Baker's Percentage Calculator

What Are Baker’s Percentages? Baker’s percentage (or baker’s math) is the professional baking standard for expressing ingredient amounts relative to flour weight. Unlike standard recipe percentages (which total 100%), baker’s percentages can exceed 100% — because flour is always the baseline at 100%.

The Formula Baker’s % = (Ingredient Weight / Flour Weight) × 100

For example: a recipe with 500g flour and 350g water has a water baker’s percentage of 70%.

Why Bakers Use This System

• You can scale any recipe instantly by changing the flour amount
• You can compare recipes: a 65% hydration bread is always drier than an 80% one
• You can diagnose problems: if your bread is too dense, check if salt % is too high or yeast too low

Hydration Percentage The water percentage is called hydration. It is the most important baker’s percentage because it determines dough texture:

• Below 60%: Stiff dough: firm, easy to shape (bagels, pretzels)
• 60–70%: Standard dough: easy to handle, good crumb (sandwich bread, dinner rolls)
• 70–80%: Wet dough: slack, sticky, open crumb (sourdough, ciabatta)
• Above 80%: Very wet dough: requires folding technique, not kneading (high-hydration sourdough, focaccia)

Standard Baker’s Percentages

• Salt: 1.8–2.2% (below 1.8% = bland; above 2.5% = inhibits yeast)
• Instant yeast: 0.5–1% (longer fermentation at lower %)
• Active dry yeast: 1–2%
• Sourdough starter: 10–30% (lower = longer proof time)
• Sugar: 0–8% (enriched breads like brioche up to 20%)
• Fat/oil: 0–5% (lean breads) up to 20% (brioche, enriched)

Total Dough Weight Total Weight = Flour + All Ingredients (in grams)