96-Well Plate Template & Plate Map Maker
Describe your layout — or ask for a blank template — and get a publication-ready 96-well plate figure: the standard 8 × 12 grid with row and column headers, colour-coded groups and a legend, drawn to the ANSI/SLAS footprint proportion.
Plate styles
Five looks for the same plate map, each shown with a real render — click a card to apply the style, or zoom for the full image.
What is a 96-well plate template?
A 96-well plate template is a figure of the standard microplate grid — 96 circular wells in 8 rows lettered A to H and 12 columns numbered 1 to 12, with well A1 at the top left. Filled with colour-coded groups and a legend it becomes a plate map: the standard way a methods figure, a protocol or a lab notebook records which sample, standard or control each well holds.
Key facts
- A 96-well plate carries its wells in 8 rows lettered A to H and 12 columns numbered 1 to 12, with well A1 at the top left.
- ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 fixes the plate footprint at 127.76 × 85.48 mm; the generator draws the plate to this proportion.
- Well centres sit 9 mm apart in both directions, so the 12 columns span 99 mm and the 8 rows span 63 mm.
- No ANSI/SLAS standard specifies well volume or growth area — a compliant flat-bottom well holds 360 µL at Corning and 400 µL at Thermo Fisher.
- A plate map colour-codes wells by experimental group and pairs each colour with a legend entry, which is how the generator renders a described layout.
How does the 96-well plate maker work?
Describe the layout
Say what each region of the plate holds, by explicit ranges — Drug A in columns 1–3, controls in 10–11, blanks in 12. The tool already knows the grid, the headers and the footprint; a blank request gives a clean empty template.
Pick a style
The default is a flat publication plate — white background, one outline weight, a legend. Or apply watercolor, ink line art, 3D and other finishes on top.
Refine and export
The figure opens in your workspace, where you can recolor groups, edit the legend on the canvas, regenerate with a changed layout and export in high resolution.
96-well plate dimensions the figure is drawn to
Every dimension the ANSI/SLAS microplate standards fix, and the well dimensions they deliberately leave to the manufacturer.
| Dimension | Value | Where it is specified |
|---|---|---|
| Footprint length | 127.76 mm | ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 |
| Footprint width | 85.48 mm | ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 |
| Corner radius | 3.18 ± 1.6 mm | ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 |
| Plate height, typical | 14.35 ± 0.76 mm | ANSI/SLAS 2-2004 |
| Well-to-well pitch | 9 mm in both directions | ANSI/SLAS 2-2004 |
| Centre of well A1 | 14.38 mm from the short edge, 11.24 mm from the long edge | ANSI/SLAS 4-2004 |
| Well diameter | Not standardized — about 6.8 mm nominal on flat-bottom plates | Manufacturer |
| Well volume | Not standardized — 330–400 µL depending on the plate | Manufacturer |
| Growth area per well | Not standardized — 0.32–0.34 cm² flat-bottom | Manufacturer |
The standards fix the outside of the plate and the positions of the wells; the wells themselves are the manufacturer's. Two equally compliant plates disagree on volume and growth area, so quote those numbers from the datasheet of the plate you actually used, not from a standard.
96-well vs 384-well vs 24-well plates
All the common microplate formats share one ANSI/SLAS footprint — 127.76 × 85.48 mm — which is why they fit the same readers and robots. What changes between formats is the grid: the well count quadruples and the pitch halves.
| Feature | 24-well | 96-well | 384-well |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wells | 24 | 96 | 384 |
| Grid | 4 rows × 6 columns | 8 rows × 12 columns | 16 rows × 24 columns |
| Row letters | A–D | A–H | A–P |
| Well pitch | About 19.3 mm, by convention | 9 mm, per ANSI/SLAS | 4.5 mm, per ANSI/SLAS |
| Typical use | Cell culture and imaging | ELISA, qPCR and general assays | High-throughput screening |
ANSI/SLAS 2-2004 tabulates the pitch for 96, 384 and 1536 wells — 9, 4.5 and 2.25 mm, each half the one before. The 24- and 48-well pitches are manufacturer convention. The generator draws any of these formats; name the format in the description.
Where are 96-well plate figures used?
A plate figure is drawn either before the experiment, to plan and communicate the layout, or after it, to document what each well held.
Methods figures and papers
A colour-coded plate map with a legend states an assay layout in one panel — clearer than a paragraph listing well ranges, and reviewers can check it at a glance.
