Plan the whole holiday bird in one place with this thanksgiving dinner calculator: a turkey per person calculator covering how much turkey per person and how many pounds of turkey do i need for your guest count, turkey thawing time, a turkey cooking time calculator for roast / fry / smoke at the USDA-safe 165°F, and side-dish scaling. Everything runs in your browser.
Only thawing? Our Turkey Defrost Calculator adds the microwave method and a start-date countdown planner.
Rule of thumb: about 1 lb per person for a whole bird and ½ lb per person for boneless breast (USDA/foodsafety.gov); about ¾ lb per person for a bone-in breast (per Butterball). Kids under 10 count as half. Cooking just a breast? Select a breast type above — this turkey breast size calculator handles bone-in and boneless.
| Guests | Just dinner | With leftovers |
|---|---|---|
| 4 guests | 4 lb | 5 lb |
| 6 guests | 6 lb | 7.5 lb |
| 8 guests | 8 lb | 10 lb |
| 10 guests | 10 lb | 12.5 lb |
| 12 guests | 12 lb | 15 lb |
| 14 guests | 14 lb | 17.5 lb |
| 16 guests | 16 lb | 20 lb |
| 18 guests | 18 lb | 22.5 lb |
| 20 guests | 20 lb | 25 lb |
| 24 guests | 24 lb | 30 lb |
This whole turkey size guide assumes a normal appetite and just dinner — raise the leftovers setting above if you want extra.
Need the microwave method or a “start thawing on this date” planner? See the Turkey Defrost Calculator — a dedicated turkey defrost time calculator.
| Weight | Unstuffed | Stuffed |
|---|---|---|
| 8–12 lb | 2 h 45 min – 3 h 00 min | 3 h 00 min – 3 h 30 min |
| 12–14 lb | 3 h 00 min – 3 h 45 min | 3 h 30 min – 4 h 00 min |
| 14–18 lb | 3 h 45 min – 4 h 15 min | 4 h 00 min – 4 h 15 min |
| 18–20 lb | 4 h 15 min – 4 h 30 min | 4 h 15 min – 4 h 45 min |
| 20–24 lb | 4 h 30 min – 5 h 00 min | 4 h 45 min – 5 h 15 min |
USDA does not recommend stuffing a whole bird — it slows cooking and the stuffing’s center must also reach 165°F. Times are estimates; a thermometer is the final authority.
Per-guest planning figures: stuffing ¾ cup cooked, mashed potatoes ¾ cup (about 1 potato), cranberry sauce about ⅓–½ cup, vegetables 4 oz total, gravy about ⅓ cup, 1½ rolls, 1 pie per 7 guests.
This turkey per person calculator plans on about 1 lb of whole turkey per adult — so 8 lb feeds 8 adults, and it suggests buying in the 7–9 lb range to cover appetite differences. For boneless breast, the rule is about ½ lb per person, so 10 adults need about 5 lb.
For 10 adults, a whole bird with a normal appetite and no leftovers planned, you need about 10 lb. If you keep asking yourself how many pounds of turkey do i need for a hungrier crowd, use the big-appetite setting above — and for a full week of sandwiches afterward, scale up to about 15 lb.
No — count each child under 10 as half an adult serving. For example, 6 adults plus 4 kids equals 8 adult-equivalents, which needs about 8 lb of whole turkey.
Twelve adults eating normally need about 15 lb when you plan for some leftovers (×1.25 multiplier). Without leftovers it would be about 12 lb. For turkey leftovers ideas beyond sandwiches, plan the extra poundage here and thank yourself later.
USDA rule: about 24 hours of fridge time per 4 lb. A 20 lb bird needs about 5 days (120 h 00 min) in the refrigerator. In cold water (30 min per lb, water changed every 30 minutes) it takes 10 h 00 min with 20 water changes — and it must be cooked immediately after.
Unstuffed, roasted at 325°F, a 16 lb turkey takes about 4 h 00 min to 4 h 15 min. It is done when a thermometer reads 165°F in the thickest part of the breast, the innermost thigh, and the innermost wing — then rest it 20 minutes before carving. Note that turkey cooking time per pound isn’t flat: about 21 min/lb at 8 lb versus about 11 min/lb at 24 lb (low end of each USDA range), so scale with the chart, not linearly.
Stuffing adds time: a 12 lb stuffed turkey roasted at 325°F takes about 3 h 30 min to 4 h 00 min. The stuffing’s center must also reach 165°F — USDA actually recommends cooking stuffing separately for safety and more even cooking.
The turkey fry time per pound is 3–5 minutes in 350°F oil, so this deep fried turkey time calculator puts a 10 lb turkey at roughly 30 min to 50 min. Only fry birds of 12 lb or less, thawed completely — never fry a frozen or stuffed turkey — and verify 165°F with a thermometer.
For smoked turkey time planning, figure about 30 minutes per pound at 225°F, so a 15 lb bird smokes in roughly 7 h 30 min; at 250°F (about 27 min/lb) a 14 lb bird takes about 6 h 18 min. Treat the smoke tab above as your smoked turkey cooking time chart across 225–275°F — but these are estimates, so cook to 165°F internal temperature, not to the clock.
Wondering how much stuffing per person? For 12 guests, plan about 9 cups of cooked stuffing, 9 cups of mashed potatoes (about 4 lb of raw potatoes), 4.8 cups of cranberry sauce, 3 lb of vegetables, 4 cups of gravy, 18 rolls, and 2 pies.
165°F, measured with a food thermometer in three places: the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the thigh, and the innermost part of the wing. Stuffing cooked inside the bird must reach 165°F in its center too. Pop-up timers are a backup, not a replacement for a thermometer.
For boneless turkey per person planning, use about ½ lb for boneless breast or breast roast — so 10 adults need about 5 lb. For bone in turkey breast per person planning, ¾ lb per person works (about 7.5 lb for 10 adults, per Butterball). As for turkey breast cooking time, a 6 lb unstuffed breast roasts about 2 h 15 min to 3 h 15 min at 325°F.