Baker’s Percentage Calculator
Turn a bread formula into baker’s percentages, flour always 100%, or turn percentages into weights for any batch size, with several flours handled.
Result
Baker’s percentages: bread flour 100%, water 70%, salt 2%, yeast 1%
Straight dough: a preferment is entered as the flour and water in it.
- Hydration
- 70%
- Total flour
- 500 g (17.6 oz)
- Total dough
- 865 g (30.5 oz)
- Percentages add up to
- 173%
https://calcgallery.com/baking/bakers-percentage-calculator/
Results are arithmetic on the figures you enter. Cooking times are estimates: ovens, cuts and starting temperatures vary, so check doneness with a thermometer. Safe temperatures are the USDA's; guidance differs by country, so check your own. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Baker’s Percentage Calculator
- Choose whether to turn weights into percentages or percentages into weights, and the unit you weigh in.
- List the flours, the liquids and everything else in their three lists. Several flours are fine; they are added together.
- For weights, say how much dough you want in total, or how much flour, and read each ingredient's weight.
Flour is always 100%
Baker’s percentage writes every ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight:
ingredient % = ingredient weight ÷ total flour weight × 100hydration = total liquid weight ÷ total flour weight × 100Written this way, a formula describes a dough rather than a batch. To make any amount, go the other way:
flour = total dough ÷ (sum of all percentages ÷ 100)each ingredient = flour × its percentage ÷ 100The weights found this way add up to the target exactly, apart from the rounding in the display.
Why weights, not cups
A cup of flour can weigh a fifth more or less depending on whether it was scooped or spooned and levelled. Percentages only work with weights, which is why bakers’ formulas are written in grams. The unit you choose here is only for display; the percentages are the same in any unit.
With your numbers
- Each ingredient’s percentage = its weight ÷ the total flour weight × 100
Quick reference
Straight dough: a preferment is entered as the flour and water in it.
| Example | Result |
|---|---|
| 500 g flour, 350 water, 10 salt, 5 yeast | Baker’s percentages: bread flour 100%, water 70%, salt 2%, yeast 1% |
| 400 g bread flour and 100 g rye | Baker’s percentages: bread flour 80%, rye 20%, water 70%, salt 2% |
| 1,000 g of dough at 70% | Ingredient weights: bread flour 578 g, water 404.6 g, salt 11.6 g, yeast 5.8 g |
| 1,000 g of flour at 70% | Ingredient weights: bread flour 1000 g, water 700 g, salt 20 g, yeast 10 g |
| 2 lb of dough at 70% | Ingredient weights: bread flour 18.497 oz, water 12.948 oz, salt 0.37 oz, yeast 0.185 oz |
| Enriched: 60% milk, 10% butter | Baker’s percentages: bread flour 100%, milk 60%, butter 10%, sugar 8%, salt 1.8%, yeast 1.4% |
Common questions about the Baker’s Percentage Calculator
- Why do the percentages add up to more than 100%?
- Because each is a percentage of the flour, not of the dough. Flour is 100% by definition, so everything else is added on top: a lean bread of 70% water, 2% salt and 1% yeast totals 173%. It is the first thing that confuses people, and it is what makes the system useful, since doubling the flour doubles everything else without recalculating.
- How do I handle more than one flour?
- Enter each one. The flours share the 100% between them, so 400 g of bread flour and 100 g of rye are 80% and 20%, and water, salt and the rest are taken against their 500 g total.
- What about a sourdough starter or other preferment?
- A starter is flour and water, and both belong in the totals. This page treats the dough as a straight dough, so enter the starter as the flour and water it contains: 100 g of starter at 100% hydration is 50 g of flour and 50 g of water. The bread hydration page splits a starter for you.
- Does milk count as water for hydration?
- The page counts every liquid in full, which is the usual simplification. Milk is mostly but not entirely water, so a milk dough will feel a little stiffer than a water dough at the same figure.