Audit · calculator
Dunbar's number calculator
Dunbar's number says you can actively maintain about 150 relationships, organized in layers. Map your own numbers onto those layers and see, honestly, how many you're keeping warm — and how many have quietly gone dormant.
People you'd turn to in a crisis
The people you genuinely confide in
People you actively keep up with
The classic Dunbar ceiling
The honest number
You’re maintaining 90 active relationships — inside the ~150 ceiling. The other 1,110 contacts are effectively dormant.
Dunbar’s number is a ceiling on memory, not affection — you forget, you don’t stop caring. The fix is an external system for the layers past 150.
Based on Robin Dunbar’s layered model (5 / 15 / 50 / 150). Runs entirely in your browser.
What Dunbar’s number actually says
Anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed that humans can maintain about 150 stable relationships, arranged in concentric layers: ~5 intimate, ~15 close, ~50 good friends, ~150 meaningful contacts, and looser layers beyond. It’s a cognitive ceiling — a limit on memory and attention, not a rule about who you’re allowed to know.
Why it matters for your network
Past the ceiling, relationships decay silently— not because you stopped caring, but because you can’t hold everyone in your head. The useful question isn’t how many people you have; it’s how many you can actually maintain. Decide which layer each person belongs in, accept you can’t keep 500 warm by memory alone, and use a system for the outer layers.
FAQ
What is Dunbar's number?
Dunbar's number (~150) is anthropologist Robin Dunbar's estimate of how many stable relationships a person can maintain at once, organized in layers — roughly 5 intimate, 15 close, 50 good friends, and 150 meaningful contacts.
Is 150 a hard limit?
It's a cognitive ceiling, not a hard law. It reflects the limits of memory and attention — which is why tools that extend your memory effectively raise how many relationships you can keep warm.
Can a personal CRM raise my Dunbar number?
It extends your memory, not your cognition. A personal CRM like Wend acts as external memory for the layers past 150, so a relationship doesn't decay just because your head is full.
Why don't my thousands of LinkedIn connections count?
Most are dormant ties, not active relationships. Dunbar's layers measure who you actually maintain, which is far fewer than your total contact count.
How many close friends is normal?
Dunbar's model suggests about 5 in the intimate inner circle and 15 in the close layer, though individuals vary.
How Wend handles this
Dunbar's ceiling is about memory, not affection — you forget, you don't stop caring. Wend is the external memory for the layers past 150: it holds the context so a relationship doesn't decay just because your head is full.
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