Food cost calculator
What a dish really costs to make, its food cost percentage, and the menu price that hits the percentage you want. Enter each ingredient once and the working is shown.
Ingredients
How to work out food cost percentage
Divide what the ingredients cost by what you charge, and multiply by 100.
A flat white uses 18 g of coffee, 150 ml of milk and a cup. If that costs A$0.90 and you charge A$5.00 excluding GST, the food cost is 0.90 ÷ 5.00 = 18%. Run the same sum backwards to set a price: to hold 30%, charge the cost divided by 0.30, which is A$3.00 for this drink.
Use the price without GST on both sides. GST is not your money, so it does not belong in a cost percentage. If your menu shows prices with GST, divide by 1.1 first.
Cost the ingredient, not the pack
A bag of beans is 1,000 grams, but a flat white uses 18 of them.
Enter what the pack costs, how much is in it, and how much the recipe uses, and the calculator does the division. If you buy whole and use part, put the usable share in the last box: a product at A$20 a kilo with 60% usable really costs A$33.33 for each usable kilo.
The pack and the amount used can be in different units, grams against kilograms or millilitres against litres. They must be the same kind of thing: a row that mixes weight and volume is flagged rather than guessed.
Recipe cost is not actual food cost
The recipe says what a dish should cost. The shelf says what it did.
Your actual food cost is what left the shelf: opening stock, plus purchases, less closing stock, as a share of food sales. The gap to the recipe figure is spoilage, drops, a heavy hand with the portion, staff meals and whatever walked out, and only a stock count finds it. In a simulated restaurant month run on StockRoom's own engine (the demand was invented, so this is an illustration and not a survey), the recipes said 24.6% and the shelf said 25.7%.
That is why the wastage box is there. Leave it at zero for the recipe figure, and put in what your own counts show to see the price you really need.
When a supplier changes a price
Every dish that uses the ingredient moves with it.
The change in a dish is the quantity it uses times the change in price, and nothing else moves. If a 50 g serve of beef rises by 22 cents, a steak that uses five serves costs A$1.10 more to make and a salad that uses none costs the same. Change a pack price above and watch the percentage move.
Questions
How do I calculate food cost percentage?
Add up what the ingredients in one serve cost, divide by the menu price excluding GST, and multiply by 100. The calculator above does it as you type and shows each line of the working.
What is the difference between recipe cost and actual food cost?
Recipe cost is what a dish should cost if everything goes to plan. Actual food cost is opening stock plus purchases less closing stock, as a share of food sales. The difference is waste, spoilage, over-portioning and loss, which only a stock count shows.
Should GST be included?
No. Enter the menu price and the ingredient prices excluding GST, and compare like with like. If a menu price includes GST, divide it by 1.1 before you enter it.
How do I cost something bought by the tray and used by the piece?
Enter the tray price, the number in the tray as the pack size with the unit set to each, and the number the recipe uses with the unit set to each. Eggs by the tray and cups by the sleeve work this way.
Does this include labour and rent?
No. It is food cost only: the ingredients in the dish and any wastage you add. Labour, rent and everything else come out of what is left over.
Count the ingredients as well
StockRoom counts what is on the shelf, orders what is running low and keeps the cost and selling price of every product, so the actual figure is a number you can see. Recipes are not in the app yet: the recipe till is built and tested in our simulated cafe, and we say so rather than imply it.
Free up to 50 products, then A$9 a month.
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StockRoom plans at a glance
StockRoom is free for up to 50 products, then A$9 a month for 400, A$44 for 2,000 and A$89 for unlimited, from the plan list in the app, checked 8 October 2026.
| Plan | Products | Locations | Price a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Up to 50 | 1 | A$0 |
| Basic | Up to 400 | 1 | A$9 |
| Solo | Up to 2,000 | 5 | A$44 |
| Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited | A$89 |
Your whole team is included on every plan. Prices in Australian dollars. Source: the plan list in the StockRoom app, checked on .