Backsplash Tile Calculator (USA)
Work out exactly how much tile your kitchen backsplash needs. Enter the wall run and tile size to get tiles, square footage with waste, boxes, thinset and grout, a full shopping-list cost, and a printable PDF.
| Item | Quantity | Unit price | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calculate to see the shopping list | |||
The highlighted row is your estimated total. Buy full boxes from a single lot number, and keep a few spare tiles for future repairs. Diagonal and herringbone layouts waste more, so bump the allowance up.
How to Use the Backsplash Tile Calculator
Turn a wall measurement into a shopping list — tiles, square footage with waste, boxes, thinset and grout, and what the whole thing costs — in four steps.
Measure the wall run
Enter the total length of countertop the tile will sit above and the height from counter to cabinet — 18 inches is the usual gap. Already know the square footage? Switch to total area and type it straight in.
Subtract anything you’re not tiling
A window, an open shelf, a range hood cutout. Add up those square feet and put them in the openings field so you’re not paying for tile that never goes on the wall.
Choose tile size and pattern
Tap a preset for 3″×6″ subway, 4″×4″, 6″×6″ or 12″×12″, or type any size you like. Picking straight, diagonal or herringbone sets a sensible waste allowance, which you can still nudge yourself.
Add prices and save the report
Price the tile per square foot or per box, set your grout joint, tile thickness and bag prices, then read the total and download the two-page PDF to take to the tile shop.
What’s Included
Most tile aisles price by the box and most tile guides talk in square feet. This bridges the two, and adds the mortar and grout everyone forgets until they’re already home.
Two ways to measure
Wall run in feet by height in inches, or a total square footage if you’ve already done the math. Either way you can subtract windows and other openings before anything is counted.
Presets or any custom size
One tap for the four sizes people actually buy, or enter your own down to the quarter inch — mosaics, planks, oversized format, whatever’s on the sample board.
Pattern-aware waste
Straight, diagonal and herringbone don’t produce the same number of offcuts. Choosing the layout moves the waste allowance with it, so a fussy pattern doesn’t leave you a box short.
Thinset and grout quantities
Bag counts worked from your tile size, joint width and thickness — because a mosaic with wide joints and a 12-inch tile with hairlines need very different amounts of each.
Cost charts and box counts
Price per square foot or per box with the coverage from the packaging. A donut splits tile against materials, and a bar chart shows how the tile count moves as the waste allowance changes.
Shopping list and PDF
Every line item with quantity, unit price and line total, plus a two-page branded report you can print, hand to a tiler, or check against a quote before you agree to it.
By the Numbers
The measurements and assumptions the calculator works from.
counter to cabinet
per square foot
straight, diagonal, herringbone
set by your pattern
no sign-up needed
Built for the Trip to the Tile Store
A backsplash is a small job with an unforgiving material — running short mid-wall usually means a second lot number and a visible line.
Weekend DIY tilers
You’ve watched the videos and you’re doing it yourself. Get the tile, thinset and grout counts settled before the first trip out so the wall isn’t sitting half-done while you drive back for one more bag.
Homeowners checking a quote
Run your own numbers before the contractor’s materials line arrives. Knowing the square footage, box count and bag count makes it obvious which quotes are padded and which are fair.
Anyone still choosing tile
Torn between plain subway and something patterned? Swap the tile size and layout here and watch the total move — a beautiful tile at twice the price on a small wall is often a smaller difference than it looks.
Buy Once, Cut Twice
Seven things that decide whether the job goes smoothly or ends with a mismatched box and a trip back to the store.
- 1Measure each wall run separately and add them up. Kitchens are rarely one straight stretch — there’s the run behind the sink, the return by the range, the strip beside the fridge. Total the lengths, then enter one combined figure so nothing gets rounded away.
- 2Never order the exact square footage. The waste allowance covers cuts around outlets and corners, tiles that break during scoring, and the handful you’ll want in the garage for repairs. Ten percent is the usual minimum for a simple layout, and it’s cheap insurance next to a second delivery.
