What is baker's percentage?

Baker's percentage (or baker's math) expresses every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight. Flour is always 100%. If a recipe uses 500g of flour and 340g of water, the water is 68%. The system makes any recipe scalable: change the flour weight and every other ingredient follows from its percentage.

How do you calculate baker's percentages?

From grams to a percentage: divide the ingredient weight by the flour weight and multiply by 100. From a percentage to grams: multiply the flour weight by the percentage and divide by 100. With 500g of flour, salt at 2% is 500 × 2 ÷ 100 = 10g. This calculator does both directions live.

Why do the percentages add up to more than 100%?

Because they are ratios against flour, not shares of the dough. A loaf at 100% flour, 68% water, 2% salt, and 1% yeast totals 171%. That is normal and expected. The total percentage is still useful: total dough weight equals flour weight × total percentage ÷ 100.

What are typical baker's percentages for bread?

For a lean loaf: water 60–80%, salt 1.8–2.2%, and instant yeast 0.5–2% depending on fermentation time, or sourdough starter at 15–25%. Enriched doughs add sugar at 10–20%, butter anywhere from 10% to 50%, and eggs at 20–60% of flour weight.

How do I convert baker's percentages to cups and spoons?

Convert the percentage to grams first, then divide by the ingredient's density. A cup of water is about 237g, a cup of bread flour about 127g spoon-and-level, and a teaspoon of table salt about 6g. This calculator shows the nearest practical measure next to every gram weight. Treat the volumes as approximations; the gram weights are the recipe.

Is flour still 100% when a recipe uses more than one flour?

Yes. All the flours together make up the 100%. A dough with 400g bread flour and 100g whole wheat is 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat, and water at 70% means 350g against the combined 500g. Enter the combined flour weight in this calculator and treat the split as percentages of it.

Baker's Percentage Calculator

Flour is 100%. Set your flour weight, dial in the percentages, and read every ingredient in grams and cups.

Updated August 2026

Baker's percentage is the system professional bakers use to write recipes: every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight. This calculator turns that system into a working formula sheet. Give it your flour weight and it converts every percentage to grams instantly, in either direction, with an approximate cup or spoon measure beside each weight for the days you cannot find the scale.

Table of contents

-Using the calculator
-How baker's percentage works
-Typical percentages by ingredient
-From grams to cups and spoons
-Worked example
-Frequently asked questions
-Sources

Baker's percentage quick reference

Flour: Always 100%Every other ingredient is measured against it; multiple flours share the 100% together
Formula: grams = flour × % ÷ 100And back: % = grams ÷ flour × 100
Water (lean bread): 60–80% of flour
Salt: 1.8–2.2% of flour
Instant yeast: 0.5–2% of flourLower for long, cold ferments
Sourdough starter: 15–25% of flour

Percentage convention per AACC International; ranges reflect King Arthur Baking’s guidance and practitioner consensus (Hamelman). Densities for the volume equivalents are the same USDA and King Arthur figures used by the weight converter.

Limitations

Percentages deliberately sum past 100; they are ratios against flour, not shares of the dough. Volume equivalents are approximations from spoon-and-level densities; a packed cup of flour runs about 20% heavier. Weigh when accuracy matters.

Using the calculator

Start with the flour row: pick your flour type and enter its weight in grams. The flour type only affects the cup equivalents (bread flour packs about 127g into a cup, all-purpose about 120g); the percentages work the same for any flour.

Every other row works in both directions. Type a percentage and the gram weight updates; type a gram weight and the percentage updates. That second direction is the useful one when you are reverse-engineering a recipe you already have: enter its gram amounts and read off what percentages it really uses.

Add ingredients from the list (each arrives with a sensible starting percentage), remove them with the ×, and watch the total dough weight at the bottom. Share result copies a link that reproduces your whole formula.

How baker's percentage works

One rule generates the whole system: flour is 100%, and every other ingredient is weighed against it.

ingredient grams = flour grams × (baker's % ÷ 100)

baker's % = (ingredient grams ÷ flour grams) × 100

The percentages describe the dough independent of batch size, which is why bakers trade recipes as “68% hydration, 2% salt, 1% yeast” rather than gram lists. Change the flour weight and the formula scales itself. The percentages will sum well past 100; that is by design, since they are ratios against flour rather than slices of the whole. For the full story, read what is baker's math?

