Menu Pricing Calculator

What this calculator includes

• Calculate privately in this tab without an account.
• Use one connected workflow for recipe cost, period food usage and selling-price decisions.
• Keep ingredients, variable contribution and monthly funding requirements distinct.
• Use explicit weight, volume and count units without assuming ingredient density.
• View worked examples, formulas and source references.

How to test a menu price after fees

1. Use ingredient cost per serving or whole item from the recipe calculator.
2. Add sale-dependent labor, packaging and other non-percentage costs once.
3. Enter fees, your chosen ingredient percentage and contribution percentage separately.
4. Enter the selling price you actually want to test. The alternative price outputs do not automatically replace it.
5. Define the monthly funding requirement and the comparable expected sales and capacity. Review fixed scope and owner compensation carefully.
6. Compare the required whole units, capacity and contribution at expected volume before treating a price as feasible.

Food-cost, contribution and capacity price formulas

Ingredient-target price = ingredient cost ÷ target ingredient rate. It excludes the other variable costs when setting price.

Contribution-target price = all non-percentage variable cost ÷ (1 − fee rate − target contribution rate). The denominator must be positive.

At the tested price, contribution = price × (1 − fee rate) − non-percentage variable cost. Required units = ceiling(monthly funding requirement ÷ positive contribution).

Whole monthly capacity = floor(weekly capacity × 52/12). Capacity funding price = (variable cost + monthly requirement ÷ whole monthly capacity) ÷ (1 − fee rate), rounded upward. Zero capacity has no capacity-based price.

Checked pricing and capacity comparison

The default costs total $10. A $20 ingredient-target price leaves $20 × 0.97 − $10 = $9.40 contribution. A 55% contribution target needs $10 ÷ 0.42 = $23.8095…, rounded upward to $23.81.

At the entered $22 price, contribution is $11.34. A $20,000 monthly requirement needs 1,764 whole sales. Weekly capacity of 400 gives 1,733 whole monthly units; the target does not fit.

Expected volume of 1,700 leaves $19,278 contribution and a $722 shortfall against the requirement. The capacity-based price floor is $22.21, assuming all 1,733 available monthly units sell. This is not evidence customers will pay that price.

Check price, scope and deliverable demand together

1. Keep a serving, a whole cake and a customer check as separate possible units; match every cost and capacity entry.
2. For multiple items, use a stable representative mix or run separate scenarios. Do not assign the full overhead to every item.
3. If expanding capacity adds payroll or equipment commitments, revise the monthly requirement before comparing the new result.
4. After a price change, review paid volume, portion practice, contribution and kitchen time using actual records.

Assumptions and limits

One consistently defined selling unit and a stable cost/channel mix. Percentage fees stay constant. Required monthly units round up; capacity uses weekly units × 52/12 and rounds down. Price floors round up to cents. The funding requirement includes only entered fixed commitments, additional owner compensation and profit goal. Existing labor compensation must not be duplicated. No seating, kitchen bottleneck, demand prediction or accounting net-profit calculation is provided.

Frequently asked questions

Method references

• Restaurant recipe costing — RestoMetrics
• Weight and volume conversions — NIST
• Break-even contribution method — SBA