- 3Fussy patterns waste more. Diagonal and herringbone layouts turn far more tiles into offcuts than a straight stack does, and mosaics on mesh sheets have their own edge losses. If you’re doing anything angled, push the allowance toward 15–20% rather than trusting the default.
- 4Buy every box from the same lot number. Tile is colour-matched within a production run, not across them. Two boxes from different lots can be noticeably different under a strip of under-cabinet lighting, and there’s no fixing it after the thinset cures.
- 5Deduct windows, not outlets. A window or an open shelf is real square footage you won’t be tiling. Outlets and switches aren’t — you still cut tile around them and throw the offcuts away, so leaving them in the measurement is exactly right.
- 6Grout use depends on the joints, not just the area. Smaller tiles mean more linear feet of joint per square foot, and wider or deeper joints swallow more grout again. That’s why the calculator asks for joint width and tile thickness — a mosaic can need several times what a large-format tile does over the same wall.
- 7Check coverage on the box before you trust the count. Coverage per box varies by manufacturer even for identical tile dimensions, and it’s printed right on the carton. Switch the calculator to per-box pricing, enter the real coverage, and you’ll leave with the right number of boxes rather than the right number of square feet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the most common questions about backsplash measurements, waste allowance, tile counts and materials.
How many tiles do I need for a kitchen backsplash?
Work out the wall area, add a waste allowance, then divide by the area of one tile. A 15-foot run at the standard 18-inch height is 22.5 square feet; add 10% and you’re buying 24.75 square feet. With 3″×6″ subway tile — 8 tiles to a square foot — that’s about 198 tiles. Enter your own run, height and tile size above and the calculator does the arithmetic, including the openings you subtract and the boxes you’ll need to buy.
How much extra tile should I buy for waste?
Around 10% for a straight layout on a simple wall, and 15–20% once you’re cutting on an angle — diagonal and herringbone patterns produce far more unusable offcuts. Push it higher again if the wall has lots of outlets, an awkward corner, or if the tile is expensive and hard to reorder. The allowance isn’t only for breakage: keeping a few spare tiles from the same lot means a cracked tile in three years is a repair rather than a re-tile.
What is the standard backsplash height?
About 18 inches, because that’s the typical gap between a countertop and the underside of the wall cabinets. Full-height backsplashes that run all the way to the cabinet tops or up a range wall are common too and can be anywhere from 24 to 40-plus inches, and a short 4-inch splash is sometimes used with laminate counters. Measure your own gap rather than assuming — an inch of difference across a long run adds up to real square footage.
How much thinset and grout will I need?
Both depend on the tile rather than the wall alone. Thinset coverage falls as tile size rises because larger tiles need a deeper trowel notch, so a 50-pound bag covers considerably less area with a small tile than the bag would suggest. Grout depends on how many linear feet of joint you have and how wide and deep they are, which is why narrow tiles with wide joints use so much more than large-format tile with hairline joints. The calculator estimates bags of each from your figures, but always check the coverage chart on the product you actually buy.
Do I subtract outlets and windows from the measurement?
Subtract windows, open shelving and anything else that’s genuinely a hole in the tiled surface — measure each one in square feet and total them in the openings field. Don’t subtract outlets and switches. You still cut a tile to fit around each one and the cut-off piece is usually scrap, so leaving them in the area is what keeps your count honest. If anything, a wall busy with outlets is a reason to nudge the waste allowance up.
Should I buy tile by the box or by the square foot?
Most tile is sold in full boxes, so your square footage gets rounded up whether you plan for it or not. Prices are advertised per square foot as often as per box, which makes comparison harder than it should be. Switch this calculator to per-box pricing, enter the coverage printed on the carton, and it will tell you the number of boxes and what they cost — then you can compare that directly against a per-square-foot price on another tile without doing the conversion in the aisle.