 116.3 + 0.0733 × stature · women 155.7 + 0.0471 × stature
- Eye height above the seat: men 158.0 + 0.3681 × stature · women 181.1 + 0.3479 × stature
- Standing elbow height (underside of the elbow bent 90°): men −109.7 + 0.6757 × stature · women −72.3 + 0.6589 × stature
- Standing eye height: men −47.8 + 0.9624 × stature · women −34.7 + 0.9544 × stature
“Average” uses the mean of the two. Shoe height is added to the floor-based ones. Elbow height above the seat hardly depends on stature (one standard error is about 2.6–2.8 cm), so measuring it improves your desk height the most.
How to measure yourself
- Knee height: sit with thighs level and feet flat, in your desk shoes; measure from the floor to the underside of the thigh just behind the knee.
- Elbow above the seat: sit upright with the upper arms hanging and elbows bent at 90°; measure from the seat to the underside of the elbow.
- Eyes above the seat: sit upright looking ahead; measure from the seat to the corner of the eye.
- Standing elbow and eye height: stand in your shoes, measure from the floor to the underside of the bent elbow and to the eye.
A flat board or book across the seat, or a helper, makes the seat-based measurements easier.
Fixed desks: chair, footrest or keyboard tray
If your desk is higher than your sitting desk height, you have two choices. Raise the chair until your elbows meet the keyboard and support your feet on a footrest as high as the chair was raised; or keep the chair at knee height and lower the keyboard on a tray fixed under the desk. Either way check that your thighs clear the underside of the desk or tray. If the desk is lower than your sitting desk height, raise it — lowering the chair below knee height tilts the thighs up.
Sources
Limitations
- Estimates from height describe an average body of that height; real knee, elbow and eye heights vary by a few centimetres, so measure yourself when the numbers matter.
- ANSUR II measured US Army personnel, who are not a cross-section of every population; body proportions differ between groups, which is another reason to measure.
- A starting point, not a prescription: adjust for comfort, change posture often, and see a health professional for pain that persists.
- It does not apply the furniture design ranges of paid standards such as ANSI/HFES 100 or BIFMA G1; check a product’s own specification for its adjustment range.
- A laptop joins screen and keyboard, so both cannot be at these heights at once: raise the laptop and use a separate keyboard and mouse.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
How high should my desk be?
High enough that your keyboard’s home row is at elbow height when you sit with your thighs level and feet flat — so the desk surface is your elbow height minus the keyboard’s height. For a 170 cm adult with average proportions the estimate is about 64 cm sitting and 104 cm standing; enter your own height or measurements for yours.
Where should the top of my monitor be?
At or slightly below eye level, with the centre of the screen 15° to 20° below horizontal eye level, 50 to 100 cm from your eyes (OSHA). The calculator gives that range for your eye height, screen size and distance. With bifocals or progressive lenses, set it lower and tilt it up.
What chair height do I need?
About your knee (popliteal) height in shoes, so your feet rest flat with your thighs level and the back of the knee slightly higher than the seat. If the desk makes you raise the chair above that, add a footrest.
Should I use armrests?
OSHA leaves it to you. If you use them, set them so they just touch your forearms with your shoulders relaxed and elbows at your sides — about your elbow height when sitting.
Why is my standing desk height so much higher than my sitting one?
Because it follows your standing elbow height, which is roughly 60% of your stature. In standing mode keep the same rules: elbows at the keyboard, the top of the screen at or a little below your standing eye height.
Is my information sent anywhere?
No. All the calculations run in your browser and nothing you enter is uploaded.