Baker's percentage calculator
Ingredient weights and dough hydration from baker's percentages of the flour.
Fill in the fields and the result will appear here automatically.
Converts baker’s percentages into grams using the stated total flour weight. Flour is the 100% basis, so 68% water means 68 g of water per 100 g flour, not 68% of total dough mass. The notation keeps proportions while changing batch size and separates composition from quantity. Flour is already included in its own field: listing it again would count it twice. Hydration here counts only rows recognised as water, without determining moisture in milk, eggs or other ingredients.
How it works
Formula and logic
Row weight = total flour × percentage/100; dough weight = flour + all rows. Hydration = recognised water ÷ flour × 100%. The standalone word water is recognised without case sensitivity; Russian, Ukrainian, German and Spanish water names are supported too. Percentages must be nonnegative and flour positive. For overall starter hydration, separate its flour and water and count each once.
Example
500 g flour with water 68%, salt 2% and yeast 1.2% gives 340 + 10 + 6 g of additions, 856 g total and 68% hydration. With water 0 and salt 0, total mass stays 500 g and hydration is 0%. Wasser 68 is also recognised as water.
Fields and units
- Flour, g — g
- Ingredients: name and percentage of flour per line — unitless
How to use
- — Enter all flour, including starter flour when calculating overall percentages.
- — End each ingredient line with its percentage of that flour weight; either decimal point or comma is accepted.
- — Do not list the flour again. Use a recognised standalone word for a water row.
- — Hydration alone does not determine consistency; flour and the remaining ingredients also matter.
Method and limitations
- Calculation method
- Formula and logic
- Data or methodology source
- King Arthur Baking: flour as the baker’s percentage basis and separate starter flour/water accounting; no consistency standard
- Limitation
- Percentages describe the entered masses; they do not validate a recipe or predict consistency or fermentation time.
FAQ
Why do the percentages add up to more than 100?
Every percentage uses flour weight rather than total dough weight as its denominator. Flour already represents 100%, and water and other additions increase the percentage sum.
What is hydration and what does it change?
It is recognised water divided by total flour. Only named water rows are counted: moisture in milk, eggs or butter is not extracted automatically. Equal hydration does not guarantee equal dough consistency.
Should flour go in the ingredient list?
No. The separate flour field is already part of the total. Listing flour as an addition would duplicate its weight.
How do I account for a starter that already contains water?
For overall percentages, add the starter’s flour to total flour and its water to a recognised water row; do not add the whole starter again. Counting it only as one ingredient can overstate or understate hydration.
Does this notation work for enriched dough?
Yes: sugar, butter and eggs can all be expressed relative to flour. Their internal water content is not calculated, so the displayed hydration is not a complete moisture analysis.