Baker's Percentage Calculator
Baker's percentage, also called baker's math, is the professional system bakers use to express every ingredient in a recipe as a percentage of the total flour weight, with flour fixed at 100%. This calculator works out those percentages and scales a recipe to any batch size while keeping the same ratios. Enter your flour, water, salt and yeast weights in grams, add extra ingredients such as sugar or butter using the additional ingredient rows, then optionally enter a target flour weight to rescale the whole recipe, and switch between grams and ounces. The results show flour at 100%, the hydration percentage (water as a share of flour), the total dough weight, and the total baker's percentage across every ingredient. An ingredient breakdown table below lists each item's weight, percentage, scaled weight and proportion bar, alongside a hydration indicator showing whether the dough is stiff, standard, high-hydration or very wet. Use it to check a recipe's hydration and salt levels at a glance, compare formulas from different sources, or convert a favourite recipe into a different batch size without doing the maths by hand. Because every figure is driven by the flour weight you enter, keep that measurement accurate; actual dough behaviour still depends on your flour's absorption, humidity and technique, so treat the percentages as a formula guide rather than a guarantee of the finished result.
1. Core Ingredients
Additional Ingredients
2. Scale Recipe
Change the flour weight below to scale the whole recipe. All ingredient weights will update to maintain the same percentages.
Target Flour Weight
Ingredient Breakdown
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker's % | Scaled Weight | Proportion |
|---|
What is Baker's Percentage?
Baker's percentage is a notation system used by professional bakers to express the weight of every ingredient relative to the total weight of flour in a recipe. Flour is always set at 100%, and every other ingredient is calculated as a proportion of that flour weight. It is sometimes called baker's math or baker's ratio.
For example, if a bread recipe uses 500 g of flour and 350 g of water, the water percentage is 350 divided by 500 multiplied by 100, which equals 70%. The total baker's percentages in a recipe will always exceed 100% because flour itself is 100% and every other ingredient adds to the total.
The Formula
For any ingredient:
Baker's % = (Ingredient weight / Flour weight) x 100
To find a scaled ingredient weight from a known percentage and a new flour weight:
Scaled weight = (Baker's % / 100) x New flour weight
Worked Example (Default Values)
With the default inputs of 500 g flour, 350 g water, 10 g salt, and 5 g yeast:
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 500 g | 100% |
| Water | 350 g | 70% |
| Salt | 10 g | 2% |
| Yeast | 5 g | 1% |
| Total | 865 g | 173% |
This is a 70% hydration dough, typical of a moderately open-crumbed loaf. To scale this recipe to 1,000 g of flour, multiply each weight by 2 (1,000 / 500 = 2): 1,000 g flour, 700 g water, 20 g salt, 10 g yeast.
Why Bakers Use This System
Percentages make recipes scale-independent. A professional baker making 50 kg of dough and a home baker making 800 g use the same formula percentages. You can compare two bread recipes at a glance by looking at their hydration and salt percentages, even if the batch sizes are completely different. The system also makes it easy to adjust a single ingredient without recalculating everything from scratch.
Common Baker's Percentage Ranges
| Dough Type | Hydration (%) | Salt (%) | Yeast (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandwich loaf (beginner) | 65-68% | 1.8-2% | 1-1.5% (instant) |
| French baguette | 65-70% | 2% | 0.3-0.5% (instant) |
| Sourdough (mild) | 70-75% | 2-2.2% | 15-20% (starter) |
| Sourdough (open crumb) | 78-85% | 2% | 15-20% (starter) |
| Pizza dough (Neapolitan) | 60-65% | 2-2.8% | 0.1-0.3% (instant) |
| Focaccia | 75-80% | 2% | 0.5-1% (instant) |
| Brioche | 50-60% | 1.8% | 1.5-2% (instant) |
Using Multiple Flours
When a recipe uses two or more types of flour (such as bread flour and wholemeal), the convention is to use the combined total flour weight as the base (100%). Each individual flour is then also expressed as a percentage of that combined total. For example, 400 g of bread flour and 100 g of wholemeal flour gives a combined flour weight of 500 g; the bread flour is 80% and the wholemeal is 20%. Add both individual flour percentages together and you get 100%.
Related Calculators
- Maths and Stats Calculators: all maths, ratio, and percentage tools.
- Percentage Calculator: general percentage of any number.
- Ratio Calculator: simplify and compare ratios.
- Percentage Change Calculator: increase or decrease between two values.
Sources and method: Baker's percentage is an industry-standard notation described in professional baking texts including The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart) and Modernist Bread (Myhrvold and Migoya). Formula: ingredient baker's % = (ingredient weight / total flour weight) x 100. Flour is always set to 100%. This calculator applies the standard convention where multiple flour types are summed to form the 100% base.
This calculator is for reference only. Actual results when baking depend on flour absorption, ambient temperature, humidity, mixing technique, and fermentation time. Use percentages as a starting point and adjust to your ingredients and conditions.