How to Use Drone Motor Calculator
Enter the drone’s all-up weight in kilograms, propeller size in inches, and number of motors. The calculator targets total thrust equal to twice the drone weight, then divides that total thrust across the motors. The propeller size is shown in the result for selection context, while the thrust estimate is driven by weight and motor count.
Formula & Theory - Drone Motor Calculator
A common starting point for multirotor sizing is a 2:1 thrust-to-weight ratio, giving enough reserve for control authority and climb. The calculator converts mass to weight force with standard gravity, doubles it for the target total thrust, and divides by the number of motors. It also reports thrust per motor in kgf for easier comparison with motor test tables.
totalThrustN = droneWeightKg * 9.80665 * 2
thrustPerMotorN = totalThrustN / motorCount
thrustPerMotorKgf = thrustPerMotorN / 9.80665
Use Cases for Drone Motor Calculator
Use it for rough multirotor motor sizing, comparing quadcopter and hexacopter layouts, checking whether a motor table has enough thrust margin, or estimating a starting point before detailed propeller, battery, and ESC selection.