Recipe cost calculator
Enter what each ingredient cost in the shop, how big the pack was and how much the recipe uses, and this recipe cost calculator gives you the cost of the batch and the cost per serving. It converts within a kind of unit, so 500 g of flour out of a 5 lb bag is fine. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
How the arithmetic works
Each ingredient is priced from the pack it came in:
ingredient cost = pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size)
The two amounts have to be in the same kind of unit, and the calculator converts between them using the exact US definitions (NIST SP 811): a pound is 16 ounces, a gallon is 128 fluid ounces, a cup is 8 fluid ounces, a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce.
The example the calculator opens with is a plain cake batter:
| Ingredient | Pack | Used | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flour | $4.29 for 5 lb | 500 g | $0.95 |
| Butter | $4.99 for 16 oz | 4 oz | $1.25 |
| Eggs | $3.49 for 12 | 2 | $0.58 |
That is $2.78 for the batch, and $0.35 a serving at 8 servings. Like a receipt, each line is rounded to the cent and the total is the sum of the lines, so the numbers on screen always add up. The interesting part is not the total. It is that butter is 45% of it, so the way to make this cheaper is a different butter, not a cheaper flour.
Why cups and pounds don't mix
Ask for two cups of flour out of a 5 lb bag and the calculator says it left that row out. That is deliberate. A cup is a volume, a pound is a weight, and going from one to the other needs the density of that particular ingredient: sifted flour, packed brown sugar and rolled oats all weigh different amounts per cup, and no bag prints the number.
Two ways around it, both better than a guess:
- Weigh the amount once with a kitchen scale and use grams from then on. This is also how you get repeatable baking.
- Or price the ingredient in the unit the recipe uses. Milk bought by the gallon and used in cups converts exactly, because both are volumes.
Getting the pack prices without typing them
The prices in this calculator are the prices you actually paid, which sit on your receipts. If you are costing several recipes, pull the numbers from the last shop rather than from memory: a shelf price you remember is usually the pre-sale one.
Our guide to tracking grocery spending has the receipt method, and the unit price calculator answers the related question of which pack size to buy in the first place. Duneed, our iPhone app, reads each receipt's lines with the price paid, so the pack prices are already written down.
What the number leaves out
This is the ingredient cost and nothing else. It does not include the electricity or gas to cook with, the time it took, packaging, or the parts of the pack that go to waste. If you are selling what you bake, those belong in your price and this figure is only the floor; how to price homemade food adds them up, with a worked example. For what the time is worth against a takeout order, see cooking at home vs eating out, which prices an hour in the kitchen meal by meal.
It also treats a pinch of salt like any other ingredient: if you leave the salt and spices out of the list, the number is a little low, and for most home cooking that is fine.
Questions
How do I calculate food cost per serving?
Price each ingredient from its pack (pack price × amount used ÷ pack size), add them up, and divide by the number of servings. The calculator above does the conversion between grams, ounces, cups and the rest for you.
What if my recipe is in cups and the pack is in pounds?
Weigh it once, or buy that ingredient in the unit the recipe uses. Converting volume to weight needs a density that varies by ingredient and even by how you scoop it.
Does this work for a home bakery?
For the ingredient cost, yes. A selling price also has to carry your time, energy, packaging and the ingredients that go stale between orders, so treat the number here as the starting point rather than the answer. Our guide to pricing homemade food takes it the rest of the way.
How do I bring the cost per serving down?
Look at the shares the calculator prints, not the prices. The biggest line is the one worth changing, and the pantry staples list covers which staples are worth buying as store brands. Our other calculators are on the free tools page.