Baker's Percentage Calculator
Convert a bread formula between baker's percentages and absolute weights.
About Baker's Percentage Calculator
Baker's percentages are relative to flour weight, and the starter contributes both flour and water that must be counted. Ignoring the starter's contribution is what makes hydration come out wrong. Percentages make formulas scale to any batch size and comparable between bakers, which absolute weights never are.
Formula
Baker's Percentage
Every ingredient is a percentage of total flour weight, which is always 100 per cent
- hydration
- Total water as a percentage of total flour
- starter flour
- Flour contained in the preferment, which counts toward total flour
Worked example
With the default values below, Baker's Percentage Calculator returns Total Dough Weight of 1,914.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Flour weightminimum 1 g
- 1,000 g
- Hydrationaccepts 30–120 %
- 72 %
- Saltaccepts 0–5 %
- 2 %
- Starter or prefermentaccepts 0–100 %
- 20 %
- Starter hydrationaccepts 30–200 %
- 100 %
Results
- Total Dough Weight
- 1,914.0 g
- Water to Add
- 692.0 g
- Salt Weight
- 22.00 g
- Starter Weight
- 200.0 g
- Total Flour Including Starter
- 1,100.0 g
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Baker's Percentage
- 3Total Dough Weight= 1,914.0 g
- 4Water to Add= 692.0 g
- 5Salt Weight= 22.00 g
- 6Starter Weight= 200.0 g
- 7Total Flour Including Starter= 1,100.0 g
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Baker's Percentage calculated?
Every ingredient is a percentage of total flour weight, which is always 100 per cent Baker's percentages are relative to flour weight, and the starter contributes both flour and water that must be counted. Ignoring the starter's contribution is what makes hydration come out wrong.
Why does Baker's Percentage matter?
Percentages make formulas scale to any batch size and comparable between bakers, which absolute weights never are.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Flour weight, Hydration, Salt, Starter or preferment, Starter hydration. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.