The major irreversibilities in absorption chillers are associated with the transfer of heat into and out from the machine and irreversible process inside the machine. By modeling only external irreversibilities(endo-reversible), a model was formulated to predict the ideal performance of a single-effect absorption chiller. Its actual performance including both external and internal irreversibilities was calculated with a in-house simulation program. The optimization of heat transfer area distribution was performed for both endo-reversible cycle and actual cycle. The equation of endo-reversible modeling was found to give about 2times higher cooling capacity than the simulation program. At optimal distribution, it was found that heat transfer area of the evaporator was about 30% of total area, that of the generator was 20%, and the rest 50% was for the absorber and condenser. The system COP for endo-reversible cycle was slightly higher than that for actual cycle. In the case of LiBr-water single-effect absorption chiller, the maximum cooling capacity was obtained near the condition that LMTD is same at all heat exchangers.