← Back to the pour cost calculator
Pour cost — also called liquor cost percentage — is ingredient cost divided by menu price, as a percentage. It answers one question: of every dollar a drink sells for, how much of it went to the bottle it came from? The rest of this page works through the formula on a real recipe, not a rounded example.
pour cost % = (ingredient cost of the drink ÷ menu price) × 100
Ingredient cost is the sum of every liquid poured into the glass. Each ingredient's cost is:
(bottle cost ÷ bottle size in ounces) × ounces used
A margarita-style drink: 1.5oz of a $24 tequila (a 1L, 33.8oz bottle), 0.75oz of a $20 orange liqueur (a 750ml, 25.4oz bottle), and 1oz of lime juice from a $6, 32oz bottle — sold for $12.
| Ingredient | Cost / oz | Amount used | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tequila ($24 / 33.8oz) | $0.71 | 1.5oz | $1.07 |
| Orange liqueur ($20 / 25.4oz) | $0.79 | 0.75oz | $0.59 |
| Lime juice ($6 / 32oz) | $0.19 | 1oz | $0.19 |
Total ingredient cost: $1.84. At a $12 menu price, pour cost is $1.84 ÷ $12 = 15.4% — 4.6 points below a common 20% target, and not a problem: a drink running below target has margin room, not a mistake to fix. Priced to land exactly on a 20% target, this exact recipe would sell for $9.22 — so at $12 it is currently priced $2.78 above what the target alone requires. That number is a margin comparison, not a suggested price change; the market and your own menu decide what to actually charge.
Free-pouring the tequila a quarter-ounce heavy — 1.75oz instead of 1.5oz — adds about $0.18 to this one drink and moves its pour cost from 15.4% to 16.8%. That looks small at the register. At 200 of these drinks a week, it is $35.50 a week, or about $1,846 a year — liquor that left the bottle and never showed up as a cost or a margin anywhere the menu price could see it.
| Bottle | Ounces |
|---|---|
| 750ml | 25.4oz |
| 1L | 33.8oz |
| 1.75L (handle) | 59.2oz |
The pour cost calculator runs this same arithmetic on your own bottle costs, pour sizes, and menu prices for a spirit-plus-modifier-plus-mixer recipe, sets your own target instead of assuming 20%, and adds the over-pour math above using your own drink volume. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Checking one recipe by hand is a different job from tracking pour cost across a whole bar's inventory automatically — see how this free calculator compares to BinWise and WISK, two POS-integrated inventory platforms sold as ongoing subscriptions.
Pour cost percentage = ingredient cost of the drink ÷ menu price, times 100. The ingredient cost is the sum of every liquid that goes into the glass, each priced as (bottle cost ÷ bottle size in ounces) × ounces used. Nothing about labor, garnish, or overhead belongs in it — it is a liquor cost figure, not a full drink-cost figure.
Divide what the bottle actually cost (from the invoice, not a rounded guess) by its size in ounces. A 1L bottle is 33.8oz; a 750ml bottle is 25.4oz; a 1.75L handle is 59.2oz. A $24 bottle at 33.8oz costs about $0.71 an ounce, and that per-ounce figure is what every pour size gets multiplied by.
20% is a common target for spirits, but it is not a rule — it is a starting point you check your own recipes against. A drink running well under your target has room; a drink running well over it is being sold near or below what it costs once everything else the bar pays for is considered.