Vital / Free tools / Plates
Barbell plate calculator
Which plates go on each side? The fewest that make the weight.
Enter the weight you want on the bar, pick your bar and the plate sizes your gym has, and get the plates for one side. It works in pounds or kilograms, runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
Enter a weight and the plates for each side appear here. Nothing you type leaves this page.
On each side of the bar
Load the heaviest plates first, nearest the middle of the bar, then work outward to the lightest, and finish with the collar. Read the weight printed on each plate: gym plates are not always what they say.
Vital has a plate calculator built into the workout screen, for your own bar and plates in kg or lb.
Join the Android betaHow the plates are chosen
The tool takes your target, subtracts the bar (and collars, if ticked) and halves what is left: that is the weight for each side. It then finds the combination of your ticked plates with the fewest plates that adds up to it. If two combinations use the same number of plates, it takes the one with the heavier plates, which is also how you would load them.
"Fewest plates" is not the same as "biggest plate first". With a 45, 35, 25, 10, 5 and 2.5 lb set, 165 lb on a 45 lb bar needs 60 lb a side. Biggest-first gives 45 + 10 + 5, three plates. The tool finds 35 + 25, two plates.
weight per side = (target - bar - collars) / 2
If your plates cannot make the exact weight, the tool shows the next lower and next higher weights you can load. With 2.5 kg as your smallest plate, the total moves in steps of 5 kg.
Standard sizes
- Competition kilogram plates come in 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 kg. The International Powerlifting Federation rulebook also allows lighter plates for record attempts, so this tool offers a 0.5 kg plate as an extra.
- Bars: USA Weightlifting's bar loading chart uses 20 kg and 15 kg bars for adults and 10 kg and 5 kg bars for younger lifters. Pound-based gyms sell bars at 45 and 35 lb, and technique bars lighter still. Check the weight of your own bar.
- Competition collars weigh 2.5 kg each in the IPF rulebook, and the bar and collars together are 25 kg. Gym spring collars weigh much less.
- Loading order: in the IPF rulebook the heaviest plates go on first, innermost, with smaller plates after them in descending order.
A worked example
You want 100 kg on a 20 kg bar with a full set of kilogram plates and no collars.
- (100 - 20) / 2 = 40 kg a side.
- Two plates make it: 25 + 15, or 20 + 20. The tool picks 25 + 15, the heavier pair.
- Check: 2 x (25 + 15) + 20 = 100 kg.
In pounds, 225 lb on a 45 lb bar is (225 - 45) / 2 = 90 lb a side: two 45s.
Do not mix units
A 45 lb plate is 20.41 kg, not 20 kg, so a pound plate on a kilogram bar throws the total off. If your gym has both, load one kind per side pair and use the matching unit here.
More: one-rep max estimator for working out training weights, and progressive overload for beginners for what to add and when.
Sources
- International Powerlifting Federation. Technical Rulebook, effective 1 March 2026, sections 2.3 (bar and discs) and 2.4 (collars). PDF (hosted by the Irish Powerlifting Federation)
- USA Weightlifting. Amendments to IWF Technical Rules, March 28, 2025 (the bar loading chart). PDF
Written November 5, 2026, with the sources read that day. An estimate, not medical advice.
Questions people ask
Why not just use the biggest plates first?
Because it can take more plates than you need. A 45, 35, 25, 10, 5 and 2.5 lb set loads 60 lb a side as 35 + 25 (two plates), where biggest-first picks 45 + 10 + 5 (three). Fewer plates is faster and easier to check.
What if my gym does not have every size?
Untick the sizes it lacks. The tool only uses what you tick, and shows the closest weights you can load if the exact one is out of reach.
How do I add less than the smallest jump?
Smaller plates, called fractional or micro plates, add 0.5 kg or 1.25 lb a side. Tick them if you have them. Some lifters add them to keep progress in small steps.
Is this the same as the plate calculator in the Vital app?
Both find loads that add up exactly, and both use only the plates you say you have. The app loads the heaviest plates first, while this page looks for the fewest plates, so for a few weights, such as 165 lb on a 45 lb bar, they show different combinations that weigh the same.
Are the collars included in the weight?
Only if you tick the box. Competition collars weigh 2.5 kg each; light spring clips are close to nothing, so leave the box off for them.