Baker's Percentage Calculator
Recipes written as "70% hydration, 2% salt" become exact gram weights in seconds; no mental math, no rounding errors.
Your percentages
Enter a recipe in baker's percentages (flour = 100%) and a flour amount, then get gram weights for every ingredient, starter math included.
| Flour | 500 g |
| Water | 350 g |
| Starter | 0 g |
| Salt | 10 g |
| Total dough | 860 g |
Why bakers think in percentages
A percentage formula describes the character of a dough, not its size. When a recipe says 70% water, 20% starter and 2% salt, it means the same bread whether you use 500 g of flour or 5 kg. That makes recipes easy to scale and easy to compare. If a dough is too slack, the percentage tells you exactly which number to turn down.
The starter is the part most people miss. At 100% hydration a starter is half flour and half water, so 20% starter adds 10% flour and 10% water to your totals. This calculator accounts for that, so the water you add plus the water in the starter together give you the true hydration you asked for. For more on how that changes dough behavior, see our hydration guideand the hydration levels chart. When you want to scale a finished recipe instead, use the recipe scaler.
Frequently asked questions
Why is flour always 100% in baker's percentages?
Flour is the fixed reference point. Every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, which makes recipes easy to scale and compare.
What does 70% hydration mean?
The dough has 70 g of water for every 100 g of flour. A 70% dough made with 500 g of flour needs 350 g of water.
How do I convert a cup-based recipe to baker's percentages?
Weigh every ingredient in grams, divide each weight by the flour weight, and multiply by 100. Flour is always 100%.
How does starter affect baker's percentages?
A starter at 100% hydration is half flour and half water. So 20% starter adds 10% flour and 10% water to your totals. This calculator accounts for that hidden flour and water.
What is a typical sourdough formula in baker's percentages?
A common country loaf is 100% flour, 75% water, 20% starter at 100% hydration, and 2% salt. Use those percentages in the calculator to get exact gram weights for any batch size.