Recipe Cost Calculator
Cost a recipe line by line and turn it into a menu price. For each ingredient, type what you buy, what you pay for it and how much goes into the recipe. Add the number of portions and the calculator gives the cost per portion, the price that meets your food cost target and the food cost percent of a price you already charge.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
Result
Fill in at least one ingredient (what you buy, what you pay, what the recipe uses) and the portions.
Ingredients only: labor, energy, rent and taxes are not in the cost. The price for your target is rounded up to the cent.
Cost by ingredient
| Ingredient | Purchase | Used | Cost | Share of the recipe |
|---|
Each line is rounded to the cent for reading. The total adds the exact values, so it can differ from the sum of the lines by a cent.
Cost in this recipe –
How the cost is worked out
The cost of one line
Divide what you pay by what you buy and you have the price of one gram, one ounce or one unit. Multiply by what the recipe uses. Flour at $4.00 for 5 lb, with 12 oz in the recipe: 4 ÷ 5 × 0.75 lb = $0.60.
Units
You can buy in one unit and use another of the same kind: pounds and ounces, kilos and grams, liters and milliliters, US fluid ounces. Weight is never turned into volume, because that depends on the ingredient: buy and use each ingredient both by weight, both by volume or both by the unit.
Cost per portion
Recipe cost = the sum of the lines. Cost per portion = recipe cost ÷ the portions the recipe yields. Count the portions you really sell: a cake cut in 12 with two slices lost to trimming yields 10.
The price for a food cost target
Food cost is the share of the menu price that pays for ingredients. If you decide ingredients may take a given percent of the price, the price is cost per portion ÷ that percent. It is rounded up to the cent, so the target is met and not missed by a fraction.
The food cost of a price
Food cost percent = cost per portion ÷ menu price × 100. What is left, menu price - cost per portion, is the gross profit of the portion. Labor, energy, rent, card fees and taxes all still come out of it.
What this leaves out
Peel, bones and trimmings (type the quantity you take from the purchase, not what reaches the plate), cooking loss, leftovers that are thrown away, labor and every fixed cost. Prices change: cost the recipe again when your supplier does.
Formulas
- Cost of a line
- purchase price ÷ purchase quantity × quantity used
- Recipe cost
- sum of the lines
- Cost per portion
- recipe cost ÷ portions
- Price for a target
- cost per portion ÷ (target food cost ÷ 100), rounded up to the cent
- Food cost percent
- cost per portion ÷ menu price × 100
- Gross profit per portion
- menu price - cost per portion
Sources
Used for the size of the units only: 1 lb = 453.59237 g, 1 oz = 28.349523125 g, 1 US fl oz = 29.5735295625 ml. NIST prints these factors to seven digits; the page uses the exact definitions. Read on October 11, 2026. Every price, quantity and percent on this page is yours.
The price is set. Put the menu one scan away
VISU Local gives your restaurant, bakery or coffee shop a free page with address, map, hours and phone. Put a dynamic VISU QR on the table or the counter: when prices change you point it to the new menu, without reprinting the code.
Create your free pageSee VISU LocalHow to use it
- For each ingredient, type what you buy and its unit, what you pay for it, and how much of it the recipe uses.
- Add a line for every ingredient. Each line shows its cost as soon as its three numbers are in.
- Type how many portions the recipe yields. Add your food cost target, a menu price to check, or both.
- Read the cost per portion, the price for your target and the food cost of your price. Print the cost sheet or download the card.
Examples
A chocolate cake cut in 12 slices
Made-up prices to show the maths: 12 oz of flour from a 5 lb bag bought for $4.00 cost $0.60, and 8 oz of butter from a 1 lb pack at $4.80 cost $2.40. With sugar, eggs, cocoa and milk the recipe comes to $6.25, or $0.52 per slice.
From cost to menu price
To keep ingredients at 32% of the price, that slice has to sell for at least $1.63. If you charge $2.50 instead, ingredients take 20.83% of the price and $1.98 is left per slice before labor, rent and taxes.
Which ingredient weighs the most
Butter is 38.4% of the cost of this cake and flour is 9.6%. The same percent saved on butter moves the cost per slice four times as much as on flour.
Questions
How do you calculate the cost of a recipe?
Cost each ingredient: what you pay ÷ what you buy × what the recipe uses. Add the lines up for the recipe cost and divide by the portions. In the example, the lines add up to $6.25 and 12 slices make it $0.52 per slice.
How do I set a menu price from the cost?
Decide what share of the price ingredients may take and divide the cost per portion by it. A portion that costs $0.52 with a 32% target needs a price of at least $1.63. The calculator rounds up, so the target is met.
What is food cost percentage?
The share of the menu price that pays for the ingredients of the dish: cost per portion ÷ menu price × 100. It says nothing about labor or rent, which come out of the rest of the price.
What is a good food cost percentage?
There is no number that fits every kitchen: it depends on how much labor a dish takes, on your rent and on what your customers pay. The target is yours to set from what the rest of your costs need. What tells you something is comparing the dishes of your own menu with each other, and the same dish over time as supplier prices move.
I buy by the pound and use ounces. How do I type that?
Pick the unit next to each quantity. The calculator converts inside weight (lb, oz, kg, g) and inside volume (fl oz, L, ml). It does not turn weight into volume, because a cup of flour and a cup of honey do not weigh the same.
How do I count peel, bones and trimmings?
Type the quantity you take from what you bought, before cleaning, not what ends up on the plate. If a recipe needs 10 oz of clean onion and you peel 12 oz to get it, the recipe uses 12 oz.
Does the cost include labor, gas or packaging?
No, only what you type as ingredients. A box or a cup that leaves with each portion can be added as a line, bought and used by the unit. Labor, energy and rent are paid by the part of the price that is not food cost.
Are my recipes stored?
No. The maths runs in your browser. Ingredient names, prices and quantities are not uploaded, are not added to the page address and are not saved: print the sheet or copy the result if you want to keep it.