Baker's Percentage Calculator
Every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight, or the weights from a flour weight and your percentages, with the dough's hydration.
Result…
How it's calculated
Baker's % = ingredient weight ÷ total flour weight × 100 Ingredient weight = flour weight × baker's % ÷ 100 Hydration = liquid weight ÷ flour weight × 100
In baker's percentages the flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour's weight, so the percentages add up to more than 100. That makes a recipe easy to scale and to compare: 65% water means 650 g of water for every 1000 g of flour, or 6.5 oz for every 10 oz. Several flours (bread and whole wheat, say) are added together to make the 100%. Weigh in grams or ounces, but not cups: a cup of flour can weigh quite different amounts. Hydration is the liquid as a percentage of the flour. A starter or levain contains flour and water of its own, which this does not split out. To scale a whole recipe, the percentage calculator helps with the ratios.
Your numbers, step by step
About the Baker's Percentage calculator
This baker's percentage calculator writes a recipe the way bakers do: the flour is 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour's weight. Type the ingredients with their weights, one per line, to get each one's percentage, the total dough weight and the hydration, which is the liquid as a share of the flour. Or work the other way: give a flour weight and your percentages, and it gives the weight of each ingredient. Several flours, such as bread flour and whole wheat, are added together to make the 100%. It works in grams or ounces, so it suits home bakers and small bakeries in any country, and it makes scaling a loaf up or down a single step. Each line of the working shows the division or multiplication with your numbers. For other ratio sums, the percentage calculator helps.
How to use it
- Choose “Weights → percentages” to analyse a recipe, or “Percentages → weights” to build one from a formula.
- Pick grams or ounces under “Weights in”.
- Type one ingredient per line, like “Bread flour 1000” and “Water 650”. Any line with “flour” in its name counts as flour.
- For “Percentages → weights”, enter the “Total flour weight” and lines like “Water 65” and “Salt 2”.
- Read the hydration, the dough weight and each ingredient's percentage or weight.
Worked example
A dough of 900 g bread flour, 100 g whole wheat flour, 700 g water, 20 g salt and 5 g yeast has 1000 g of flour in all. Water is 700 ÷ 1000 × 100 = 70%, which is the hydration, salt 2% and yeast 0.5%, and the dough weighs 1725 g, or 172.5% of the flour. Going the other way, 16 oz of flour at 68% water, 2% salt and 1% yeast needs 10.88 oz of water, 0.32 oz of salt and 0.16 oz of yeast, for 27.36 oz of dough.
Updated
Questions people ask
How do you calculate baker's percentage?
Divide each ingredient's weight by the total flour weight and multiply by 100. With 1000 g of flour, 20 g of salt is 2%.
Why do baker's percentages add up to more than 100%?
Because the flour alone is 100% and everything else is added on top. A simple bread at 65% water, 2% salt and 0.7% yeast totals 167.7%.
What is dough hydration?
Hydration is the weight of the liquid divided by the weight of the flour, as a percentage. 700 g of water to 1000 g of flour is 70% hydration.
How do I scale a recipe with baker's percentages?
Keep the percentages and change the flour weight. Choose “Percentages → weights”, enter the new flour weight, and every other ingredient is recalculated.
Does milk or sourdough starter count in hydration?
This calculator counts the full weight of lines named water, milk, beer, juice or similar. Milk is not all water, and a starter holds both flour and water, so the true hydration can be a little different.
Can I use cups instead of weights?
Not reliably: a cup of flour can weigh quite different amounts depending on how it is filled. Weigh in grams or ounces for percentages that mean something.