UniFi PoE Designer

How to use this

Five minutes here saves a return visit.

1. 1. Pick the switch you're considering

   Every switch in the list carries its real port count, how many of those ports actually deliver PoE, its total PoE budget in watts, and the maximum class it can hand a single port. The stats under the picker update as you change models.

2. 2. Add the devices you're going to power

   Work through the Cameras, Access, Wireless, Connect and Phones tabs, or search by model name. Each device carries a typical draw and a PoE class. Add anything that isn't in the list as a custom device, and adjust quantities inline.

3. 3. Read the budget, not just the port count

   The live results panel tracks watts and ports separately, because they run out at different times. A 24-port switch with a 95 W budget will hit its power ceiling long before its 24th port if you load it with PTZ cameras.

4. 4. Take the warnings seriously

   The notes panel flags four things: too many devices for the ports, too many watts for the budget, a device that needs a higher PoE class than the switch can deliver, and devices landing on non-PoE ports. Any of the four means a revisit.

5. 5. Save it, copy it, or send it to us

   Designs are stored in your browser so you can come back to them. Generate summary gives you plain text you can paste into an email or a job note. Send this design for a quote hands the whole thing to our quote form.

Worth knowing

The bits people get caught by.

Where do the wattages come from?

They're typical figures for each model at normal operation. Cameras with IR illuminators, heaters or PTZ motors draw more when they're working hard, and hardware revisions change. Treat them as planning numbers and confirm against the current Ubiquiti datasheet before ordering — you can override any figure with the edit button.

Why leave headroom at all?

Because PoE budget is a shared pool and cold-weather IR, motor movement and future additions all pull from it. We design to roughly 80% of budget. The tool warns at that point rather than at 100% for exactly this reason.

What about the non-PoE ports?

Plenty of UniFi switches have more ports than PoE ports — a 16-port switch may only power 8. The tool assumes devices fill PoE ports first, and warns as soon as your device count passes the PoE port count.

Does anything leave my browser?

No. The designer runs entirely client-side and saves to your own browser storage. Nothing reaches us until you press Send this design for a quote.