Recipe Cost Calculator (Cost per Serving from Ingredients)
The cost of a recipe and of each serving from its ingredients — pack price, pack size and amount used — with the dearest ingredient named.
Inputs
| Ingredient | Cost in recipe | Per serving |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken thighs | 3.60 | 0.90 |
| Rice | 0.75 | 0.19 |
| Onions | 0.40 | 0.10 |
| Spices and oil | 0.40 | 0.10 |
- Working
- total 5.15 ÷ 4 servings = 1.29
- Total recipe cost
- 5.15
- Dearest ingredient
- Chicken thighs — 3.60 (70%)
- Servings
- 4
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- Two lines of HTML, unlimited views
- Shows a small CalculateEveryday bar, with a credit link under the calculator
What each Recipe Cost input means
- Servings the recipe makes
- How many portions the recipe makes.
- Ingredients
- One row per ingredient: the pack's price, the pack's size and how much of it the recipe uses, in the same unit as the size — 600 of a 1,000 g pack, 1 of a bag of 3 onions. Any currency works.
Recipe Cost formula
ingredient cost = pack price × amount used ÷ pack size · recipe cost = sum of ingredient costs · cost per serving = recipe cost ÷ servings
Costing a recipe means charging it only for what it uses. A 1 kg pack of rice at 2.50 contributes 0.75 when the recipe uses 300 g — 2.50 × 300 ÷ 1,000 — not the whole 2.50. Do that for every ingredient, add them up, and divide by the servings for the cost of a plate. Pack size and amount used just have to be in the same unit for each row: grams with grams, millilitres with millilitres, or pieces with pieces (an onion from a bag of three). The page prints the cost of each ingredient and its share of the total, names the one that costs most — usually the meat or the cheese — and gives the per-serving figure that meal planning, a market stall or a menu needs.
Recipe Cost worked example
A chicken and rice dish for 4. Chicken thighs, 600 g from a 1 kg pack at 6.00: 6 × 600 ÷ 1,000 = 3.60. Rice, 300 g from 1 kg at 2.50: 0.75. One onion from a bag of three at 1.20: 0.40. Spices and oil, 10 g of 100 at 4.00: 0.40. The recipe costs 5.15, so each of the four servings is 1.29, and the chicken is 70% of the bill.
More Recipe Cost examples
A pasta bake for six: a whole 500 g bag of pasta at 1.50, two 400 g tins of tomatoes at 1.20 (2.40) and half of a 200 g block of cheese at 4.00 (2.00). The recipe costs 5.90, and the cost per serving is 0.98. The tomatoes are the dearest line at 41%.
Where the Recipe Cost calculator can give the wrong answer
- Pantry staples — oil, salt, spices, stock — are easy to skip and add up; a line for them at a rough share of the pack keeps the total honest.
- Pack size and amount used must share a unit in each row. Mixing a 750 ml bottle with '2 tbsp' needs the tablespoons converted to millilitres (about 30 ml) first.
- Waste is not counted: bones, peel and trimmings you paid for and threw away are part of the pack price, which is why buying whole and using all of it changes the maths.
- Energy, labour and equipment are not in the figure; a restaurant would add them, and a home cook usually does not.
- Prices change; the figure is for the prices you typed today.
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Recipe Cost FAQ
- Cost each ingredient at pack price × amount used ÷ pack size, add them, and divide by the servings. 500 g of pasta at 1.20 a kilo (0.60), a 400 g tin of tomatoes at 0.80, 50 g of cheese from 200 g at 2.40 (0.60) — 2.00 for 4 servings is 0.50 a plate.
- Start with the ingredient cost per serving from this page, add packaging and a share of energy and labour, then set a price — food businesses commonly aim for ingredients to be a quarter to a third of the selling price. The margin calculator on this site turns a cost and a price into a margin.
- The page names the dearest one and its share. If the chicken is 70% of the bill, halving the portion or swapping a cut saves more than any change to the rest; if no single line dominates, the saving is in buying larger packs of the staples.
- Enter the amount used equal to the pack size, and the line costs the full pack price. Ingredients that come in units — eggs, onions, tins — work the same way: pack size 6, used 2.
- Estimate the amount used and price it the same way: 2 tablespoons (30 mL) from a 1 litre bottle of oil at 6.00 is 6 × 30 ÷ 1,000 = 0.18. One 'spices and oil' row with a small amount keeps the sum honest without fuss.
- If you want the full cost, yes: an oven at 2 kW for an hour uses 2 kWh, which at 0.18 a kWh adds 0.36 to the recipe. The electricity calculator gives the figure for your own oven and tariff.
- Start from the cost per serving here, then add your other costs — packaging, labour, overheads — and your margin. The markup calculator turns a cost and a target margin into a price.