Typical percentages by ingredient

These are the working ranges for bread doughs. Treat them as starting points and adjust for your flour and schedule.

Ingredient	Typical range	Notes
Water	60–80%	Lower for bagels and sandwich bread, higher for artisan and ciabatta
Salt	1.8–2.2%	Below 1.5% tastes flat; above 2.5% slows fermentation
Instant yeast	0.5–2%	Less for long or cold ferments
Sourdough starter	15–25%	Counts as flour and water too; see the hydration calculator
Sugar	10–20%	Enriched doughs; inhibits yeast above about 15%
Butter	10–50%	10% soft sandwich loaf, 50% rich brioche
Egg	20–60%	Enriched doughs; an egg is roughly three quarters water

From grams to cups and spoons

The calculator shows an approximate household measure next to every gram weight, using per-ingredient densities (a cup of water weighs about 237g; a spoon-and-level cup of bread flour about 127g; a teaspoon of table salt about 6g). Cups snap to the quarters and thirds a measuring set actually has, tablespoons to halves, teaspoons to quarters.

Treat those volumes as a courtesy, not the recipe. Flour measured by the cup swings by 20% or more depending on how it is scooped, which is enough to move a 68% dough to the low 60s or high 70s. The gram column is the formula; the cup column is for the day your scale battery dies. For single-ingredient conversions in both directions, use the baking weight converter.

Worked example

The calculator's default formula is a simple lean loaf on 500g of bread flour. Here is the full arithmetic:

Water at 68%: 500 × 0.68 = 340g, roughly 1½ cups.
Salt at 2%: 500 × 0.02 = 10g, roughly 1¾ tsp of table salt.
Instant yeast at 1%: 500 × 0.01 = 5g, roughly 1¾ tsp.
Total: 100 + 68 + 2 + 1 = 171%, so the dough weighs 500 × 1.71 = 855g.

Going the other way: a recipe hands you 500g flour and 325g water and you want to know what it is. Type 325 into the water's gram field and the percentage reads 65%; a firmer, sandwich-style dough. That is the entire skill of reading recipes in baker's math, and the calculator does the division for you.

Frequently asked questions

What is baker's percentage?: Baker's percentage (or baker's math) expresses every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight. Flour is always 100%. If a recipe uses 500g of flour and 340g of water, the water is 68%. The system makes any recipe scalable: change the flour weight and every other ingredient follows from its percentage.
How do you calculate baker's percentages?: From grams to a percentage: divide the ingredient weight by the flour weight and multiply by 100. From a percentage to grams: multiply the flour weight by the percentage and divide by 100. With 500g of flour, salt at 2% is 500 × 2 ÷ 100 = 10g. This calculator does both directions live.
Why do the percentages add up to more than 100%?: Because they are ratios against flour, not shares of the dough. A loaf at 100% flour, 68% water, 2% salt, and 1% yeast totals 171%. That is normal and expected. The total percentage is still useful: total dough weight equals flour weight × total percentage ÷ 100.
What are typical baker's percentages for bread?: For a lean loaf: water 60–80%, salt 1.8–2.2%, and instant yeast 0.5–2% depending on fermentation time, or sourdough starter at 15–25%. Enriched doughs add sugar at 10–20%, butter anywhere from 10% to 50%, and eggs at 20–60% of flour weight.
How do I convert baker's percentages to cups and spoons?: Convert the percentage to grams first, then divide by the ingredient's density. A cup of water is about 237g, a cup of bread flour about 127g spoon-and-level, and a teaspoon of table salt about 6g. This calculator shows the nearest practical measure next to every gram weight. Treat the volumes as approximations; the gram weights are the recipe.
Is flour still 100% when a recipe uses more than one flour?: Yes. All the flours together make up the 100%. A dough with 400g bread flour and 100g whole wheat is 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat, and water at 70% means 350g against the combined 500g. Enter the combined flour weight in this calculator and treat the split as percentages of it.

Sources

AACC International (Cereals & Grains Association). Baker's percentage convention: flour as the 100% reference.
King Arthur Baking Company. Baker's Percentage: The Math Behind the Recipe. kingarthurbaking.com
King Arthur Baking Company. Ingredient Weight Chart. kingarthurbaking.com Densities behind the cup and spoon equivalents, alongside USDA FoodData Central.
Hamelman, J. Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Baker's percentage practice in production baking.

The formula, densities, and edge cases are documented on the methodology page.

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