Do plants clean the air in your home?
Houseplants don’t clean the air enough to make a difference: to do what an open window does, you’d need 10 to 1,000 plants per square metre. To freshen the air, open the window for a few minutes.
Updated 11 October 2026. How we write these pages
Why plants aren’t enough to clean the air
To clean the air as well as an open window
10–1,000
plants per square metre
That’s the estimate from researchers who went back over the numbers from the lab tests.
Where the idea comes from
Tests in small sealed chambers.
In there, plants removed some substances from the air. In a home the air is replaced on its own far more quickly.
What works
Opening the window for a few minutes.
It changes the air in a room more than all the plants in it put together.
Questions about plants and indoor air
Is it bad to keep plants in the bedroom?
No. At night a plant uses very little oxygen, far less than a person asleep in the same room.
Which plants remove smoke from the air?
None does it enough to notice in a home. To clear smoke, open the windows.
So what are houseplants good for?
For the pleasure of having them: watching them grow and looking after them. That’s why it’s worth choosing ones that suit the light you have.
Read next
Every plant has its own rhythm. LINFA keeps track for you.
It looks at the light where each plant stands, its pot and the season, and tells you which ones to check.
Coming soon to Android