Protocols and SOPs
A plate figure in a protocol shows every operator the same layout. Ambiguity about where the standards and controls sit is how plates get transposed.
Lab notebooks and plate planning
Sketch the layout before pipetting: which wells hold standards, which hold samples, which stay empty — then keep the figure as the record.
Teaching and training
A blank template for students to fill in by hand, or a worked ELISA layout for a methods course — both come from a one-line description.
Common questions about 96-well plates and plate maps
What are the dimensions of a 96-well plate?
ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 fixes the footprint at 127.76 × 85.48 mm with corner radii of 3.18 ± 1.6 mm, and ANSI/SLAS 2-2004 gives a typical plate height of 14.35 ± 0.76 mm. The generator draws the plate outline to this footprint proportion, so the figure matches the object on the bench.
How many rows and columns does a 96-well plate have?
Eight rows lettered A to H and twelve columns numbered 1 to 12, giving 8 × 12 = 96 wells. Well identifiers combine the two, from A1 at the top left to H12 at the bottom right.
Where is well A1 on a 96-well plate?
At the top left. ANSI/SLAS 4-2004 places the centre of A1 at 14.38 mm from the short edge and 11.24 mm from the long edge, and requires the top-left well to be clearly marked. Every figure the generator draws puts A1 top left with the row letters down the left edge.
What is the well spacing on a 96-well plate?
Well centres are 9 mm apart in both directions. ANSI/SLAS 2-2004 tabulates the pitch by format: 9 mm for 96 wells, 4.5 mm for 384 and 2.25 mm for 1536, each half the previous one. The 12 columns therefore span 99 mm and the 8 rows span 63 mm.
How much liquid does a 96-well plate hold?
It depends on the plate, because no ANSI/SLAS standard specifies well volume. Corning lists 360 µL per well for its flat-bottom 3596 and 330 µL for its round-bottom 3788; Thermo Fisher lists 400 µL for the flat-bottom Nunc plate. Recommended working volumes are narrower — 75–200 µL is a common range.
What is the surface area of a 96-well plate well?
Around 0.32 to 0.34 cm² for a flat-bottom well, and the exact figure is the manufacturer's rather than the standard's. Corning gives approximately 0.32 cm²; Greiner Bio-One gives 34 mm². The roughly 6% spread matters whenever a result is normalised per unit of growth area.
What is a plate map?
A plate map is the plate grid with each well colour-coded or labelled by what it holds — sample, standard, control or blank — plus a legend pairing each colour with its group. It is the standard way to record a plate layout in a methods figure, a protocol or a lab notebook, and it is what this tool draws from a described layout.
How should I describe a layout so every well lands correctly?
Name explicit row and column ranges. "Drug A in columns 1–3, Drug B in 4–6, controls in 10–11, blanks in 12" places every group exactly; "three drugs in triplicate" leaves the arithmetic to the model. State the ranges, the group names as you want them spelled in the legend, and which wells stay empty.
Can I make a blank 96-well plate template?
Yes — ask for a blank template and you get the empty 8 × 12 grid with row letters A–H and column numbers 1–12, ready to print and fill in by hand or to annotate in the workspace. Generating a filled version of the same plate later gives you a matching pair.
Can it draw 384-well, 48-well or 24-well plates?
Yes — name the format in the description. The tool keeps every convention and swaps the grid: 24 wells is 4 × 6, 48 is 6 × 8, 96 is 8 × 12 and 384 is 16 × 24 with rows lettered A to P.
Is there an official standard for 96-well plate layout?
The five ANSI/SLAS microplate standards fix the footprint, height, flange, well positions and well-bottom elevation — not what goes in the wells. How you arrange samples, standards and controls is your assay design; the figure's job is to state that arrangement unambiguously, which is what the headers and legend do.
Can I edit the figure after it is generated?
Yes. The figure opens in your workspace, where you can regenerate with a changed layout, recolor a group, edit the legend text on the canvas, add annotations and export the result in high resolution when it is right.
Sources
- ANSI/SLAS Microplate Standards — Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
- ANSI/SLAS 1-2004 (R2012) — Footprint Dimensions for Microplates — Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
- ANSI/SLAS 4-2004 (R2012) — Well Positions for Microplates — Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
Keep exploring
Our other diagram tools, and the guides behind them.
Draw your 96-well plate figure
From a one-line layout description to a publication-ready plate map in about a minute.
Start drawing