Planifica tu placa de 96 pocillos antes de pipetear.
What a 96-well plate is
A 96-well plate is a flat plastic tray with 96 small wells arranged in 8 rows and 12 columns. The rows are labelled A to H and the columns are numbered 1 to 12, so every well has a clear address such as B7 or H12. Laboratories use these plates for tests that run many samples at once, from enzyme assays to cell culture checks. Working without a plan is risky, because one misplaced sample can ruin a whole run and force you to repeat hours of work.
This planner gives you a simple map before you touch the plate. You paste your sample names, choose how many samples belong in each group, and the tool fills the plate row by row. Each group gets its own colour, so you can see at a glance where a group starts and ends. You can also download the layout as a CSV file, which is handy for lab notes, shared folders, and reports.
How to use the planner
Start by listing your samples in order, one per line, in the order you plan to pipette them. Put controls and blanks in the same list, in the exact positions you want them, rather than adding them later from memory. Then set the group size: if you run samples in groups of eight, enter eight, and each set of eight gets a new colour. Click the layout button and check the map against your bench plan.
Click any coloured well to see which sample sits there. If a sample looks wrong, fix the list and lay the plate out again; it takes seconds and it is far cheaper than fixing a real plate. When the map is right, download the CSV file and keep it with your experiment record. The CSV lists every well, its sample, and its group number, so anyone can repeat your layout later.
A worked example
Imagine you have 24 samples plus two controls and one blank, 27 items in total. With a group size of eight, the first eight samples form group one, the next eight form group two, and so on, with the last group holding the final three items plus the controls and the blank if you listed them last. On the map, groups one to three fill rows A to C, and the remaining items start row D. That visual split makes it easy to spot a missing well before you begin.
Many people place blanks and controls in the first row so they are easy to find, but the safer habit is to place them where your protocol says they belong and to write that position down. The planner does not enforce a protocol, so the layout always matches what you typed. That freedom is useful, but it also means you should double-check the order once, slowly, before pipetting.
Tips for a clean run
Keep your sample names short and distinct. Names like Sample 1 and Sample 10 look alike when you are tired, so use names that cannot be confused, such as Patient-04 or Dilution-1-100. Avoid commas inside names, because the CSV download uses commas to separate columns. If you must use long names, shorten them for the plate and keep the full names in your notebook.
Work in the same direction every time, either row by row or column by column, and do not switch halfway through a plate. A consistent direction cuts errors more than any other habit. Finally, photograph the finished plate next to your printed map. A photo is a cheap backup if a label smudges or a file goes missing, and it takes less than a minute.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake is counting wells from zero instead of one, which shifts every sample by one position. The second is forgetting edge effects: wells on the outer edge can evaporate faster, so some protocols avoid them or fill them with water. The third is running out of wells, because 96 sounds large until controls, repeats, and dilutions are added. Count everything before you start, including repeats.
If your list is longer than 96 items, the planner fills only the first 96 and ignores the rest. That is a warning sign, not a solution: split the work across two plates instead of dropping samples silently. Always check the filled count shown above the map, and make sure it matches the number of samples you meant to load.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use this planner for a 384-well plate? No, this tool is built for the standard 96-well layout only, with rows A to H and columns 1 to 12. A 384-well plate has a different grid, and forcing its samples into a 96-well map would cause errors.
Does the tool save my sample names? No. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded or stored on a server. If you close the page, your list is gone, so download the CSV file if you want a lasting record.
What if two samples share a name? The planner will still place both, because it follows your list in order. Duplicate names are allowed, but they make the map harder to read, so give each sample a unique name whenever you can.