Baker's Percentage Calculator
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Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient as a percent of total flour weight, which always equals 100%.
Flour & ingredient weight
Baker's percentage
70.0%
350 g is 70.0% of 500 g flour
- Baker's percentage
- 70.0%
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Understanding baker's percentage
Baker's percentage (or baker's math) is a professional bread formula format where every ingredient weight is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight — flour itself is always 100%. This makes it easy to scale a formula to any batch size while keeping ratios exact, since percentages are proportional regardless of total weight.
The most common baker's percentage is hydration: water weight ÷ flour weight × 100. A lean bread dough often runs 60–65% hydration, while a wetter, open-crumb bread (like ciabatta) can run 75–85% or higher. Salt is typically 1.8–2.2%, and commercial yeast is often 1–2%.
Example: a formula with 500 g flour and 350 g water has 70% hydration (350 ÷ 500 × 100). If you scale the recipe to 1,000 g flour, you would use 700 g water to keep the same 70% hydration.
Common questions
Why is flour always 100% in baker's percentage?
Flour is the reference ingredient in bread formulas — every other ingredient (water, salt, yeast, fat) is expressed relative to it, which is why total flour weight is always shown as 100%.
What hydration percentage should my bread dough be?
Lean sandwich breads are often 60–65% hydration. Rustic, open-crumb loaves like ciabatta or focaccia often run 75% or higher. Higher hydration doughs are stickier and harder to shape but can yield a more open crumb.