Food cost calculator
Work out the cost, food cost % and margin on any dish in about 60 seconds. Free, no sign-up, and it works on your phone in the kitchen.
Cost a dish to the cent
Add your ingredients, set the servings and the sale price. The numbers update as you type.
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This dish
Cost per serve
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Food cost %
add a price
A calculator gives you one number. Chefy keeps it true.
This tool costs one dish at the prices you type in, today. The moment a supplier price moves, that number is stale and you are back here re-typing. Chefy costs every dish and drink automatically and re-costs the lot the instant a price changes, so the margin you see is always the margin you are making.
With a calculator
- One dish at a time, by hand
- Costs go stale the day a price moves
- No link to what actually sells
- Nothing carries across to your menu
With Chefy
- Every dish and drink costed automatically
- Re-costs live the moment a price changes
- Square sales tied to cost, item by item
- Your whole menu costed and engineered
From one dish to your whole menu
Build costed recipes once
Enter a recipe once with nested preps and Chefy costs it from live supplier prices, with no re-typing.
Prices update themselves
When a supplier price changes, Chefy cascades it through every recipe and menu item instantly.
Catch margin slips early
Set a target margin per dish and get an alert the moment one slips below it.
Engineer the whole menu
See cost, price and contribution margin on every item side by side, and re-price on real numbers.
A calculator is a moment. Chefy is the operating system for margin.
Chefy turns one-off sums into a living model of your margin: recipe and menu costs, stock counts and Square sales on one platform, across the kitchen and the bar. Start free on your first venue.
What a calculator can't do
Recipe engineering
Nested sub-recipes, batches and unit conversions, all costed end to end.
Learn moreLive costing
Dish and drink costs that update the moment a supplier price changes.
Learn moreMenu management
Cost, price and contribution margin on every item, with menu engineering.
Learn moreWastage
Record waste and see it costed, so leakage shows up in your margins.
Learn moreSuppliers
Supplier price history feeding every recipe automatically.
Learn moreAnalytics & alerts
Real-time margin alerts the moment a dish breaches its target.
Learn moreFood cost calculator FAQ
What is a good food cost percentage?
Most hospitality venues aim for a food cost between 28 and 35%, though it varies by concept. A lower percentage means you keep more of each sale, but portion size and quality matter just as much as the number.
How do you calculate food cost?
Add up the cost of every ingredient in a dish, divide by the number of servings to get the cost per serve, then divide that by the sale price and multiply by 100 for the food cost percentage.
What is the food cost formula?
Food cost percentage equals the ingredient cost divided by the sale price, multiplied by 100. This calculator works it out for you as you type.
What is contribution margin?
Contribution margin is the sale price of a dish minus its ingredient cost. It is what each sale contributes toward your labour, overheads and profit.
How is this different from Chefy?
This is a single-dish calculator at the prices you type in. Chefy costs your entire menu automatically from live supplier prices, re-costs every recipe when a price changes, and tracks margin across the whole venue.
Cost your whole menu, not just one dish
See Chefy cost your real menu from live supplier prices in a quick demo.