Bread Hydration Calculator
The true hydration of a dough with its sourdough starter split into flour and water, or the water to add to reach the hydration you want.
Result
Hydration: 73%
The total dough is flour plus water; salt and yeast add a little more.
- Total flour
- 550 g (19.4 oz)
- Total water
- 400 g (14.1 oz)
- Flour in the starter
- 50 g (1.8 oz)
- Water in the starter
- 50 g (1.8 oz)
- Total dough
- 950 g (33.5 oz)
https://calcgallery.com/baking/bread-hydration-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 Bread Hydration Calculator
- Enter the flour and water you add, and your starter's weight and hydration. Leave the starter at 0 for a yeasted dough.
- Or choose Water to add and enter the hydration you want; the page works out the water.
- Read the hydration with the starter counted, and the total flour and water it comes from.
Hydration counts every source
Hydration is the weight of all the water in a dough divided by the weight of all the flour. A starter is itself flour and water, so it contributes to both:
starter flour = starter ÷ (1 + starter hydration)starter water = starter − starter flourhydration = (water + starter water) ÷ (flour + starter flour)Adding a 100 g starter at 100% to 500 g of flour and 350 g of water raises the hydration from 70% to 72.7%, because the dough now has 550 g of flour and 400 g of water.
Water for a target
Working the other way, the water to add is the target hydration times the total flour, less the water the starter already brings:
water to add = target × (flour + starter flour) − starter waterWith your numbers
- Hydration = (water + starter water) ÷ (flour + starter flour)
Quick reference
The total dough is flour plus water; salt and yeast add a little more.
| Example | Result |
|---|---|
| 500 g flour, 350 water, 100 g starter | Hydration: 73% |
| Same, no starter | Hydration: 70% |
| Starter at 50% | Hydration: 68% |
| 200 g starter | Hydration: 75% |
| Water for 75% | Water to add: 362.5 g |
| Water for 65%, no starter | Water to add: 325 g |
Common questions about the Bread Hydration Calculator
- How do I count a sourdough starter in hydration?
- Split it into its flour and water and add each to the totals. A starter at 100% hydration is equal weights of flour and water, so 100 g of it is 50 g of each. A starter at 50% hydration is two parts flour to one part water, so 100 g of it is 66.7 g of flour and 33.3 g of water. Leaving the starter out, or counting it as one more ingredient, gives a hydration that is simply wrong.
- Do salt and other ingredients change the hydration?
- Salt, yeast, sugar and other dry additions do not enter the figure, which is water against flour only. Liquids do: milk, eggs and oil can be entered under other liquids if you want them counted as water.
- What hydration should I use?
- That depends on the flour and the bread, and this page does not prescribe one. As a description: a lower hydration gives a stiffer dough that is easier to shape and holds a tighter crumb; a higher one gives a slack, sticky dough that is harder to handle and tends to an open crumb. Whole grain flours absorb more water than white flour at the same figure.
- Why does the page refuse my target?
- If the starter and other liquids already hold more water than the target allows for the total flour, reaching it would need a negative amount of added water. The only way to that hydration is more flour.