Bar pour cost: how to calculate and fix it

Pour cost is the percentage of your bar sales that goes to the liquor, beer, and wine you pour. In the US, bars typically aim for 18–24%, the range RestaurantDoctorAI uses for US bar programs. Over-pours, free drinks, and unrung sales push that number up, and they hit the highest-margin part of your menu.

What pour cost means

Pour cost does for the bar what food cost does for the kitchen. It shows how much of a sale goes to the product itself, before labor, rent, or anything else.

You can work it out two ways. One covers a period, such as a week, using your bar inventory. The other covers a single drink, using what goes in the glass and its price on the menu.

Tracking it regularly matters more than getting one count exactly right. A single number tells you where you stand today. A string of weekly numbers tells you whether the bar is drifting or holding steady.

Pour cost formula for a week or month

For a week or a month, compare what the bar used against what it sold. This shows the shape of the whole bar over time, not just one bottle.

Pour cost for one drink

For a single drink, compare the cost of everything in the glass against the menu price. Use it when you price a new cocktail, or to check whether an existing one still earns what it should.

A cocktail takes one more step. Add up the cost of every spirit, liqueur, mixer, and garnish in the glass, then divide that total by the menu price.

Where pour cost fits in your numbers

Pour cost is part of a bigger number: your combined cost of goods sold, food and drink together. The targets RestaurantDoctorAI uses set that combined target by service format.

Bars, taprooms, and lounges carry the lowest combined target, because drinks usually cost a smaller share of their price than food. Drinks are about half of a bar's sales or more. So the same slip in pour cost moves a bar's total cost of goods more than it would in a restaurant where drinks are a small share of sales.

Pour cost also feeds your prime cost: food and drink cost plus labor, as a share of sales. Prime cost leaves out rent and other overhead, so track those separately. The bar number works the same way food cost percentage does in the kitchen: one number, tracked every week, that shows whether what you buy matches what you sell.

Why pour cost drifts upward

A few habits push the number up, often without anyone noticing.

• Free pouring. A heavy hand with the bottle adds product you paid for but never billed.
• Comps and staff drinks. A drink comped for a regular, a spill, or a staff drink uses product with no sale. Left unlogged, it looks like shrink instead of a choice someone can review.
• Unrung sales. A drink poured but never rung into the POS uses stock with no sale to match it.
• Over-pours on premium bottles. These cost more per ounce, so the same heavy hand costs more on a top-shelf pour than on a well drink.
• Inconsistent recipes. When two bartenders build the same cocktail differently, the cost swings from shift to shift even without anyone pouring heavy on purpose.

Fixing a high pour cost

None of these fixes need new software. They need a jigger, a weekly count, and a place to write down every comp.

1. 01Measure every spirit pour with a jigger, and write the standard pour for each drink on a card behind the bar.
2. 02For wine by the glass, check pours against your glass size. For draft beer, compare kegs used with pints rung in.
3. 03Count your 10 best-selling bottles at open and close for a few nights, and compare what was used against what the POS says was sold.
4. 04Log every comp, spill, and staff drink on a sheet with a manager's initials, or ring it into the POS as a comp.
5. 05Pick a fixed day and person to count the whole bar every week, in the same order each time.
6. 06Work out the week's pour cost from that count. In the US, track it against the 18–24% range. Elsewhere, track the trend: a falling number means the gap is closing.

Alcohol rules, including what you can pour, comp, or discount, vary by state and sometimes by county or city. Check yours before you set a house policy.

Once the count is a habit, pour cost becomes a number you check every Monday, not a mystery you solve once a quarter.

Common questions

What's a good pour cost for a bar?

In the US, bars typically aim for 18–24%, the range RestaurantDoctorAI uses for US bar programs. Outside the US, norms differ, so track it weekly and watch the direction. Where you land depends on your drink mix and prices. Compare your bar with its own past weeks rather than with another bar. The trend matters more than any single week, since one busy night of comped rounds can push a count higher.

How do you calculate pour cost on one drink?

Divide the bottle's cost by how many standard pours it holds to get the cost of one pour. For a cocktail, add the cost of every pour, mixer, and garnish in the recipe. Divide that drink cost by the menu price and multiply by 100. Run the same math on a new cocktail before it goes on the menu, so the price is set from the recipe, not a guess.

Is pour cost the same as liquor cost?

Not always. Some people use liquor cost for spirits only. Pour cost in this guide covers spirits, beer, and wine together. Check which one a report uses before you compare it with a target.