LoRaWAN Coverage Calculator
Estimate your LoRaWAN network coverage based on environment, gateway configuration, and spreading factor settings.
Maximum Range
12.5
kilometers
(7.8 miles)
Coverage Area
489.2 km²
(188.9 mi²)
Devices per Gateway
10,000
maximum capacity
Data Rate
980 bps
Airtime
Long
Gateway Height: Mounting gateways higher significantly increases range. Every doubling of height adds ~6dB to your link budget.
ADR: Enable Adaptive Data Rate to automatically optimize spreading factor based on signal quality.
Antenna: Use high-gain outdoor antennas (8dBi+) for professional deployments requiring maximum range.
How LoRaWAN Coverage Is Estimated
LoRaWAN range depends on the radio environment, gateway antenna gain and height, spreading factor, and transmit power. In open rural areas, a single gateway can reach 10–15 km; in dense urban environments, expect closer to 1–3 km per gateway. Higher spreading factors (SF11, SF12) trade throughput and battery life for range; lower spreading factors (SF7, SF8) deliver higher data rates at shorter range.
Typical Range by Environment
- Urban / dense city: 1–3 km per gateway (lots of building attenuation).
- Suburban / mixed: 3–5 km per gateway.
- Rural / open fields: 10–15 km per gateway.
- Industrial / warehousing: 2–4 km (structural steel and machinery attenuate signal).
- Coastal / over water: up to 15+ km (excellent propagation over flat water).
These estimates assume line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight conditions and a properly installed outdoor gateway. For production deployments, conduct an RF site survey and plan capacity for the network server’s dwell-time and duty-cycle limits.