Pizza Dough Calculator (Baker's Percentage)
Choose a pizza style, how many pizzas and how big, and get the exact flour, water, salt, oil, sugar and yeast in grams, with an optional poolish or biga and a simple schedule.
| Ingredient | % | Grams | Ounces | Approx. volume |
|---|
How to use the Pizza Dough Calculator (Baker's Percentage)
- Pick a pizza style to load typical hydration, salt, oil and sugar percentages.
- Enter how many pizzas and their size: diameter, pan size or dough ball weight.
- Adjust the baker's percentages if you like, and choose your yeast type.
- Set the fermentation time and temperature to get a yeast suggestion, or type your own yeast percentage.
- Optionally add a poolish or biga, then weigh the ingredients from the recipe and follow the schedule. Press Copy recipe to save it.
How baker's percentages work
In baker's percentage, flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight. To turn percentages into grams for a target dough weight:
- Add up all the percentages: 100 + hydration + salt + oil + sugar + yeast.
- Flour = total dough weight ÷ (sum of percentages ÷ 100).
- Each ingredient = flour × its percentage ÷ 100.
Example: four 250 g Neapolitan balls (1,000 g of dough) at 63% water, 2.9% salt and 0.3% instant yeast. The percentages add up to 166.2%, so flour = 1,000 ÷ 1.662 = 601.7 g. Water = 601.7 × 0.63 = 379.1 g, salt = 17.4 g and yeast = 1.8 g. The calculator also adds a little extra (2% by default) for dough that sticks to the bowl and bench.
Dough ball weight and thickness factor
Thickness factor (TF) is the weight of dough in ounces per square inch of pizza: dough weight (oz) = TF × π × (diameter ÷ 2)². Thin crusts use about 0.06–0.07, Neapolitan about 0.08, New York 0.085–0.10 and thick pan pizzas 0.11–0.14.
| Pizza size | Area | Neapolitan (TF 0.08) | New York (TF 0.088) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 in (25 cm) | 78.5 in² | 178 g | 196 g |
| 12 in (30 cm) | 113.1 in² | 257 g | 282 g |
| 14 in (35 cm) | 153.9 in² | 349 g | 384 g |
| 16 in (40 cm) | 201.1 in² | 456 g | 502 g |
| 18 in (45 cm) | 254.5 in² | 577 g | 635 g |
Yeast types and conversion
| Yeast | Relative amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Instant dry yeast (IDY) | 1× | Mix straight into the flour. Reference for the calculator. |
| Active dry yeast (ADY) | ≈ 1.33× | Traditionally dissolved in some of the recipe's warm water first. |
| Fresh / cake yeast | ≈ 3× | Perishable; crumble into the water. Keep refrigerated. |
The longer and colder the fermentation, the less yeast you need. A same-day dough fermented a few hours at room temperature may use 0.5–1% instant yeast, a 24-hour room-temperature Neapolitan dough under 0.1%, and a 1–3 day cold (fridge) ferment roughly 0.1–0.4%. Dough temperature matters most: water that is too warm or too cold shifts the timing by hours.
Style cheat sheet
| Style | Hydration | Salt | Oil | Sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 60–65% | 2.8–3% | 0 | 0 |
| New York | 62–65% | 2–2.5% | 2–3% | 1–2% |
| Detroit | 68–75% | 2–2.5% | 0–2% | 0–1% |
| Sicilian / grandma | 63–70% | 2–2.5% | 2–4% | 0–1% |
| Thin crust / tavern | 45–55% | 1.5–2% | 3–6% | 0–1% |
| Chicago deep dish | 50–55% | 1.5–2% | 10–20% | 1–2% |
Frequently asked questions
What is baker's percentage?
Every ingredient is written as a percentage of the flour weight, with flour always at 100%. A dough with 1,000 g of flour and 650 g of water is 65% hydration, and 25 g of salt is 2.5%. It makes recipes easy to scale and compare.
How much dough do I need for one pizza?
A 12-inch (30 cm) Neapolitan pizza uses about 250 g of dough, a 14-inch New York pizza about 350–400 g and a 16-inch about 500 g. The calculator works it out from the area with a thickness factor in ounces of dough per square inch.
What hydration should pizza dough be?
Neapolitan dough is usually 60–65%, New York 60–65%, Detroit and Sicilian pan pizzas 65–75% and thin cracker-style crusts 45–55%. Higher hydration gives a lighter, more open crumb but is stickier to handle.
How do I convert between instant, active dry and fresh yeast?
Use instant dry yeast as the reference: active dry yeast is about 1.33 times the instant weight and fresh (cake) yeast about 3 times. So 3 g of instant equals about 4 g of active dry or 9 g of fresh yeast.
How accurate is the yeast suggestion?
It is a starting point based on a simple time and temperature model. Yeast activity depends on the flour, the dough temperature after mixing and your yeast, so if the dough over- or under-proofs, adjust the percentage next time.
What is the difference between poolish and biga?
Both are pre-ferments made hours ahead with part of the flour and a little yeast. Poolish is liquid (100% hydration) and gives extensibility and flavor; biga is stiff (around 50%) and gives strength and a more open crumb.