Campfire Wood Amount Estimator: How Much Firewood You Need Per Night

Use the free tool below: your data never leaves your browser — all work happens on your device, and nothing is uploaded to any server.

How much wood does a campfire need?

Running out of wood halfway through the evening is one of the most common camp annoyances. The fire dies just as the group settles in, and someone has to stumble into the dark to find more. On the other hand, gathering far too much wastes time and leaves a pile that nobody uses. A simple estimate before you start saves both problems.

This tool estimates firewood from three things: how many people are sitting around the fire, how many hours you want it to burn, and how big you want the fire. A small cooking fire sips wood, a medium social fire burns steadily, and a large fire eats logs fast. The tool turns those choices into kilograms, logs, and shop bundles.

How to use the estimator

Enter the number of people, the hours you want the fire each night, and the fire size. Small means a modest flame for cooking or a quiet evening. Medium means a comfortable circle fire for a group. Large means a big, bright fire for a cold night or a large group. The result shows kilograms of wood, the approximate number of logs, and how many standard shop bundles that equals.

The tool also shows kindling, the small dry wood you need to start the fire. Kindling is about a tenth of the total. Do not skip it: a fire that starts fast with good kindling uses less wood overall than one that smoulders and needs constant feeding.

How the estimate works

The tool uses burn rates of about 2 kilograms per hour for a small fire, 4 for a medium fire, and 7 for a large fire. Those rates match the way a steady campfire consumes split, dry hardwood. A few more people nudge the rate up slightly, because a bigger group usually wants a slightly bigger fire, but the fire size you pick matters far more than the headcount.

Logs are counted at about 1.5 kilograms each, which is a typical split log. Shop bundles are counted at about 8 kilograms each, which is a common retail bundle weight. Your local logs and bundles will differ, so treat the counts as a shopping guide, not a promise.

A worked example

Four people want a medium fire for three hours. The base burn is 4 kilograms per hour times 3 hours, which is 12 kilograms, plus a small group factor that brings it to about 12.6 kilograms. That is roughly 9 logs, or 2 shop bundles, plus about 1.3 kilograms of kindling. Buying two bundles covers the evening with a little spare, which is exactly the margin you want.

Planning tips

Always gather or buy a little more than the estimate, especially if the wood is damp. Wet wood burns slower and cooler, and you will feed the fire more often to keep it alive. Keep a dry reserve under a tarp or in a bag for the last hour, when everyone is tired and nobody wants to hunt for wood.

Check the local rules before you collect anything. Many parks ban gathering wood, and some ban fires entirely in dry seasons. Where gathering is allowed, take only dead wood from the ground, never cut living trees, and keep the fire small enough to control. A small, well-tended fire beats a huge, smoky one in every way.

Frequently asked questions

Does wood type matter? Yes. Dry hardwood burns longer and hotter than softwood, so you need less of it. Softwood catches fast and burns fast, which is good for starting but wasteful for a long evening. If you only have softwood, add about a third more.

What if the fire must also cook dinner? Add an extra hour of burn time for cooking, or run the estimate once for cooking and once for the evening and add them. Cooking over a fire needs steady heat, not flames, so let the fire burn down to coals first.