Baker's Percentage Calculator
Calculate baker's percentages for any bread or pastry recipe. Express every ingredient as a percentage of total flour weight — the universal language of professional baking.
About this calculator
Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient as a share of total flour weight, with flour always defined as 100% -- this is the standard professional baking convention because it lets a recipe scale to any batch size just by changing the flour weight while every other ingredient's percentage stays fixed. Hydration percentage (water divided by flour) is the figure bakers watch most closely, since it drives crumb structure: lean sandwich breads typically run 60-70% hydration, while wetter artisan loaves like ciabatta can run 75-85% or higher. Because hydration is a ratio of just two ingredients, both flour weight and water weight move it by comparable amounts -- flour weight moves it down (a bigger denominator lowers the ratio) while water weight moves it up, and salt or yeast weight have no effect on hydration at all since they aren't part of that ratio.
Salt typically sits at 1.8-2.2% and instant yeast commonly runs 0.5-2% depending on how much rise time the recipe allows. What this does not account for: ingredient contribution to hydration beyond water itself -- eggs, milk, and other liquid ingredients carry water too, but this calculator's hydration figure only counts what's entered as water weight.
Inputs
Results
Hydration %
65%
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the total flour weight in grams (flour is always 100% in baker's math).
- Enter weights of water, salt, yeast, sugar, and fat in grams.
- The calculator immediately shows each ingredient as a baker's percentage and the total dough weight.
- Compare your percentages to standard ranges (e.g., 60–75% hydration for bread) to evaluate your formula.
- Adjust individual ingredient weights to hit target percentages and rescale by changing flour weight alone.
How the result changes with Flour weight
| Flour weight | Hydration % |
|---|---|
| 500 | 130% |
| 750 | 86.67% |
| 1,500 | 43.33% |
| 2,500 | 26% |
What each input means
- Flour weight
- Total flour weight in grams (always 100% in baker's math).
- Water weight
- Total water (or liquid) weight in grams.
- Salt weight
- Salt weight in grams (typically 1.8–2.2% of flour).
- Yeast weight
- Yeast weight in grams (instant, active dry, or fresh).
- Sugar weight
- Sugar or sweetener weight in grams.
- Fat weight
- Butter, oil, or other fat weight in grams.
What each result means
- Hydration %
- Water as a percentage of flour weight.
- Salt %
- Salt as a percentage of flour weight.
- Yeast %
- Yeast as a percentage of flour weight.
- Sugar %
- Sugar as a percentage of flour weight.
- Fat %
- Fat as a percentage of flour weight.
- Total dough weight
- Sum of all ingredient weights.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters6 parametersFlour weight = 1000, Water weight = 650, Salt weight = 20, Yeast weight = 5, Sugar weight = 0, Fat weight = 0 = 6 input(s) provided
- Calculate Hydration %Hydration %65 = 65%
- Calculate Salt %Salt %2 = 2%
- Calculate Yeast %Yeast %0.5 = 0.5%
Engine last updated . Checked against 1 independently-derived test — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is flour always treated as 100% in baker's percentages?
Flour is the anchor ingredient every other ingredient is measured against, so setting it to 100% by definition lets a recipe scale to any batch size just by changing the flour weight -- every other ingredient's percentage stays exactly the same. This is the standard convention professional bakers use worldwide, which makes recipes portable between kitchens regardless of batch size.
Why do both flour weight and water weight move hydration percentage?
Hydration percentage is simply water weight divided by flour weight, so it's a ratio between exactly two numbers -- increasing water weight raises the ratio, while increasing flour weight lowers it (since flour is the denominator). Salt, yeast, sugar, and fat weight don't appear in that ratio at all, so none of them move hydration percentage regardless of how much you change them.
What hydration percentage should I target for bread dough?
Lean sandwich and table breads typically run 60-70% hydration, producing a firmer, easier-to-handle dough, while wetter artisan styles like ciabatta or focaccia often run 75-85% or higher for a more open, irregular crumb. Higher hydration doughs are stickier and harder to shape but generally produce a lighter, chewier crumb once baked.
Does this calculator account for water contributed by eggs or milk?
No -- hydration percentage here is calculated strictly from the Water weight input, so liquid contributed by eggs, milk, or other wet ingredients isn't folded into that figure even though it does hydrate the dough in practice. If your recipe uses milk or eggs as part of the liquid, you'll need to account for their water content separately when comparing to standard hydration ranges.
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