How the baker's percentage calculator works
Baker's percentages express each ingredient as a share of the total flour weight, which is always 100%. This makes recipes easy to compare and scale.
Hydration = Water ÷ Flour × 100
Scale factor = Target dough weight ÷ Current dough weight
Typical ranges: sandwich bread 60% to 65% hydration, artisan and sourdough loaves 70% to 80%, Neapolitan pizza about 60% to 65% and ciabatta 75% to 85%. Salt is usually 1.8% to 2.2%. Instant yeast runs about 0.5% to 1.5%, while sourdough starter is often 10% to 25%. If you use a 100% hydration starter, half its weight is flour and half water; add those to the totals for the true hydration.
Worked example
A dough of 500 g flour, 350 g water, 10 g salt and 7 g instant yeast is 70% hydration with 2% salt and 1.4% yeast, 867 g in total. To make four 250 g pizza balls (1,000 g), scale to 576.7 g flour, 403.7 g water, 11.5 g salt and 8.1 g yeast.
Frequently asked questions
What is dough hydration?
The weight of water as a percentage of flour weight. 350 g water to 500 g flour is 70%.
Why use baker's percentages?
They make any recipe scalable and comparable, since every ingredient is relative to flour.
How much salt should bread have?
Usually about 2% of the flour weight.
Do milk or eggs count toward hydration?
Partly. Milk is about 87% water and eggs about 75%, so count that share as water.
Updated October 2026. Results are estimates for education, not financial or medical advice. All math runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.