Free Food Cost Calculator
Enter what a dish or drink costs you to make and what you charge for it — get food cost %, margin, and markup instantly. No signup, no card, nothing saved.
Ingredients
Food cost %
Margin
Markup
🟢 Healthy food cost for most menu categories. 🟡 On the higher side — still workable for some categories, worth a second look. 🔴 High for most categories — see the benchmark table below.
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getCostify saves every ingredient and recipe, converts units automatically, and exports a branded PDF tech card in one click.
Try getCostify free →How this calculator works
Food cost % is your total ingredient cost divided by your selling price. Margin is the share of that price that's actual profit. Markup is how much you added on top of cost — a different number from margin for the exact same profit. If the difference between margin and markup isn't obvious yet, this explains it with a worked example.
Benchmark food cost % by menu type
| Menu type | Typical food cost % |
|---|---|
| Fine dining | 28–35% |
| Casual / full-service dining | 28–32% |
| Fast-casual / quick service | 25–30% |
| Coffee & beverages | 15–25% |
| Bakery items | 15–25% |
Treat these as a sanity-check, not a rule — a coffee shop with unusually high rent might deliberately target the low end on purpose. For the full breakdown, see how to calculate food cost percentage.
The limit of a quick calculator like this one
This tool is deliberately simple — one dish, calculated once. The moment ingredient prices change, or you want to check 20 menu items instead of one, re-entering everything by hand gets old fast. GetCostify keeps every ingredient and recipe saved, handles unit conversion, and recalculates automatically whenever a price changes — the free plan covers up to 15 ingredients and 3 recipes.