Free Recipe Cost Calculator for Restaurants

How to cost a recipe

1. 1

   Paste your recipe, or add ingredients manually

   Paste it in as plain text above and Dishboard reads the ingredients, quantities and units for you, including small-but-frequent items like oil, salt, sauce, and the box or cup. Or add a row for each one yourself.

2. 2

   Enter what you paid, then what the recipe uses

   Put the pack price and pack size in as you bought them, a $9.00 bag of 1 kg, then say the recipe uses 120 g. The unit conversion is handled for you, and the cost per gram is shown underneath so you can check it.

3. 3

   Set how many servings it yields

   If the recipe is a batch, enter the number of portions it makes. The calculator divides total cost by servings to give a true cost per serving.

4. 4

   Add your menu price (optional)

   Enter what you charge per serving to see food cost percentage and gross margin. Green margins are healthy; low margins mean the price or the recipe needs a look.

Worked example: a chicken sandwich

Every line is entered the way it was bought. The chicken is a $9.50 bag holding 1 kg, which is $9.50 divided by 1,000 g, or $0.0095 per gram; the recipe takes 118 g of it, so the line costs $0.0095 multiplied by 118, which is $1.12. The same arithmetic runs on every row.

At a $7.00 menu price, that is a 34.4% food cost and $4.59 gross profit per sandwich. To hit a 30% food cost target you would price it at $8.03. The same cost on delivery earns less once platform commission and packaging come out, which is why delivery needs its own check.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to work out the cost per gram myself?

No. Enter what you paid and what you bought, then say what the recipe uses. A 1 kg bag of chicken at $9.00 used 120 g at a time is $0.009 per gram and $1.08 for the line, and the calculator does that conversion for you. It converts within weight (g, kg, oz, lb) and within volume (ml, L, fl oz, qt, gal), and bridges counts like a dozen into pieces. It will not convert weight to volume, because 100 g of one ingredient is not 100 ml of it.

Can I paste a recipe instead of typing each ingredient in?

Yes. Click "Paste a recipe" above and paste it in as plain text. Dishboard reads the ingredients out for you, including converting cups and spoons to real weights where the ingredient is known. A price is never invented, you still enter what you paid for each pack. See the full guide for exactly how it reads a recipe.

What is the difference between recipe cost and food cost percentage?

Recipe cost is a dollar amount: what it costs you to make the dish. Food cost percentage compares that cost to your selling price (cost per serving divided by price). Recipe cost answers what does this cost me; food cost percentage answers is it priced well. Enter a menu price in the calculator to see both.

Should I include packaging and labor in recipe cost?

Include any packaging that leaves the kitchen with the food: boxes, cups, lids, bags. Do not include labor here. Labor is tracked separately, and the combination of food cost and labor cost is called prime cost. This calculator is for ingredient and packaging cost.

How do I account for trim and waste (yield)?

Use the yield field on the row. Lettuce at $3.50 per kg with 80% usable really costs $3.50 divided by 0.80, or $4.38 per kg once the trim is paid for, and entering 80 applies that for you. Leave it blank when you use the whole pack, which is most ingredients. Only add it where something is genuinely thrown away.

How do I cost a batch recipe?

Enter the pack prices and the quantities the whole batch uses, then set Servings to the number of portions the batch yields. The calculator divides total cost by servings to give you a true cost per serving. A pot of sauce that costs $18.00 and yields 12 portions is $1.50 per serving.

How often should I recalculate?

Any time a key ingredient price moves meaningfully, and at least monthly. If a main protein, dairy, or produce item shifts 10% or more, every recipe using it should be recosted. Dishboard does this automatically when you update an ingredient price.

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