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The short answer: for a new lawn, plan on roughly 0.1 to 0.2 lb of grass seed per square foot, which is the more usable 5 to 10 lb per 1,000 sq ft that seed bags print. For overseeding an existing lawn, halve it — about 0.05 to 0.1 lb per square foot, or 3 to 5 lb per 1,000 sq ft. The exact rate depends on species: Kentucky bluegrass has tiny seed and goes down at 2 to 3 lb per 1,000 sq ft, while tall fescue needs 6 to 10 lb for the same coverage. These are 2026 US bag-label figures and they vary a little by brand.
Nobody actually measures seed by the square foot in practice, which is why every rate on every bag — and in university extension seeding-rate tables such as NC State Extension's — is quoted per 1,000 square feet. We do not test seed first-hand; our picks come from aggregated owner reviews and expert consensus, described in how we rank, with the ranked field in best grass seed.
Seeding rates by grass type
Seed size drives everything. Kentucky bluegrass runs about 2.2 million seeds per pound, tall fescue about 227,000. Extension guidance puts tall fescue at around 6 lb per 1,000 sq ft for that reason, which is why the bluegrass rate looks so much lighter for the same finished density.
| Grass type | New lawn, lb per 1,000 sq ft | Overseeding, lb per 1,000 sq ft | Per sq ft (new) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky bluegrass | 2 – 3 | 1 – 2 | 0.002 – 0.003 lb |
| Perennial ryegrass | 6 – 9 | 4 – 6 | 0.006 – 0.009 lb |
| Tall fescue | 6 – 10 | 4 – 6 | 0.006 – 0.010 lb |
| Fine fescue (creeping, chewings, hard) | 4 – 5 | 2 – 3 | 0.004 – 0.005 lb |
| Bermudagrass (hulled) | 1 – 2 | 0.5 – 1 | 0.001 – 0.002 lb |
| Zoysia | 1 – 2 | 0.5 – 1 | 0.001 – 0.002 lb |
| Centipede | 0.25 – 0.5 | 0.25 | 0.0003 – 0.0005 lb |
| Buffalograss (treated burrs) | 3 – 6 | 2 – 3 | 0.003 – 0.006 lb |
| Sun and shade blend (typical retail) | 5 – 8 | 3 – 4 | 0.005 – 0.008 lb |
Notice how far the numbers spread — a 5,000 sq ft yard needs 10 to 15 lb of bluegrass or 30 to 50 lb of tall fescue. Buying by area without checking the species is how people end up two bags short halfway across the yard.
Working from your own square footage
The arithmetic is simple: divide your lawn area by 1,000, then multiply by the rate on the bag.
| Lawn area | At 3 lb/1,000 (bluegrass) | At 6 lb/1,000 (blend) | At 9 lb/1,000 (tall fescue) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 sq ft | 1.5 lb | 3 lb | 4.5 lb |
| 1,000 sq ft | 3 lb | 6 lb | 9 lb |
| 2,500 sq ft | 7.5 lb | 15 lb | 22.5 lb |
| 5,000 sq ft | 15 lb | 30 lb | 45 lb |
| 10,000 sq ft (about 1/4 acre) | 30 lb | 60 lb | 90 lb |
| 43,560 sq ft (1 acre) | 131 lb | 261 lb | 392 lb |
What it costs, as of 2026: retail lawn seed generally runs about $4 to $9 per pound for consumer blends and $3 to $6 per pound for straight species bought in 20 or 50 lb sacks from a farm or turf supplier. Seeding 5,000 sq ft with a mid-priced tall fescue therefore lands somewhere around $150 to $270, and doing the same with bluegrass around $60 to $130. Coated or mulch-blended seed costs two to four times as much per pound of actual seed, since a large share of the bag weight is coating.
Getting the rate on the ground evenly
An accurate rate applied badly still gives a striped lawn. Set the spreader to half the calculated rate and make two passes at right angles to each other. The overlap evens out the pattern and hides any calibration error in the spreader dial, which on inexpensive broadcast spreaders can be off by 20 percent or more.
- Seed-to-soil contact is the whole game. Rake the seedbed lightly, or run a core aerator first when overseeding, so the seed drops into openings rather than onto thatch.
- Cover with about a quarter inch of compost or thin straw. Deeper than that and small seed exhausts itself before reaching light.
- Add 15 to 20 percent to your total for washout, birds and the seed that ends up on the driveway.
- Keep the top half inch damp for the first two weeks. Seed that imbibes water and then dries out is dead seed.
Then check the label tag for germination and purity before you trust the weight — a bargain bag at 80 percent germination and 88 percent purity is delivering about 0.70 lb of live seed per pound, so it is not the bargain it looks.
For the same numbers worked out for a specific plot size, see how much grass seed for 1,000 square feet, and for what a bag actually covers, how much a bag of grass seed covers. Timing is in the best time of year to plant grass seed, the overseeding method in how to overseed a lawn, and the whole routine at the lawn care hub.