In most cafés nobody has written the answer down. As of 2 October 2026, Third Desk lists 9,172 confirmed places to work from, and only 23 of them, about one in 400, record a time limit. Where a limit exists it runs from 30 minutes to four hours, and the most common is 90 minutes.
So the working answer is a convention, not a law. Our advice: stay about two to three hours on one order, order again if you want to stay longer, and cut it shorter when the café is busy and people are waiting for a table. That is our own rule of thumb, not a house rule anywhere. A posted limit always beats it.
- Confirmed listings
- 9,172
- With a recorded time limit
- 23
- Most common limit
- 90 minutes
- Shortest and longest
- 30 min, 4 hours
- Laptops with conditions
- 193
- Calls fine, where recorded
- 83%
What the listings say
These numbers are counts of Third Desk’s directory on 2 October 2026: 9,172 confirmed listings in 166 cities. Most listings were built from research on public reviews and existing lists, not from a visit. Read them as what has been written down about a place. A listing with no time limit means that none is known, not that none exists.
Of the 9,172 listings, 8,979 welcome laptops without conditions. Another 193, about 2%, welcome them with conditions: a time limit, certain tables, or certain days. A further 81 places are listed separately as not for laptops at all, and 74 of those are cafés.
| Limit | Places |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | 1 |
| 45 minutes | 1 |
| 1 hour | 4 |
| 90 minutes | 8 |
| 2 hours | 4 |
| 3 hours | 4 |
| 4 hours | 1 |
| Any limit | 23 |
Eighteen of the 23 limits are two hours or less. They also cluster: eight are in Taipei, and three each are in Singapore and Hong Kong (the Taipei map shows where they are). Six of the 23 descriptions say the limit applies only when the café is busy, or is relaxed when it is quiet. In three, including Good Company Books in Lisbon, the limit is on the Wi-Fi session, not the seat.
Weekend rules are more common than time limits. Forty-five listings record a weekend policy: 34 allow no laptops at weekends, 8 apply a tighter rule at weekends, and 3 say weekends are the same as weekdays. Madrid and Berlin have six weekend rules each; Paris, New York and London have five each.
Here is what a written rule looks like, according to our listings:
- OLO Coffee Roasters, Taipei: house rules at the door, a no-talking rule, and stays limited to three hours.
- Twenty Eight Cafe Wilkie Road, Singapore: a posted 90-minute dining limit, though our listing notes that staff have let students stay longer when it is quiet.
- 附近咖啡, Taipei: four hours on weekdays, two at weekends, and at least one drink per person.
- Finca Don Porfirio, Mexico City: a terrace café with a queue, where stays are limited to 30 minutes once the order arrives.
- PRZELEW Kawiarnia Caffe Grano, Warsaw: laptops only at the designated work tables, for up to two hours.
- Bartons, London: its site says laptops are welcome in two of its rooms, Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm.
How long is fair
Where nothing is posted, the fair length depends on how much the café needs your table. This table is our advice, not data. Adjust it to the room in front of you.
| Situation | A fair stay |
|---|---|
| Quiet weekday morning, free tables | Two to three hours per order. Longer if you keep ordering. |
| Lunch rush, people waiting | Finish within the hour, or leave and come back afterwards. |
| Small café with few tables | 60 to 90 minutes. Your seat is a large share of the room. |
| Large chain branch with free seats | Three hours or more, with an order every couple of hours. |
| A place with a posted limit | The posted limit. Ask before assuming it is relaxed. |
| A coworking café that charges for time | As long as you have paid for. |
A chain is not a promise of unlimited time. Starbucks United Square in Singapore is listed with a one-hour dining limit, and the Excelsior Caffè in Shibuya Mark City with 90 minutes per person. Paying for time can be simple too: at Star Rocket Co-working Café in Taipei, ordering a drink covers a stay of 90 minutes.
How much to order
A table earns the café money only when someone at it orders. A laptop that holds a table for four hours on one coffee has paid for that table once. That is the whole reason behind time limits and laptop bans, and it is also the way to be welcome: keep the table earning.
Our advice:
- Order when you arrive, before you open the laptop.
- Order again every two hours or so. A second coffee, a pastry or a bottle of water all count.
- If you hold a table through lunch, order lunch.
- Do not bring food or drink from elsewhere.
Some cafés write this down. Our listings record no minimum-spend amounts, but several descriptions mention a rule of one drink per person, and En Bruto in Malasaña, Madrid, welcomes laptops from Monday to Friday with a minimum spend on food and drink. Unlimited Coffee in Taipei has a minimum spend at weekday lunch, when seats are few.
The rest of the manners
Calls and video meetings
Of the 9,172 confirmed listings, 2,306 record whether calls are acceptable. Of those, 1,919 (83%) say calls are fine and 387 (17%) say not really. The other 6,866 record nothing, so treat a call as something to check, not assume. Keep calls short, use a headset with a microphone, never the laptop speaker, and step outside for anything long. LICENSED specialty coffee in Madrid puts it in its rules: calls need headphones.
Outlets
Of the 2,499 listings that record power outlets, 881 say there are plenty and 312 say there are none. Arrive charged. Ask before you plug in, never unplug something that belongs to the café, and do not run a cable across a walkway.
Tables, bags and headphones
- Take the smallest table that fits you. One person at a table for four is the picture that gets laptops banned.
- If there is a laptop table, use it. Harvey Amsterdam and Five Elephant Kreuzberg in Berlin both keep laptops to designated tables.
- Keep your bag and coat on your own chair or under it, not on the next seat.
- Wear headphones for anything with sound.
- Watch the room. When people are standing with trays and looking for a seat, your session is over.
When a café is the wrong place
Some days do not fit a café: a full working day, back-to-back video meetings, confidential work, or a deadline that needs a guaranteed socket. Pick a library for long quiet work and a coworking space for a day of calls.
The directory lists both. As of 2 October 2026, its confirmed listings include 598 libraries and 303 coworking spaces, next to 6,958 cafés and 406 chain cafés. Some places sit in between: Blumental in Berlin is a brunch restaurant with a separate, quiet coworking zone that is free to use on weekdays from 10am to 5pm. Browse the cities to see what each one has.
Before you go
Two minutes with the listing saves an awkward conversation. Check these:
- The rules. Each place page shows the laptop policy, the time limit, and, where they are recorded, the weekend rule and whether calls are fine. “None known” under time limit means exactly that.
- Wi-Fi and outlets. 6,401 of the 9,172 listings record the Wi-Fi and 2,499 record the outlets, so outlets are the fact most often missing.
- How fresh it is. Some summaries name the month of the review they rest on, and a “To reconfirm” notice marks a place that nobody has visited to confirm, or where nobody has checked in for over a year.
If you find a rule that the listing does not have, check in on the place page and add it. That is how the next person finds out before they sit down.