Free tool
Food cost calculator
Cost a recipe the way it is actually cooked. Enter what you buy and what the recipe uses - the units do not have to match - and this works out the cost per portion, your food cost percentage, and what the dish should sell for.
No sign-up, no email. Change any figure and the numbers update as you type.
What goes into the batch
Enter what you buy and what the recipe uses. The units do not have to match - buy by the kilo, cook by the gram.
Pricing
Cost per portion
₱28.71
ingredients only, before labour and overhead
| Batch costAll 5 ingredients | ₱229.64 |
| Of which trim wasteBought but never plated | ₱25.80 |
| Portions | 8 |
This is one recipe. Costing a whole menu, then watching it move as supplier prices change, is what Smapey's food ordering manager is for.
Cost your whole menu free →The recipe this opens with uses round illustrative prices, not market rates - replace every figure with your own invoices. Food cost here means ingredients only: it does not include labour, gas, electricity, packaging, or rent, so the gross profit shown is what is left to cover those, not what you keep. Trim waste covers peel, bone, and fat lost in prep; it does not cover spoilage, over-portioning, or comped plates, which sit between this number and your real cost of sales.
How to calculate food cost without fooling yourself
The arithmetic is simple - ingredients divided by portions - and almost every recipe costed by hand is still wrong, for three reasons.
The first is units. You buy oil by the litre and cook with it by the tablespoon, buy garlic by the kilo and use it by the clove. Converting in your head is where the errors start, so this tool does it for you and refuses to convert between weight and volume, because there is no honest way to turn a kilo of flour into millilitres.
The second is trim. A recipe that calls for 800g of chicken means 800g on the plate, but bone and fat mean you bought closer to 900g. Costing what the recipe lists rather than what you purchased makes every dish look better than it is. Set a waste percentage per ingredient and the difference shows up as its own line in the results.
The third is what the number leaves out. Food cost is ingredients, full stop - no labour, no gas, no packaging, no rent. The gross profit this shows is what is left to pay for all of that, not what you take home. A dish at 30% food cost is not a dish with 70% profit.
Cost your five best-selling dishes first. They carry most of your revenue, so an error there matters far more than one on a dish you sell twice a week - and once they are priced properly, the same figures are worth tracking as ingredient prices move, which is part of what a food ordering manager is for.
If you want the arithmetic spelled out rather than done for you, how to calculate food cost works the same recipe through by hand. There are also two smaller tools for when you already have the cost per portion: the food cost percentage calculator for checking a price you already charge, and the menu price calculator for setting a new one.
Common questions
How do you calculate food cost?
Add up what every ingredient in a recipe cost you, then divide by the number of portions the batch makes. The part people get wrong is the unit conversion: if you buy chicken at 220 per kilo and the recipe uses 800g, the line cost is 220 ÷ 1000 × 800 = 176, not 220. Do that for every ingredient and the total is your batch cost.
How do you calculate food cost percentage?
Divide the cost of one portion by the price you sell it for, then multiply by 100. A plate that costs 54 in ingredients and sells for 180 runs a food cost of 54 ÷ 180 × 100 = 30%. The lower the percentage, the more of each sale is left to cover labour, rent, and profit.
What is a good food cost percentage?
Most full-service kitchens target 28-35%. Quick service and high-volume operations often run lower, and steak or seafood houses routinely run higher because the protein dominates the plate. There is no universal correct figure - what matters is that the percentage leaves enough gross profit to cover your own labour and overhead.
How do I price a menu item from its cost?
Divide the cost per portion by your target food cost percentage expressed as a decimal. A portion costing 54 at a 30% target prices at 54 ÷ 0.30 = 180. Treat that as a floor rather than a final answer: what the dish is worth to your customers and what similar restaurants nearby charge both belong in the decision.
Should food cost include labour?
No. Food cost is ingredients only. Labour, gas, electricity, packaging, and rent are separate lines, and the gross profit left after food cost is what pays for them. Combining the two gives you prime cost, which is a useful number, but it is not what anyone means by food cost percentage.
What is trim waste and why does it change the cost?
Trim waste is the part of an ingredient you buy but never plate: peel, bone, fat, and stalks. If a recipe needs 100g of peeled garlic and a fifth of every head is skin, you have to buy 125g to get it. Costing the 100g rather than the 125g understates the dish, which is why this calculator asks for a waste percentage per ingredient.
Use this on your own site
Free to embed, no attribution required - though a link back is always welcome. Paste this wherever you want the calculator to appear.
<iframe src="https://smapey.com/restaurant/food-cost-calculator/embed" width="100%" height="1200" style="border:2px solid #161616;border-radius:22px" title="Food Cost Calculator" loading="lazy"></iframe>Keep Exploring
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How to Calculate Food Cost
The food cost formula worked through a real recipe end to end - unit conversion, trim waste, and why theoretical and actual food cost differ.
Food Cost Percentage Calculator
Turn cost per portion and menu price into a food cost percentage, gross profit, and the band a kitchen like yours should sit in.
Menu Price Calculator
Work a menu price back from cost per portion and a target food cost percentage, with VAT and sensible rounding.