Plate cost and menu price calculator
What one plate costs you to make, its food cost, and the price that hits your target.
You'll need: What you paid for each ingredient, and how much of it goes on one plate.
Free calculator
Work out your plate cost and menu price
Works in any currency. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Example numbers. Replace them with yours.
Ingredient 1
Of what you buy, the share that ends up on plates. Weigh it before and after once: 1 kg that trims to 850 g is 85. Trimmed and then cooked? Weigh the cooking loss on the trimmed piece and multiply: 85% × 75% = 63.75%.
Cost of this ingredient2.10
Ingredient 2
Of what you buy, the share that ends up on plates. Weigh it before and after once: 1 kg that trims to 850 g is 85. Trimmed and then cooked? Weigh the cooking loss on the trimmed piece and multiply: 85% × 75% = 63.75%.
Cost of this ingredient2.10
Costed a sauce or a side already? Add it as one ingredient: its cost, for 1 each, with 1 each used. Each line is rounded to the cent, so the lines can add up to a cent away from the plate cost.
Making a batch, like a soup or a sauce? Enter how many plates it makes. 1 for a single plate.
From your menu or your POS item list. Leave it blank to price a new dish.
Menus in the UK, Ireland, the EU, Australia and New Zealand include VAT or GST. In the US and Canada, tax is usually added at the till.
Starts at the middle of the 30–34% range. Change it to your own.
Add more detail: small extras and sales
Add a row for each, or a % of the ingredients here. Kitchens that don't cost them line by line often add 5–10%. Don't count it twice on a row that already includes its own extras.
How many of this dish you sold, from your POS item sales report (product mix).
With the example numbers
One plate costs 4.20 in ingredients.
What its ingredients cost at today's invoice prices.
Food cost: 30.0% of your 14.00 price. That's the share of the price that goes on the food.
Full-service restaurants aim for 30–34% food and drink cost across the whole menu. This dish sits inside that range.
Left after ingredients: 9.80 a plate, to pay your team, rent and everything else. Price ÷ plate cost: 3.3×.
Each point of food cost is worth 0.14 a plate.
For a 32% food cost, charge 13.13 or more.
To sit inside the full-service range of 30–34%, price it between 12.36 and 14.00.
Round up, not down, to a price that suits your menu.
This is your plate cost on paper. Waste and generous portions push your real food cost higher, so don't price right at the top of your range.
How we worked it out
- 1. Ground beef
- 28.00 × (6 oz ÷ 5 lb) = 2.10
- 2. Bun, cheese, toppings and fries
- 2.10 × (1 each ÷ 1 each) = 2.10
- Ingredients
- added up = 4.20
- Plate cost
- 4.20
- Food cost
- 4.20 ÷ 14.00 × 100 = 30.0%
- Left per plate
- 14.00 − 4.20 = 9.80
- Price for 32%
- 4.20 ÷ 0.32, rounded up = 13.13
- Lowest for 34%
- 4.20 ÷ 0.34, rounded up = 12.36
- Highest for 30%
- 4.20 ÷ 0.3, rounded down = 14.00
How plate cost works
Plate cost is what the food on one plate costs you. For each ingredient, take what you paid for the pack and the share of it that goes on the plate, after trimming. Add the lines up, and divide by the number of plates if you cook it as a batch.
Use the menu price before tax. Where menu prices include VAT or GST, the calculator takes the tax out first.
A burger that costs 4.20 to make and sells for 14.00 has a 30% food cost, and leaves 9.80 a plate for labor, rent and everything else.
Your real food cost will run a little higher than the plate cost, because of waste and generous portions. Re-cost a dish when one of its main ingredients goes up more than 5%. For the whole kitchen's number, see food cost percentage.
Common questions
What's a good food cost percentage for a dish?
The targets RestaurantDoctorAI uses for food and drink run from 20–26% of sales for a bar to 32–38% for fine dining, and 30–34% for full service. They're for the whole menu, so one dish can sit above or below. Look at the money each plate leaves as well as the %. In a bar the target blends food and drinks, so compare dishes with each other.
Should I cost the weight I buy or the weight I use?
The weight you use, after trimming. If part of what you buy ends up in the bin, such as peel, bones or fat, set how much is usable and the calculator raises the cost to match. If your recipe already gives the weight before trimming, leave usable at 100%.
Does the menu price include tax?
Food cost is worked out on the price before tax. In the US and Canada tax is usually added at the till, so use the menu price as it is. In the UK, Ireland, the EU, Australia and New Zealand menu prices include VAT or GST: turn on the tax option and enter the rate.
How often should I re-cost my dishes?
Whenever one of a dish's main ingredients goes up more than 5%, and at every menu change. Supplier prices move every week; menu prices usually don't.