Barbell Plate Calculator

How to use

1. 1Pick lb or kg with the unit toggle at the top of the lift setup card.
2. 2Enter the total target weight you want to lift, including the bar.
3. 3Choose your bar from the preset list, or pick Custom to enter a non-standard bar weight.
4. 4Set the combined collar weight if you use spring or competition collars. Leave it at 0 if you do not.
5. 5Adjust your plate inventory below: set how many plates of each size you own, add a custom denomination, or click Restore defaults.
6. 6Read the per-side breakdown on the right, optionally tick Generate warmup ramp to see plate stacks for 50%, 70%, and 85% sets, then copy the summary.

About this tool

Barbell Plate Calculator turns a target weight into the exact plate breakdown to put on each side of the bar. Enter the total you want to lift, pick a bar from common presets (men's 45 lb / 20 kg, women's 35 lb / 15 kg, training, EZ-curl, trap bar, or a custom weight), set the combined collar weight, and the tool computes the per-side plate loading that lands as close to the target as possible without going over. Loading uses a greedy fit against a configurable inventory, which is provably optimal for every standard plate denomination (each plate is at least half the next-larger one), and runs in integer micro-units so 2.5 lb, 1.25 lb, 0.5 kg, and 0.25 kg fractional plates never accumulate floating-point drift. The plate inventory is fully editable: change the quantity of any size you own, add custom denominations, or restore the defaults for the active unit (lb or kg). Results include the per-side plate stack with standard IWF / IPF colors for kg plates and the common commercial palette for lb plates, the total loaded weight, and how far you are from the target so you can decide whether to add a smaller plate to your inventory or accept the closest under. An optional warmup ramp generates the conventional empty bar / 50% / 70% / 85% / work set sequence and shows the plate breakdown for every step, so you can stack plates once and step through them as you warm up. Useful for powerlifting, Olympic lifting, CrossFit, bodybuilding, home gym setups, coaching juniors who are still learning bar math, and double-checking complicated loads before a heavy single. Every calculation runs locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.