Recipe Cost Calculator & Menu Price Optimizer
Cost every recipe per portion, then price the menu for the food cost you want.
Try before you buy.
- Free preview: the cost, food cost % and suggested menu price of your first 3 recipes in full; later recipes keep your lines with their costs and prices hidden.
- Locked until you unlock it: download and copy.
- Unlock: Premium pass, ₹799 for 30 days or ₹249 for 1 week, a one-time payment that never renews. Unlock: Premium pass, $19.99 for 30 days or $7.99 for 1 week, a one-time payment that never renews.
Ways to unlock shows how to get the full result.
Printing this result is locked in the free preview.
Cost your first recipe
Name the dish, then add each ingredient with the quantity that goes in, what a pack costs you and how much of it is usable. The cost a portion, the food cost % and the menu price for your target follow at once.
The recipe
Ingredients
Quantity: what goes into one batch. Pack and price: what you buy and pay, so the pack price is shared by every recipe that uses it. Yield: the share of what you buy that ends up in the dish after peeling, trimming or cooking loss (100% if you use it as bought).
| Ingredient or sub-recipe | Quantity | Unit | Pack | Pack unit | Pack price | Yield % | Cost | Remove |
|---|
Method and notes (printed on the recipe card)
Cost and price
Suggested menu price
Where the cost goes
Bring in a price list
A supplier's price list or your purchase sheet as CSV or Excel: ingredient, pack (5 kg, or quantity and unit), price, and if you have it the yield %. Known names get the new price (the old one is kept for the price-change report); new names are added.
Your ingredients
Prices and tax
Your data
Kept in this browser on this device only. Download a backup to move it to another device or to keep it safe; backups and your ingredient list always download, also without a pass.
Locked in the free preview. Opens the ways to unlock this result.
Locked in the free preview. Batch runs unlock with a pass.
Locked in the free preview. Query results unlock with a pass.
Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
How this tool is checked
- Based on
- the method set out under ‘How the cost is worked out’.
- Sources
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This guide cites 6 sources, among them:
- Tests
- 31 automated tests check its results.
- Found an error?
- Report a problem or write to support@mysmartcopilot.com, with what you entered and the result you expected.
About the Recipe Cost Calculator & Menu Price Optimizer
Know what every plate costs before you price it. Add each ingredient with what goes into the dish, what a pack costs you and how much of it is usable after peeling, trimming or cooking loss (its yield). The calculator works out the cost a portion, the food cost % at your menu price and the profit a portion, and suggests the menu price that meets your target — a food cost %, a gross margin, a markup or a profit a portion — rounded up to the price ending you choose, with India's GST on restaurant bills, or your own VAT or sales tax, added or included.
Ingredient prices live in one library, so a new price from a supplier moves every recipe that uses it, and the price-change report shows which dishes it hit. Sub-recipes (gravies, doughs, prep) cost into the dishes that use them, a Q factor covers the oil, spices and garnish you do not list, and packaging counts for takeaway. With delivery apps switched on, each dish also gets the price to list on an app so that it earns the same.
The free preview costs your first 3 recipes in full; every later recipe keeps what you typed and shows its costs and prices with a Premium pass, which also unlocks the menu costing report, recipe cost cards, the workbook and the price list. Your recipes stay in this browser on this device.
How to use it
- Press New recipe and name the dish. Choose a dish on the menu (how many portions one batch makes) or a sub-recipe such as a gravy (what one batch makes, for example 3 l).
- Add each ingredient: the quantity that goes into one batch and its unit, then the pack you buy (5 kg, 1 l, 30 pc), the price you pay for it and its yield %. Type a sub-recipe’s name to use it as a line.
- Enter the price on the menu now to see the food cost % and the profit a portion, and read the suggested menu price for your target. Set the target, the tax on the bill, the rounding and the Q factor in Settings & data.
- Open Menu prices for every dish side by side and for what the last price changes did; bring a supplier’s price list in under Ingredients.
- The menu costing report, recipe cost cards, workbook and price list download with a Premium pass; until then the page is a free preview that costs your first 3 recipes in full.
Examples
Onions at ₹35 a kg with a 90% yield · 180 g peeled onion in the recipe
180 g ÷ 0.90 = 200 g bought = ₹7.00
Ingredients ₹64.00 · Q factor 5% · 4 portions · ₹2 packaging a portion
₹67.20 a batch → ₹16.80 a portion + ₹2.00 packaging = ₹18.80
Cost ₹96.20 a portion · target food cost 30% · 5% GST · prices ending in 9
₹96.20 ÷ 0.30 = ₹320.67 → ₹329 on the menu; the guest pays ₹345.45; food cost 29.24%
Gravy: 2 kg tomatoes ₹80 + 100 g butter ₹57, makes 2 l · 500 ml of it in a dish
₹137 ÷ 2 l = ₹68.50 a litre; the dish’s 500 ml costs ₹34.25
Menu price ₹329, cost ₹96.20 · the app takes 25% commission plus 18% tax on it that you cannot claim back
The app keeps 29.5% of the price: list the dish at ₹469 to keep at least the ₹232.80 profit a portion
Common uses
- A restaurant or café costing its menu and setting prices for a target food cost.
- A cloud kitchen adding packaging to every dish and pricing it for delivery apps.
- A bakery or sweet shop costing doughs, syrups and fillings as sub-recipes.
- A caterer checking which dishes a new supplier price list makes too cheap.
How the cost is worked out
- Cost of a pack unit = pack price ÷ pack size (a 5 kg bag at ₹550 is ₹110 a kg).
