Baker's Percentage Calculator
Baker's percentage sets flour at 100% and expresses every other ingredient against it, which is what makes recipes comparable and scalable. Enter your recipe weights to read each percentage, or start from percentages to get exact gram amounts.
Results
- Flour
- 100 %
- Water
- 70 %
- Salt
- 2 %
- Starter
- 20 %
- Sugar
- Not used
- Oil
- Not used
- Total flour (incl. starter flour)
- 550 g
- Adjusted hydration (starter as 50/50)
- 72.7%
How baker's percentages work
Flour is the anchor: it is always 100%, and every other ingredient is weighed against it. A dough with 70% water, 2% salt and 20% starter scales to any batch size by multiplying the flour weight - which is why bakeries write formulas this way instead of fixed gram amounts. A starter is its own 50/50 flour-water mix, so the adjusted hydration adds its halves back into both totals for an honest comparison between recipes.
When the percentages are settled, the sourdough hydration calculator fine-tunes water with the starter included, and the bread weight calculator works the other direction - from a target dough weight back down to flour, water and salt for your pans.
Frequently asked questions
Is hydration measured against total flour including the starter?
Most recipes quote hydration against the flour you add, but a 100%-hydration starter brings its own flour and water in equal parts. The adjusted hydration figure adds the starter's halves to both totals, which is why a dough of 500 g flour, 350 g water and 100 g starter reads 70% plain but about 72.7% adjusted - the honest number when comparing recipes.
How do I scale a baker's-percentage recipe to a different batch?
Decide the flour weight first, then multiply each percentage by it: 70% hydration on 800 g of flour is 560 g of water. The percentages themselves never change between batch sizes, which is exactly why bakeries write formulas this way - only the flour anchor moves, and every ingredient follows.
Do sugar and oil use the same flour base?
Yes - in straight doughs every ingredient is a percentage of the total flour. Salt typically lands at 1.8-2.2%, sugar anywhere from 0 to 20% or more, and oil around 2-10% for soft sandwich breads. Enriched breads built on eggs and milk sometimes need a separate enriched formula, but the five ingredients here all key off flour.