The Forager Lab
Cocktail Cost & Pour Cost Calculator
Price cocktails with confidence, understand your actual pour cost, and scale ingredient purchasing for service.
About the cocktail cost calculator
Built for bars, beverage programs, consultants, and working bartenders, this calculator turns bottle prices and recipe quantities into practical menu and batch-costing numbers.
See ingredient cost per cocktail, actual pour cost, suggested menu price, gross profit, batch cost, and packages required.
Pour cost is ingredient cost divided by menu price. A $3 cocktail sold for $15 has a 20% pour cost.
Waste is the share lost to spills, spoilage, trimming, or unusable yield. At 5% waste, the calculator costs the recipe against the remaining 95%.
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Recipe setup
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Ingredients
For house-made syrups, cordials, or infusions, enter the total batch cost as the purchase price and the final usable yield as the package size.
Calibrate dashes and drops
Defaults are planning estimates. For accuracy, dispense 20 dashes or drops from your actual bottle, measure the total volume, and divide by 20.
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Costing results
Untitled cocktail
Cost per cocktail
$0.00 Ingredients and listed consumablesActual pour cost
— Enter a menu priceSuggested menu price
$0.00 At 20% target pour costGross profit per cocktail
$0.00 0% gross margin04
Cost and batch breakdown
| Ingredient | Per cocktail | Cost share | Needed for 1 | Packages needed | Batch cost used |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add ingredient details to see the breakdown. | |||||
Pour cost, waste, and pricing formulas
Ingredient cost: package price × amount used ÷ usable package yield. Waste reduces usable yield before cost is calculated.
Waste: the percentage of a purchased ingredient that cannot be served because of spills, spoilage, trimming, evaporation, breakage, or other loss. For example, 5% waste means 95% of the package is usable.
Actual pour cost: cocktail cost ÷ menu price × 100. It shows what percentage of the selling price is spent on the ingredients entered here.
Target pour cost: the percentage your bar aims to spend on ingredients. Targets vary by concept, pricing strategy, ingredient quality, and operating costs.
Suggested menu price: cocktail cost ÷ target pour-cost percentage.
Gross profit shown here is revenue minus the costs entered in this calculator. It does not automatically include labor, rent, taxes, payment processing, or other overhead unless you add those costs as ingredients or consumables.
Professional bar costing
Cocktail Costing FAQ
Practical answers to common questions about ingredient cost, pour cost, waste, and profitable cocktail pricing.
How do you calculate the cost of a cocktail?
Calculate the cost of every ingredient used in one serving, then add those amounts together. For each ingredient, divide the package price by its usable package volume or count and multiply that unit cost by the recipe quantity. Include spirits, liqueurs, juices, syrups, bitters, garnishes, and other consumables that materially affect the drink’s cost. This calculator performs those conversions automatically and can scale the finished calculation to a larger batch.
What is pour cost in a bar?
Pour cost is the percentage of a cocktail’s selling price spent on its ingredients. Divide the ingredient cost per cocktail by the menu price and multiply by 100. For example, a drink that costs $3 to make and sells for $15 has a 20% pour cost. Pour cost helps bar teams compare recipes, evaluate menu prices, and understand how much gross profit remains before labor, rent, taxes, and other operating expenses.
What is a good pour-cost percentage for cocktails?
There is no universal pour-cost percentage that works for every bar. The right target depends on the concept, local pricing, ingredient quality, portion size, expected sales volume, labor, and overhead. A useful target should support the guest experience while leaving enough gross profit to cover the rest of the business. Enter your own target percentage in the calculator to compare the current recipe with the menu price needed to reach that goal.
How should ingredient waste be included in cocktail costing?
Waste should reduce the amount of a package considered usable. Common losses include spills, spoilage, evaporation, citrus trimming, damaged garnishes, and liquid left behind during straining or transferring. If a product has 5% waste, only 95% of its purchased volume or count is available for service. The calculator spreads the package price across that smaller usable yield, creating a more realistic ingredient cost than assuming every purchased unit is served.
How do you price a cocktail for profit?
Start with the complete ingredient cost per cocktail, choose a target pour-cost percentage appropriate for the business, and divide the cocktail cost by that target expressed as a decimal. A $3 cocktail cost divided by a 20% target produces a suggested menu price of $15. Treat that result as a pricing reference rather than an automatic final price, then consider labor, prep time, glassware, local demand, taxes, service style, and the rest of the menu.