How to Choose the Right Standing Desk Height (With a Simple Formula)

If you’ve ever raised a standing desk to a height that “looked about right” and ended up with sore shoulders an hour later, you’re not alone. Getting the right standing desk height isn’t about picking a number that seems tall enough — it’s about lining up your elbows, wrists, and eyes so your body isn’t fighting the desk all day. The good news is that occupational health researchers have already worked out the formula, and it takes only a few minutes to apply it to your own body.

The Short Version

Your standing desk height should let your elbows sit close to a 90-degree bend, with your forearms roughly level and your shoulders relaxed rather than hiked up. For most adults that lands somewhere between about 37 and 51 inches (94 to 130 cm), depending on how tall you are. The fastest way to dial it in is to measure your own elbow height or to start from the height-based table below and fine-tune from there.

The 90-Degree Elbow Rule, Explained

The reference point for any standing desk height decision is your elbow, not the desk’s default setting. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s workstation guidance describes a neutral position where the elbows stay close to the body and bend somewhere between 90 and 120 degrees. Canada’s Centre for Occupational Health and Safety gives a more specific target for sit-stand setups: the work surface should sit roughly level with your standing elbow position, with elbows bent at about 90 degrees and kept close to your torso, in the same posture your arms would hold while seated.

A slightly open angle, rather than a locked right angle, tends to work best in practice. Holding your arms at a rigid 90 degrees for hours can build tension in the shoulders and neck, so many ergonomists allow a working range of roughly 90 to 110 degrees, as long as your wrists stay straight in line with your forearms.

How to Find Your Own Number

You don’t need special tools to measure this. Stand tall with your shoulders relaxed and let your arms hang naturally at your sides, then bend your elbows until your forearms are roughly parallel to the floor, as if you were about to type. Measure the distance from the floor to the bottom of your palms — that figure is close to your ideal work surface height.

If you’d rather skip the tape measure, a common shortcut used by several desk-height calculators is to multiply your height in inches by roughly 0.63. Someone who is 5’8″ (68 inches) lands near 43 inches, which tracks closely with the real-world recommendations for that height range.

Standing Desk Height by Your Height

Treat this table as a starting range, then confirm it with the elbow test above. Arm length and torso proportions vary even among people of the same height, so the exact setting within your range is worth adjusting by feel.

Monitor and Keyboard Position Matter Just as Much

A perfectly set desk height can still cause strain if your screen and keyboard aren’t positioned to match it. CCOHS guidance recommends keeping your keyboard and mouse in the same relative position you’d use while sitting, so switching between sitting and standing doesn’t force you to reach up or hunch down. For monitors, the same guidance suggests keeping your eye line at screen height or up to about 35 degrees below it, so you’re glancing slightly downward rather than tilting your head back. Other ergonomics sources add a useful distance rule of thumb: position the screen roughly 20 to 30 inches from your face, with the top third of the display at or just below eye level.

Desk Converter or Full Standing Desk?

Once you know your target height, the next question is which hardware actually gets you there. A standing desk converter sits on top of your existing desk and only has to cover the gap between your sitting and standing elbow heights, while a full electric standing desk adjusts across the whole range on its own from the floor up. If you’re still weighing which setup fits your space, budget, and existing furniture, our comparison of standing desk converters versus full standing desks walks through the tradeoffs in more detail.

The Bottom Line

Dialing in your standing desk height comes down to one simple check: elbows near 90 degrees, forearms level, wrists straight, and your monitor angled slightly downward rather than straight ahead. Use the table above as your starting point, confirm it with the floor-to-elbow measurement, and nudge it up or down in small increments until your shoulders stay relaxed by the end of the day. Get the standing desk height right once, using your own body as the reference, and it’s a setting you won’t have to think about again.