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Baker's Percentage Calculator

Converts a bread or dough formula between baker's percentages and grams: flour is 100 %, every other ingredient is expressed relative to flour weight; works in both directions and reports total dough weight and hydration.

When to use

You know the flour weight and the formula percentages (or the ingredient grams) and want the other representation, e.g. to scale or compare bread recipes.

Do not use when: You want a ready-made pizza formula from ball count and weight (use pizza-dough) or plain servings-based scaling (use recipe-scaler).

Formula

grams_i = flour_g × percent_i / 100; percent_i = grams_i / flour_g × 100; total_dough = flour_g + Σ grams_i; total_percent = 100 + Σ percent_i

Baker's percentages let a formula be scaled to any flour weight and compared across recipes; hydration is the water percentage. For a preferment, count its flour in flour_g if you want true overall percentages.

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Unit	Required	Description
`flour_g`	number	g	yes	Total flour weight (= 100 %). Range: > 0, ≤ 1000000
`ingredient_names`	string_list		yes	Names of the non-flour ingredients, in order (comma-separated; use underscores instead of spaces, e.g. olive_oil).
`ingredient_percents`	number_list		no	Baker's percentage of each ingredient (same order as the names). Give this to get grams.
`ingredient_grams`	number_list		no	Weight of each ingredient in grams (same order). Used when ingredient_percents is not given, to get percentages.

Outputs

Output	Type	Unit	Description
`ingredients`	list		Per ingredient: ingredient, percent (of flour) and grams.
`total_dough_g`	number	g	Flour plus all ingredients.
`total_percent`	number	%	100 + sum of ingredient percentages; total_dough = flour × total_percent / 100.
`hydration_percent`	number	%	Percentage of the ingredient named 'water' (only when present).

Example

500 g flour, 65 % water, 2 % salt, 1 % yeast: {"flour_g":500,"ingredient_names":["water","salt","yeast"],"ingredient_percents":[65,2,1]} → {"ingredients":[{"ingredient":"water","percent":65,"grams":325},{"ingredient":"salt","percent":2,"grams":10},{"ingredient":"yeast","percent":1,"grams":5}],"total_dough_g":840,"total_percent":168,"hydration_percent":65}

1000 g flour, 700 g water, 20 g salt → percentages: {"flour_g":1000,"ingredient_names":["water","salt"],"ingredient_grams":[700,20]} → {"ingredients":[{"ingredient":"water","percent":70,"grams":700},{"ingredient":"salt","percent":2,"grams":20}],"total_dough_g":1720,"total_percent":172,"hydration_percent":70}

GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/bakers-percentage?flour_g=500&ingredient_names=water%2Csalt%2Cyeast&ingredient_percents=65%2C2%2C1

Machine access

API: GET https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculate/bakers-percentage (query parameters) or POST with a JSON body {"inputs": {...}}
Schema: https://tttkmbb.com/api/v1/calculators/bakers-percentage · Markdown: https://tttkmbb.com/food/bakers-percentage.md · JSON definition: https://tttkmbb.com/food/bakers-percentage.json
MCP: server https://tttkmbb.com/mcp, tool run_calculator with calculator_id="bakers-percentage"
OpenAPI operationId: calculate_bakers_percentage
Freshness: static. Authentication: none. Rate limit: fair use (see rate limits).

Sources

King Arthur Baking – Baker's percentage (reference)
Wikipedia – Baker percentage (reference)
BC Campus – Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management: Converting and Adjusting Recipes and Formulas (textbook)

FAQ

Why can percentages add up to more than 100?

Because each ingredient is relative to the flour, not to the whole dough. A 65 % hydration bread with 2 % salt and 1 % yeast totals 168 %, meaning 1.68 g of dough per gram of flour.

How do I scale to a target dough weight?

flour = target_dough / (total_percent / 100). For 1 kg of dough at 168 % use 595 g flour, then multiply each percentage by it.

Related calculators

Pizza Dough Calculator — Preset pizza formula from ball count and weight.
Recipe Scaler — Simple servings-based scaling.