Game planners · Factories
Production chain ratio calculator.
Enter your own recipe numbers and a target output per minute. You get the machines for the final product and for each input that feeds it, sized from the same demand.
Factory games change recipes between versions, and a ratio table that was right last patch can quietly be wrong now. This calculator carries no recipes at all. You read the recipe off the in-game screen, type it in, and the arithmetic does the rest, so it cannot go stale when the game does.
Short answer: machines = target per minute / (output per craft x machine speed x 60 / craft seconds). With the invented example below, 90 widgets a minute needs 5 widget machines (exactly 4.50), 5 gear machines and 3 plate machines.
How the ratios are built
Every machine has one rate: the number of items one craft makes, times its speed multiplier, times 60, divided by the craft time in seconds. Divide your target by that rate and you have the machine count for the final product. It is almost never a whole number, so the tool shows the exact figure and the rounded-up build, plus how busy the machines are after rounding.
Each input is then sized from demand. The final machines need a certain number of crafts a minute (target divided by output per craft); multiply by the quantity each craft consumes and you have the items per minute the input stage must supply. Divide that by the input machine rate for its machine count.
Two ways to round
If you build exactly enough final machines for the target, input stages sized to the target are right. If you round the final stage up and let those machines run flat out, they pull more than the target, and the input stages may need another machine. The results table shows both counts so you can see when rounding up one stage changes the next.
Worked example
These numbers are invented for the example and belong to no game. A widget recipe makes 1 widget every 3 seconds at speed 1, so one machine makes 20 a minute. For 90 a minute you need 4.50 machines, so build 5; they can make 100 a minute and run at 90% of capacity.
Each widget uses 2 gears and 1 plate. 90 widgets a minute is 180 gears and 90 plates a minute. A gear machine makes 1 gear every 1.5 seconds, which is 40 a minute, so gears need 4.50 machines, rounded to 5. A plate machine makes 2 plates every 3.2 seconds, 37.5 a minute, so plates need 2.40, rounded to 3. The chain totals 13 machines. If the 5 widget machines run flat out at 100 a minute, gears are needed at 200 a minute, which is exactly 5 gear machines.
What this page does not cover
This covers one final recipe and up to three direct inputs. Inputs that themselves need inputs are handled by running the tool again with the input as the target. It ignores belt or pipe capacity, power, byproducts, and recipes that make several different outputs.
Frequently asked questions
Does this have recipes for my game?
No, on purpose. You type the recipe numbers from your game, so the page stays correct after patches and works for any factory game that has a craft time and an output count.
What is machine speed?
A multiplier on craft speed. A machine with speed 2 finishes a craft in half the time. Leave it at 1 if your game has no faster machine tiers.
Why does it show exact and rounded machine counts?
You cannot build 4.5 machines. The exact count tells you how close you are, and the rounded count tells you what to build and how busy the machines will be.
Why can an input stage need another machine when I round up?
Rounded-up final machines can run faster than your target, so they pull more input. The last column of the stage table shows that count.
Can I chain more than two stages?
Yes. Run the tool again using an input as the target rate. Its demand figure is the target for the next run.
Does it account for belts, power or byproducts?
No. It counts machines from recipe rates only. Check belt and power limits separately.
Sources and how it is calculated
Retrieved
The rate rule comes from the recipe time definition in the Factorio Lua API (version 2.1.23, retrieved 26 October 2026); other games use the same idea under different names. The two forum threads are the demand evidence: in one, a player asks for a tool that tells "how many machines and which conveyor you need" and a later reply says a community calculator was "broken and using bad receipts" (a typo for recipes); in the other, a reply warns "The recipes/ratios change from version to version." Both quotes were read on the pages on 26 October 2026.
- Factorio Lua API 2.1.23, RecipePrototype: energy_required is the number of seconds to craft at crafting speed 1; higher speeds shorten it
- Steam Community, FOUNDRY General Discussions: "Is there a factory planner yet?" (13 replies, from 3 May 2024)
- Steam Community, Rise of Industry General Discussions: "Calculation Tool" (13 replies, from 15 Jun 2018)
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored. Game names appear only as references to the forum threads above; this site is not affiliated with any game or publisher.
Check the numbers in your game
The examples use invented numbers. Games patch recipes, prices and speeds, so enter the values from your own screen and treat the result as a planning estimate.