Cost your recipe
List each ingredient with the amount your recipe uses and the package you buy. The calculator converts package sizes to unit prices and adds everything up.
Ingredients
Cost breakdown
The cost breakdown calculator below shows every line item, its share of the total, and flags your cost driver.
| Ingredient | Line cost | Share | Unit price |
|---|---|---|---|
| No ingredients yet. | |||
Recipe scaler
Change the yield and every quantity and cost re-scales instantly. Cost per serving stays the same when you scale proportionally.
| Ingredient | Scaled qty | Scaled cost |
|---|---|---|
| Scale a recipe to see adjusted quantities. | ||
Scaled total: $0.00 (per-serving cost unchanged)
Pricing & food cost %
Use this panel as a food cost percentage calculator: enter any selling price to see your percentage instantly. Add labor, packaging, and overhead, then price from a target margin. Compare with the classic markup method and check your food cost percentage against any selling price.
food cost percentage formula — same as above, per dish or per serving
Kitchen unit converter
Quick conversions between cups, tablespoons, grams, ounces and more. For weight to volume, enter the ingredient so standard kitchen weights can bridge the gap. The cups to grams table below covers the 22 most common baking ingredients.
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1 cup = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp = 236.588 ml | 1 oz = 28.3495 g | 1 lb = 453.592 g | weight to volume uses approximate ingredient weights (see methodology).
How recipe costing works
Recipe costing is the professional habit of pricing every ingredient before you cook. Every professional kitchen costs recipes the same way: price each ingredient from the package you actually buy, add them up, and divide by what the recipe yields. The steps in recipe costing are: (1) cost each ingredient from its package, (2) sum the lines, (3) divide by yield. What is the food cost formula? Cost each ingredient, sum the lines, divide by yield — then compare against price. The food cost formula behind it is simple on purpose — accuracy comes from your package prices, not from fancy math. Keep this page bookmarked as your recipe price calculator and re-cost whenever a supplier price changes.
total recipe cost = ∑ ingredient costs
cost per serving = total recipe cost ÷ servings
Unit conversion rules
- Weight units (g, kg, oz, lb) convert exactly: 1 oz = 28.3495 g, 1 lb = 453.592 g.
- Volume units (ml, l, tsp, tbsp, fl oz, cup) convert exactly: 1 cup = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp = 236.588 ml.
- Count units (pieces, dozen) never convert to weight or volume.
- Weight to volume (e.g. a 5 lb flour bag, recipe in cups) bridges through standard ingredient weights — the cup to gram conversion table below covers the 22 most common baking ingredients (tablespoon to gram uses the same table) — about 120 g/cup for all-purpose flour, 198 g/cup granulated sugar, 227 g/cup butter, 340 g/cup honey. These are published kitchen averages; a packed cup can weigh 10–20% more, so weigh in grams when precision matters.
- If the units are incompatible and the ingredient has no standard weight, the calculator says so instead of guessing.
Food cost percentage bands
The classic restaurant rule of thumb is 28–35%. This calculator labels your result:
- ≤ 30% — excellent excellent
- 30–35% — workable for most menus ok
- > 35% — high; raise the price or re-engineer the recipe high
Worked examples
Three end-to-end costing-recipes examples with real numbers, each verified against the calculator's own engine.
Example 1: Chocolate chip cookie batch (24 cookies) — cookie cost calculator
- Flour: 2.25 cups from a 5 lb bag at $3.99 → 2.25 × 120 g = 270 g used; bag = 2,267.96 g; $3.99 ÷ 2,267.96 × 270 = $0.48
- Sugars: 0.75 cup granulated ($2.89 / 4 lb) = $0.24; 0.75 cup brown ($2.49 / 2 lb) = $0.44
- Butter: 1 cup (227 g) from a 1 lb block at $4.29 = $2.15
- Chocolate chips: 2 cups (340 g) from a 12 oz bag at $3.49 — nearly the whole bag = $3.49 (the cost driver)
- Eggs: 2 from a $5.49 dozen = $0.92; vanilla: 1 tsp from 4 fl oz at $8.99 = $0.37; baking soda + salt = $0.02
- Total: $8.09 ÷ 24 cookies = $0.34 per cookie. At a $2.00 selling price, food cost is 17% — healthy room for packaging and profit.
Example 2: Vanilla celebration cake (12 servings) — cake pricing calculator
- 2.5 cups flour ($3.99 / 5 lb) = $0.53; 1.5 cups sugar ($2.89 / 4 lb) = $0.47
- 0.75 cup butter ($4.29 / lb) = $1.61; 3 eggs ($5.49 / dozen) = $1.37
- 1 cup milk ($4.29 / liter) = $1.01; baking powder, salt, vanilla = $0.81
- Wondering how much to charge for a cake? Start from true cost, not a guess. Total: $5.81 ÷ 12 servings = $0.48 per serving. Add $4.00 labor and $1.50 packaging, price at a 70% margin: ($5.81 + $4.00 + $1.50) ÷ 0.30 = $37.70 for the whole cake.
Example 3: Meal-prep chicken & rice bowls (10 servings) — meal prep cost
- 1,500 g chicken breast ($6.99 / kg) = $10.49; 800 g rice ($5.49 / 2 kg) = $2.20
- 600 g broccoli ($2.99 / kg) = $1.79; 60 ml oil ($8.99 / liter) = $0.54; salt = $0.02
- Total: $15.03 ÷ 10 = $1.50 per meal — against a $12 takeout bowl, batch cooking saves about $105 a week.