Enter what a dish costs you in ingredients and what it sells for — and see your food-cost % and gross profit instantly. Or set a target food-cost % and let the tool tell you the menu price to charge. Real restaurant math, no black box. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded or stored.
100% free — client-side only — nothing is stored or sent
Food Cost & Menu Price Calculator
Results update live as you type — no button to press, nothing uploaded.
Food-cost % = Ingredient Cost ÷ Menu Price.
It measures your ingredient cost as a share of the price the guest pays — what’s
left over is your gross profit on the plate.
Enter your ingredient cost and menu price above to see your food-cost % and gross profit.
Menu Price = Ingredient Cost ÷ (Target Food-Cost % ÷ 100).
A $3 ingredient cost at a 30% target lands on a $10.00 menu price.
Enter your ingredient cost and a target food-cost % above to see the menu price to charge.
How It Works
No black box. Here is exactly what this tool computes — and the pricing realities worth knowing before you set a number on the menu.
Food-cost % is your ingredient cost divided by the menu price
(Cost ÷ Price). A $3 plate that sells for $10 runs a 30% food cost —
meaning ingredients eat 30 cents of every dollar, and the other 70 cents covers labor, rent,
overhead, and profit.
There’s no single correct food-cost number. A bar’s pour cost behaves differently from a full-service kitchen, and a high-volume cafe differs again. Roughly 28–35% is a common full-service rule of thumb, but your concept, labor model, and market decide what actually works for you.
The cost you enter should reflect real usage — trim, spoilage, over-portioning, and yield loss all raise the true cost of a plate above the raw recipe price. Building those in gives you an honest food-cost %; leaving them out flatters the number and hides thin margins.
Cost-plus gives you a floor, not the final answer. What guests will pay depends on the experience, the alternatives, and your positioning. Use this calculator to know your numbers — then set the menu price with your market in mind, not just the spreadsheet.
Put It On The Menu
You’ve got the numbers. Boojee Menus turns them into a QR menu your guests scan at the table — and you update prices yourself in seconds, no reprinting.
Priced your items? Put them on a QR menu guests scan at the table — update prices yourself in seconds, no reprinting. A hosted QR menu with unlimited items, instant self-serve updates, and a clean mobile menu page.
Browse the rest of the free calculators and business tools — all client-side, all honest math, no sign-up required.
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