Baker's Percentage Calculator
Work either direction. Enter a recipe in grams to see it as baker's percentages, or enter percentages and a dough size — total weight, a number of loaves or dough balls, or a flour weight — to get grams. Mark each ingredient's type and the calculator also works out true hydration from milk, eggs and butter.
| Ingredient | Type | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total |
How Baker's Percentage Works
Baker's percentage — also called baker's math or formula percentage — writes every ingredient as a share of the flour, not of the whole dough. The flour is always 100%. Everything else is its weight divided by the flour weight, times 100.
Ingredient % = ingredient weight ÷ total flour weight × 100
Ingredient weight = total flour weight × ingredient % ÷ 100
Total flour weight = dough weight ÷ (sum of all % ÷ 100)
That is why the percentages add up to well over 100: a lean loaf of 100% flour, 68% water, 2% salt and 1% yeast totals 171%. It is also why the system is useful. Once a formula is in percentages it no longer belongs to one batch size — the same four numbers make one loaf or forty, and two formulas can be compared at a glance. A 68% dough and a 80% dough are different breads before you have weighed anything.
The calculation only works with weights. Cups of flour vary by 20% or more depending on how the cup is filled, so convert volume recipes first — the cups to grams converter uses 120 g per cup of all-purpose flour and 130 g per cup of bread flour.
Working Backward From the Dough You Want
Bakers usually know the finished size — four 250 g pizza balls, two 900 g loaves — and need the grams. Add the percentages, turn the total into a decimal, and divide:
Four 250 g pizza balls at 100% flour, 62% water, 2.8% salt, 0.2% yeast, plus 2% for dough left in the bowl.
Dough needed: 4 × 250 = 1,000 g, × 1.02 = 1,020 g. Sum of percentages: 165%.
Flour = 1,020 ÷ 1.65 = 618 g. Water = 618 × 0.62 = 383 g. Salt = 618 × 0.028 = 17.3 g. Yeast = 618 × 0.002 = 1.2 g.
The bench-loss allowance matters more than it looks. Dough sticks to the bowl, the bench and your hands; without 1–3% extra, the last ball is always light. For a single loaf it rarely matters, so leave it at zero.
Typical Percentages by Bread
These are the formulas in the preset menu. They are common starting points rather than fixed rules — flour absorbs differently by brand and protein content, so adjust the water a couple of points either way.
| Dough | Water / liquid | Salt | Instant yeast | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bagels | 57% | 2% | 1% | 3% malt syrup or sugar |
| Pizza dough | 62% | 2.8% | 0.2% (long, cool rise) | — |
| Lean bread | 68% | 2% | 1% | — |
| 30% whole wheat | 75% | 2% | 1% | 70% bread + 30% whole wheat flour |
| Ciabatta | 80% | 2% | 0.5% | — |
| Milk sandwich loaf | 60% milk | 2% | 1.5% | 8% butter, 6% sugar |
| Brioche | 50% eggs + 10% milk | 2% | 1.5% | 50% butter, 12% sugar |
Salt sits near 2% in almost every bread, and that is the most useful single check in baker's math: if a recipe works out to 4% salt, something was copied wrong. Instant yeast runs from a fraction of a percent in long, cold fermentations to 1–2% for same-day doughs. If you use active dry yeast, the usual swap is about 1.25 times the instant amount; fresh (cake) yeast is about two to three times, depending on the brand's guidance.
Hydration When the Liquid Isn't Water
Hydration is the water as a percentage of flour. With plain water it is just the water's baker's percentage. Milk, eggs and butter carry water too, but not all of it, so a milk dough at "60%" is drier than a water dough at 60%. The calculator counts them using USDA FoodData Central water contents:
| Ingredient type | Water content used | 60% of it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 100% | 60% hydration |
| Whole milk | about 88% | about 53% |
| Whole egg | about 76% | about 46% |
| Butter | about 16% | about 10% |
Choose Other for sugar, salt, yeast, oil, seeds and anything else that carries little or no water. Sugar and fat also make a dough feel softer than its hydration suggests, which is why brioche handles like a wet dough at under 50% true hydration.
Mistakes That Give Wrong Percentages
Dividing by the total dough instead of the flour. 350 g water in an 870 g dough is 40% of the dough, but 70% in baker's percentage. Only the flour goes underneath.
Leaving one flour out. Whole wheat, rye, semolina and the flour inside a preferment all belong in the 100%. If a poolish of 200 g flour and 200 g water goes into the dough, both halves count toward the totals.
Rounding yeast and salt to whole grams in small batches. 0.2% of 618 g is 1.24 g; rounding it to 1 g cuts the yeast by nearly a fifth. A 0.1 g scale is worth having for pizza and long-fermented doughs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate baker's percentage?
Divide each ingredient's weight by the total flour weight and multiply by 100. Flour is always 100%. A dough with 500 g flour and 350 g water is 350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70% water.
How do you find the flour weight from a total dough weight?
Add up all the percentages, then divide the dough weight by that total as a decimal. For 1,700 g of dough at 100% flour, 68% water, 2% salt and 1% yeast, the total is 171%, so flour = 1,700 ÷ 1.71 = 994 g.
Why do baker's percentages add up to more than 100?
Because every ingredient is measured against the flour, not against the whole dough. Flour alone is 100%, so anything you add pushes the total above 100. A lean bread typically totals around 170%.
Does milk count toward dough hydration?
Partly. Whole milk is about 88% water, whole egg about 76% and butter about 16%. A dough with 60% milk behaves like roughly 53% water hydration, which is why milk doughs feel stiffer than a water dough at the same percentage.
What if a recipe uses two kinds of flour?
Add the flours together — the combined flour weight is 100%. A dough with 700 g bread flour and 300 g whole wheat flour is 70% bread flour and 30% whole wheat, and every other ingredient is a percentage of the 1,000 g total.