- Cost of a line = quantity used ÷ yield × cost of a pack unit, with the quantity in the pack’s unit: you buy more than ends up in the dish.
- Batch cost = the lines + the Q factor (a per cent of the lines).
- Cost a portion = batch cost ÷ portions + packaging a portion. A sub-recipe costs batch cost ÷ what one batch makes, and a dish pays for the share it uses.
- Food cost % = cost a portion ÷ the price before tax × 100; gross margin % = 100 − food cost %; profit a portion = price before tax − cost a portion (− composition tax under the composition scheme).
- Weight and volume convert through a density (grams in 1 ml), pieces and weight through the weight of one piece; spoons and cups are metric (5, 15 and 250 ml).
Menu prices, targets and tax
The price before tax that meets a target is cost ÷ target food cost (30% → cost ÷ 0.30), cost ÷ (1 − target margin), cost × markup, or cost + profit a portion. It is rounded up to the price ending you choose, so rounding never takes a dish over its food cost target, and the food cost % is worked out again at the rounded price. When tax is added on the bill the menu shows the price before tax; when menu prices include VAT, the price before tax is the menu price ÷ (1 + rate).
In India, restaurant service other than at specified premises is taxed at 5% (2.5% CGST + 2.5% SGST) without input tax credit, whether the food is eaten in or taken away (Notification No. 20/2019-Central Tax (Rate)); restaurants at specified premises charge 18% with credit. Specified premises are those from where hotel rooms above ₹7,500 a unit a day were supplied in the preceding financial year, or that a hotel declared as such (Notification No. 05/2025-Central Tax (Rate)); a stand-alone restaurant cannot declare itself one (Recommendations of the 56th meeting of the GST Council (PIB)). On orders through food delivery apps the app pays the GST, unless the restaurant is at specified premises (Notification No. 17/2021-Central Tax (Rate)), and under the composition scheme you charge no GST and pay 5% of your turnover yourself (CGST Rules, 2017, rule 7). Elsewhere, enter your VAT or sales tax rate on restaurant food.
Yields, the Q factor and packaging
- Yield %: weigh a typical pack before and after peeling, trimming or boning, and divide what is usable by what you bought. Yield tables such as the USDA Food Buying Guide give typical figures, but your own produce and your cooks decide yours; the Food Waste Cost Calculator runs yield tests.
- Q factor: a per cent added to the lines for the small things not worth listing — oil for the pan, salt, spices, garnish. Set a default in Settings & data and change it for any recipe.
- Packaging or other cost a portion: a takeaway box, a napkin, a sauce pot. It is added after the batch is divided into portions.
When a supplier’s price changes
Save a new pack price (in a recipe’s line, in Ingredients, or by bringing in a price list) and every recipe with that ingredient is costed again at once. The price before the change is kept, so Menu prices shows how much each ingredient moved and what that did to each dish’s cost a portion, food cost % and suggested price: the list to check before you reprint the menu.
Limitations
- Costs are only as good as the pack prices, yields and quantities you enter: the calculator knows no market prices.
- Labour, gas, rent and other overheads are not part of the food cost; add packaging and other costs a portion in the recipe.
- The US cup, US fluid ounce and US gallon are separate units from the metric cup and spoons; weight and volume convert only with a density, pieces and weight only with the weight of one piece.
- The India GST rates come from the official notifications linked above; check the rate that applies to your premises. The figures are an estimate for pricing, not tax advice.
- Your data is kept in this browser on this device: download a backup in Settings & data to move it or keep it safe.
Privacy
On this device; its files download once
Your recipes, ingredients and prices stay in this browser on this device; nothing you type or import is uploaded. A price list you bring in is read on this device.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get without a pass?
Without a pass, Recipe Cost Calculator & Menu Price Optimizer shows the cost, food cost % and suggested menu price of your first 3 recipes in full; later recipes keep your lines with their costs and prices hidden. Until you unlock it, the result can’t be downloaded or copied. A Premium or Ultimate pass, a one-time payment that never renews, unlocks the full result. The pricing page lists the passes and their prices.
What is a good food cost percentage?
The one your prices, rent, wages and other costs can carry: a dish with a 30% food cost leaves 70% of its price before tax for everything else and the profit. The calculator starts at 30% only as a starting point; set your own default in Settings & data, or give a dish its own target (a drink may run lower, a premium cut higher).
Why is the food cost worked out on the price before tax?
The tax collected on a bill belongs to the government, not to the restaurant, so it cannot pay for food. Working on the price before tax keeps the food cost % the same whether the tax is added on the bill or included in the menu price.
Should pack prices include GST?
Enter what an ingredient really costs you. A restaurant charging 5% GST takes no input tax credit, so the GST it pays on purchases is a cost: enter purchase prices with GST. At specified premises charging 18% with credit, enter them without the GST you claim back.
How many recipes can I keep?
As many as you like, in this browser. The free preview costs the first 3 recipes you make in full; later recipes keep their lines and show their costs and prices with a Premium pass.
What is a sub-recipe?
A preparation you make in a batch and use in several dishes: a makhani gravy, a pizza dough, a sugar syrup. Mark the recipe as a sub-recipe and say what one batch makes (3 l, 2 kg, 40 pc); then type its name in a line of a dish, in any unit of the same kind, and the dish pays for the share it uses.
Can I move my recipes to another device?
Yes. Download a backup (JSON) in Settings & data and restore it on the other device, or download your ingredient list as CSV. Your own data always downloads, also in the free preview.