Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient in a dough as a percentage of the total flour weight, with flour always counted as 100%. A dough made with 500 g of flour and 350 g of water is 70% hydration, and 10 g of salt is 2%.
Because everything is tied to flour, a formula written in baker's percentages works at any batch size and makes doughs easy to compare. The free baker's percentage calculator turns your ingredient weights into percentages and shows the dough's hydration level as you type.
This guide explains the formula, how to build a recipe from percentages, typical numbers for common breads, and the inputs that most often throw hydration off.
How to calculate baker's percentage
ingredient % = ingredient weight ÷ total flour weight × 100
hydration % = water weight ÷ total flour weight × 100If a recipe uses more than one flour, such as bread flour plus whole wheat, add them together. That combined weight is the 100%. Each flour can then be listed as its own share, for example 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat.
The percentages add up to well over 100%. That is expected: they describe each ingredient relative to flour, not each ingredient's share of the finished dough.
Worked example: a basic white loaf
| Ingredient | Weight | Calculation | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 500 g | 500 ÷ 500 × 100 | 100% |
| Water | 350 g | 350 ÷ 500 × 100 | 70% |
| Salt | 10 g | 10 ÷ 500 × 100 | 2% |
| Instant yeast | 6 g | 6 ÷ 500 × 100 | 1.2% |
| Total | 866 g | 173.2% |
The same arithmetic works for any ratio. If you just need a quick percentage of a number, the percentage calculator handles it.
Building a recipe from percentages
Baker's percentages really pay off when you need a specific amount of dough. Divide the dough weight you want by the total percentage, expressed as a decimal, to get the flour weight.
flour weight = target dough weight ÷ (total % ÷ 100)Say you want four 250 g pizza dough balls, or 1,000 g of dough, from a formula of 100% flour, 65% water, 2% salt and 1% instant yeast. The total is 168%.
- Flour: 1,000 ÷ 1.68 = 595 g.
- Water: 595 × 0.65 = 387 g.
- Salt: 595 × 0.02 = 11.9 g.
- Yeast: 595 × 0.01 = 6 g.
Those add up to 1,000 g. Many bakers add a few extra grams to cover dough lost to the bowl and bench.
Typical baker's percentages by bread type
These are common starting ranges, not fixed rules. Flour matters: whole wheat and other whole-grain flours absorb more water, so the same hydration feels stiffer than it would with white flour.
| Bread | Typical hydration | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bagels, pretzels | 50–58% | Stiff dough that holds a tight shape |
| Sandwich and pan loaves | 60–65% | Often include a little fat, sugar or milk |
| Pizza dough | 58–70% | Higher hydration gives a lighter, more open crust |
| Baguettes, rustic loaves | 65–75% | Open, irregular crumb |
| Ciabatta, focaccia | 75–85% | Wet, sticky dough with large holes |
Salt usually sits between 1.8% and 2.2%. Instant yeast for a same-day loaf typically falls between 0.5% and 1.5%, with less for long, cold fermentation. If you switch yeast types, instant yeast is used at roughly a third of the weight of fresh yeast.
What dough hydration changes
Hydration is the single number that tells you most about how a dough will behave. Low-hydration dough is firm, easy to shape and bakes into a tight, even crumb. As hydration rises, the dough gets slacker and stickier, and the bread develops a more open crumb with bigger holes.
If you are new to bread, start around 65% and work upward once you are comfortable handling sticky dough. Wet hands and a bench scraper help more than extra flour, which quietly lowers the hydration you were aiming for.
How to use the Baker's Percentage Calculator
- Weigh each ingredient in grams. If your recipe uses cups, convert it first with the cooking converter.
- Open the Baker's Percentage Calculator and enter Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Fat/Butter and Sugar in grams. Flour must be above zero; enter 0 for anything the recipe doesn't use.
- Read the Hydration result. Beneath it, the tool labels the level, from Low (under 50%) to High (80% and up), and suggests a bread style that fits the numbers.
- Check the Salt, Yeast, Fat and Sugar percentages and the Total weight of the dough.
- Compare your hydration with the Hydration Guide panel, which lists example breads for each range.
The bread style suggestion is a rough match, so treat it as a hint rather than a verdict. It looks at fat and sugar first: 20% fat or more reads as rich, like brioche, and 5% or more of fat or sugar as an enriched dough for soft loaves and buns. Lean doughs are then sorted by hydration, from stiff (bagels, pretzels) under 60% to wet (ciabatta, focaccia) at 80% and up. Percentages cannot tell a sourdough from a yeasted loaf, so sourdough only appears as an example of a rustic 70–80% dough.
Common mistakes with baker's percentages
- Leaving the starter out. Sourdough starter is flour and water. For a 100% hydration starter, add half its weight to Flour and half to Water to get the dough's true hydration.
- Ignoring other liquids. The calculator counts only the Water field. Milk is mostly water, about 87%, and eggs about 75%, so for an approximate hydration, include those water amounts in the Water field.
- Measuring by volume. Percentages only work with weights. A cup of flour can vary by 20 g or more depending on how it was filled; see our guide to converting cups to grams.
- Counting flour from the bench. Flour used for dusting is not part of the formula, but heavy dusting does dry the dough.
- Scaling ingredients one at a time. Change the flour weight and recalculate everything from the percentages. It is cleaner than the servings approach in our recipe scaling guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is baker's percentage?
Baker's percentage is a way of writing a bread formula where flour is 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight. It lets bakers scale and compare recipes regardless of batch size.
How do you calculate dough hydration?
Divide the weight of the water by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100. For example, 375 g of water and 500 g of flour gives 75% hydration.
Why do baker's percentages add up to more than 100%?
Each ingredient is measured against the flour, not against the total dough. Flour alone is 100%, so adding water, salt and yeast pushes the total well above 100%.
What percentage of salt should bread have?
Most bread uses about 2% salt relative to flour weight, with a common range of 1.8% to 2.2%. That is 10 g of salt for 500 g of flour.
What is a good hydration for beginners?
Around 60% to 65% hydration is a comfortable starting point. The dough is soft but not too sticky to knead and shape by hand.
Does sourdough starter count toward hydration?
Yes. A starter's flour and water both belong in the totals, so for a 100% hydration starter, split its weight equally between flour and water before calculating.