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Pour Cost Calculator

Enter the liquor cost and menu price to see your pour cost percentage.

How it is calculated

Enter the cost of the liquor (or all ingredients you want to count) in one drink and its menu price. The tool returns pour cost: cost / price × 100. It also returns gross margin in money, price − cost, and markup, (price − cost) / cost × 100, which is the margin as a percentage of cost, not of price. The price must be above zero and the cost cannot be negative; with zero cost the markup is shown as 0%. Money is displayed in dollars. Only the cost you enter is counted, so labour, garnish, ice, spillage and overheads are included only if you add them to the cost.

Worked example

A cocktail uses 2.50 of spirits and sells for 12.00. Pour cost: 2.50 / 12.00 × 100 = 20.83%. Gross margin: 12.00 − 2.50 = $9.50. Markup: 9.50 / 2.50 × 100 = 380.00%. So about a fifth of the menu price goes to the liquor and the rest is margin before other expenses.

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Common mistakes

  • Confusing pour cost with markup. A 20.83% pour cost and a 380% markup describe the same drink, as one is relative to price and the other to cost.
  • Using the bottle price rather than the cost of the measure in the glass. Divide the bottle cost by the number of pours first.
  • Leaving out the second or third ingredient, such as liqueur or syrup, so the drink looks more profitable than it is.
  • Entering the price with tax or service included; use the menu price before tax if you want a consistent comparison.
  • Forgetting that the pour in the glass may be larger than the standard measure, so the real cost is higher than the recipe cost.

About this calculator

Pour cost is the beverage-industry version of food cost: the raw liquor cost of a drink expressed as a percentage of what it sells for, Pour Cost % = (liquor cost ÷ menu price) × 100. From that, gross margin follows directly as 100% − pour cost%, and markup is (menu price − liquor cost) ÷ liquor cost × 100.

This calculator takes a drink's liquor cost and menu price and returns the pour cost percentage, the gross margin per drink (menu price minus liquor cost, as an amount), and the markup percentage. Bar managers and restaurant beverage directors track pour cost drink-by-drink and averaged across the whole bar (industry benchmarks typically target 18–24%) to price cocktails profitably, spot recipes that are too generous with premium spirits, and catch over-pouring or theft when actual pour cost drifts above the calculated target.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    A lower pour cost percentage is not automatically better. A well drink costing 1.00 and selling at 8.00 has a 12.5% pour cost but earns 7.00 per glass, while a premium cocktail costing 4.00 and selling at 16.00 has a 25% pour cost and earns 12.00 per glass. Compare the money margin as well as the percentage when you shape the menu. How do you balance the two on your menu?

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