Coffee Shop Cost Per Cup Calculator

How it is calculated

Cost per cup is the sum of three direct costs: bean cost = grams / 1000 × price per kg, plus the milk cost and the cup-and-lid cost, both entered as dollars per drink. So cost = bean cost + milk + cup. The suggested price targets a 70% gross margin: price = cost / (1 − 0.70), which is the same as dividing the cost by 0.30. Grams per cup and the bean price per kilogram must be above zero; milk and cup can be 0 for a black coffee, but must not be blank. Only ingredients and packaging are counted. Labour, rent, utilities, card fees and waste are not in the cost, so the 70% margin is a gross margin, not profit.

Common mistakes

• Entering the bean price per pound or per bag instead of per kilogram. The field is dollars per kg, so a 340 g bag at $12 is about $35.29 per kg.
• Typing the milk volume (ml) in the milk field. The field expects the money that milk costs per drink, for example 0.45, not 200.
• Using grams of the whole brew instead of dry beans. The grams field is the ground coffee that goes in one drink, such as 18, not the weight of the liquid in the cup.
• Reading the 70% as markup. Price = cost / 0.30 is a margin: the cost is 30% of the price, whereas a 70% markup would give only cost × 1.7.
• Leaving out syrups, sleeves, sugar sachets or wasted shots. They are not counted automatically, so add them to the cup or milk field to avoid an optimistic cost.