Food Cost and Menu Price Calculator
What should this dish cost on the menu?
Free. No sign-up.
Everything on the plate or in the cup
Many cafes and restaurants aim for 25–35%
Leave empty for a new item
Your price should be
$12.75
$8.95 left per sale after ingredients
Your food cost today
33%
$7.70 left per sale at $11.50
To hit 30%, raise it by $1.25. Or keep the price and bring the plate cost down to $3.45.
Do this for every dish. The free back office shows which items make you money.
Try it freeFood cost here is the ingredients only. Wages, rent and packaging are not in it, which is why the target is a third of the price and not most of it.
What you type stays in your browser unless you press Email me this result.
How this screen worksNext: Profit by item, in your free account
This page does it once. Profit by item in your free account keeps every dish’s price and cost in one list, so the margin you just worked out sits beside the rest of the menu instead of in a tab you closed. Free forever, no credit card.
Slow-day email (on the paid plan)
How this works
Type what the ingredients cost and the food cost you aim for. Get the menu price, rounded to a price you can print.
When a supplier puts prices up, the question is what the dish should cost on the menu now. The usual answer is a food cost percentage: the ingredients as a share of the price. Pick the share you aim for, type what one plate costs you, and the price comes out, rounded up to one you can print.
Menu price = plate cost ÷ target food cost %. Food cost % = plate cost ÷ menu price.
- You can have the answer emailed to you. We use the address once, to send that one email, and then we are done with it: you are not added to any list and we do not email you again.
- A link can arrive with the fields already filled in. The page says so when it happens, and you can change any of it. Those values travel in the web address, so they are in your history and in ours like any other address — the page itself still sends nothing you type.
- The menu price is the plate cost divided by the target: $3.80 at a 30% target is $12.67, rounded up to $12.75.
- It rounds UP to the next 25 cents, because rounding down would miss the target you asked for.
- With today’s price filled in, it shows today’s food cost and how far the price is from the target, or what the plate would have to cost to keep the price.
- Food cost here is ingredients only. Wages, rent and packaging are separate, which is why a target of about a third is normal.
- The sums are done in your browser. Nothing is uploaded unless you press Email me this result.
Common questions
- What is a good food cost percentage?
- Many cafes and restaurants aim for 25 to 35%. Drinks usually run lower and meat-heavy dishes higher. What matters is the average across what you actually sell.
- How do I work out the cost of one plate?
- Add up what each ingredient costs for one portion: the weight used times the price per kilo or per unit from your supplier. Include garnish, sauce and the cup or box if it goes with the dish.
- Should every item hit the same target?
- No. A coffee might sit at 15% and a steak at 40%. Profit by item in the free back office shows which items carry the menu and which only keep you busy.
- Why is the price rounded up?
- Because a menu prints $12.75, not $12.67, and rounding down would leave you under the target you chose.
Short answer
What should this dish cost on the menu?
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