Beverage Cost Calculator

Pour cost is the bar industry's core cost-control metric: the cost of the liquor in a drink as a percentage of what you charge for it. This calculator computes it as Cost Per Pour (Bottle Cost divided by Pours Per Bottle) divided by Selling Price, expressed as a percentage. A lower pour cost percentage means more of the menu price is going to profit rather than covering the ingredient.

Most bar operators target roughly 18-20% pour cost for spirits and a bit higher, around 22-25%, for wine and specialty cocktails that require more preparation or premium ingredients. This calculator's Ideal Price (18% pour cost) and Ideal Price (22% pour cost) outputs show what you'd need to charge at your current cost per pour to hit each benchmark.

No. Pour Cost %, Cost Per Pour, Profit Per Drink, and both Ideal Price outputs are all per-drink unit economics that depend only on Bottle Cost, Bottle Size, Pour Size, and Selling Price. Monthly Sales Volume only feeds into Monthly Profit, which multiplies your per-drink profit by how many you actually sell in a month — so it scales a profit into a bigger profit, but it just as directly scales an underpriced, money-losing pour into a bigger loss.

Pour Size sits in the denominator of Pours Per Bottle (Bottle Size divided by Pour Size), so a larger pour means fewer total pours from the same bottle and a higher cost allocated to each one. Standardizing pour size with a jigger or metered pourer is one of the most direct ways bars control cost per drink, since inconsistent free-pouring tends to drift toward larger, more expensive pours over time.

Pour Cost % is Cost Per Pour divided by Selling Price, so for a fixed ingredient cost, raising the menu price directly lowers the percentage without touching your supplier relationships or pour size. It's often the fastest lever available, though it has an obvious ceiling — price increases that outpace what customers are willing to pay will cost you in sales volume instead.