For design purposes of the blower power requirements during startup of a spouting bed process, knowledge of the maximum pressure drop across a spouting bed at the onset of spouting is required. A survey of the literature for this information lead to only a few correlations which required information from a spouting bed test to be applicable. Therefore, an experimental investigation of this pressure drop and its associated superficial gas velocity in a flat based spouted bed operating with and without fluidization has been conducted. Measurements were performed using a 10 cm cylindrical bed with different static bed heights and two Geldard group B particles (Al2O3 and HDPE). The results show that the taller static bed height creates a larger maximum pressure drop across the bed, as expected. The maximum pressure drop also increases with increasing fluidized gas velocity. The evolution of maximum pressure drop and its velocity were evaluated and a correlation for the maximum pressure drop and its corresponding velocity for spouted and spouted fluid beds were obtained. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.