Food cost percentage calculator

Add what each ingredient in a dish costs and what the dish sells for. You get its food cost percentage, margin and profit per plate, and the menu price that hits your target. The formula, benchmarks by restaurant type and the common mistakes follow below.

Last updated October 2, 2026 · by the Final Menu team

Ingredients — cost per plate

Ingredient 1Cost of ingredient 1, in dollars
Ingredient 2Cost of ingredient 2, in dollars
Ingredient 3Cost of ingredient 3, in dollars
Ingredient 4Cost of ingredient 4, in dollars
Ingredient 5Cost of ingredient 5, in dollars

Menu price

Plate cost: $6.66
Food cost: 32.0%
Gross margin: 68.0%
Profit per plate: $14.14

Price to a target food cost

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Typing every ingredient price is the slow part, and the numbers go stale the next time a supplier raises one. Final Menu reads prices straight off your invoices and keeps every dish's cost and suggested price current.

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The food cost percentage formula

food cost % = (ingredient cost ÷ menu price) × 100

Take a house cheeseburger. Beef chuck at $3.84, a brioche bun at $0.62, an ounce of aged cheddar at $0.71, two strips of bacon at $0.94, and $0.55 of lettuce, tomato and sauce comes to $6.66 of ingredients. Sold at $20.80, that plate runs a 32% food cost.

($6.66 ÷ $20.80) × 100 = 32%

The same plate has a 68% gross profit margin. Food cost percentage and gross margin are not two measurements — they are one measurement read from opposite ends, and they always sum to 100%. A 32% food cost is a 68% margin; a 30% food cost is a 70% margin. Which one you quote is a matter of habit, not accuracy.

The per-plate number tells you whether a dish is priced correctly. The period number tells you what actually happened across a week or a month, including everything the recipe card does not know about — waste, over-portioning, theft, comps and staff meals.

period food cost % = ((beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory) ÷ food sales) × 100

The bracketed part is your cost of goods sold. Count inventory on the same day of the week at the same time, and use the same count for the end of one period and the start of the next, or the two numbers will not reconcile.

Expect your period food cost to come in above your plate cost. If your recipes average 30% and your period number is 34%, that four-point gap is the cost of everything that happened between the invoice and the guest. Chasing that gap is usually worth more than repricing the menu.

What is a good food cost percentage?

Most full-service restaurants plan around 28–35%, but the workable range depends heavily on format. These are the ranges commonly used as planning targets, not benchmarks you are failing if you miss:

Commonly targeted food cost percentage ranges by restaurant format
Format	Typical target
Quick service / fast casual	25–30%
Full-service, casual	28–35%
Pizza	20–28%
Steakhouse / seafood	35–45%
Cafe / bakery	25–35%
Bar (beverage-led)	18–24%

A steakhouse at 42% can be far more profitable than a cafe at 26%, because the steakhouse turns a much larger absolute margin per cover. Food cost percentage is a ratio, and you bank dollars, not ratios. Use it to spot movement in your own numbers rather than to score yourself against someone else's format.

Four things that make your food cost read lower than it is

1. Costing the portion instead of the purchase

An 8 oz portion of a product with 15% trim loss does not cost you 8 oz — you have to buy 9.4 oz to plate it. Costing at portion weight understates every protein and most produce on your menu.

purchased quantity = portion ÷ (1 − waste %) → 8 oz ÷ 0.85 = 9.41 oz

2. Sub-recipes costed once and never again

Stocks, sauces and doughs get costed when they are written and then quietly go stale. If a sauce is used across nine dishes, one out-of-date sub-recipe misprices nine plates at once.

3. Prices from the invoice you happened to keep

Costing against a price from four months ago is the most common way a menu drifts out of margin without anyone noticing. Nothing on the plate changed, so nothing looks wrong.

4. Forgetting the things you give away

Comps, staff meals, remakes and family meal all consume food and generate no sale. They never touch plate cost, and they are a large part of why your period number lands above it.

Once you know the number

A food cost percentage on its own does not set a price — it describes one. Turning a plate cost into a menu price means picking a pricing rule and applying it consistently, which is where the four standard methods come in. Compare the four menu pricing methods to see how each one turns the same $6.66 plate into a shelf price.

Frequently asked questions

What is food cost percentage?

Food cost percentage is the share of a dish's menu price that goes to the ingredients that made it. A plate with $6.66 of ingredients selling at $20.80 has a 32% food cost, meaning 32 cents of every dollar it earns pays for food. It is the same measurement as gross profit margin read from the opposite end: a 32% food cost is a 68% margin.

What is the formula for food cost percentage?

Food cost percentage = (ingredient cost ÷ menu price) × 100. For a whole period rather than a single plate, use ((beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory) ÷ food sales) × 100, where the bracketed part is your cost of goods sold.

How do you work out food cost percentage for one dish?

Add up what every ingredient in the recipe costs at the price you actually paid, divide by the menu price, and multiply by 100. Cost at purchased weight rather than plated weight: an 8 oz portion of a product with 15% trim loss needs 9.4 oz bought, so costing the portion understates almost every protein on your menu.

What is a good food cost percentage for a restaurant?

Most full-service restaurants plan around 28–35%, quick service often runs lower, and steakhouses and seafood typically run higher. These are planning targets rather than pass marks. A steakhouse at 42% can out-earn a cafe at 26%, because you bank dollars per cover and not ratios.

Why is my actual food cost higher than my recipe costs?

Because the recipe card only knows the plate. Your period number also carries waste, over-portioning, comps, staff meals and remakes, which consume food and generate no sale. A three to five point gap between theoretical and actual is common, and closing it is usually worth more than repricing the menu.