A 12-inch cheese pizza can cost you around $4.40 to make if you mix your own dough, use 200 g of mozzarella at $9.00 a kilo and 90 g of sauce, bake it in a gas deck oven you keep busy, and pay someone $15 an hour to make it. That figure is an example built on stated assumptions; your cheese price, your grams and your oven will move it. Below is the method to work out your own number, pizza by pizza and size by size.
What goes into the cost of a pizza
A pizza is costed in layers, and each layer is measured on its own. Following the general method for working out what any dish costs to make, it looks like this:
- Dough: the cost of a batch divided by the dough balls that really come out of it.
- Sauce: the cost per kilo of your finished sauce times the grams you ladle on.
- Cheese: usually the biggest line. Weigh it; never guess it.
- Toppings: pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, olives, each by weight or by count.
- Oven: gas, wood or electricity, shared across the pizzas baked.
- Box: for takeaway and delivery.
- Labour: stretching, topping and baking time.
- Waste: pizzas that burn, fold on the peel or get remade for a wrong order.
Add them up and you have the loaded cost of one pizza, which is the number to price from.
Step 1: dough per ball
Cost the whole batch, then divide by the balls you actually weigh out at the end, not by the number the recipe promises. Some dough always stays in the mixer bowl and on the bench.
If you already work in baker's percentages, this is quick: every ingredient is a percentage of the flour, so the batch cost falls straight out. The guide to costing with baker's percentages walks through it.
Step 2: sauce, cheese and toppings by weight
This is where money leaks. A cook who throws on "a handful" of cheese can put 180 g on one pizza and 240 g on the next. Across a hundred pizzas a week, that gap is a lot of cheese you paid for and did not charge for.
Weigh the cheese on five pizzas made the usual way and take the average. To keep everyone consistent, use a measured scoop or cup for each topping. The guide to portion control shows how to set that up.
Step 3: the oven
The oven is a real cost that almost nobody puts into the pizza. To measure it:
- Find what the oven costs to run for an hour of service. For gas, check the meter or your bottle use over a week against the hours the oven was on; for wood, cost what you burn in a night.
- Count the pizzas you bake in that hour.
- Divide.
If the oven runs for an hour and bakes four pizzas, each one carries three times the fuel of a full hour. The guide to what oven time really costs covers preheating too.
Worked example: a 12-inch cheese pizza
Every number here is an assumption. Swap in your own.
The dough. A batch is 1 kg of flour ($1.10), 650 ml of water, 20 g of salt ($0.02), 10 g of dried yeast ($0.30) and 30 ml of oil ($0.18). Total: $1.60. You weigh out 6 balls of about 280 g.
- Dough per ball: 1.60 ÷ 6 = $0.27
Everything else:
| Item | Working | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Dough | 1 ball | $0.27 |
| Tomato sauce | 90 g × $3.50 per kg | $0.32 |
| Mozzarella | 200 g × $9.00 per kg | $1.80 |
| Oregano and oil | estimate per pizza | $0.10 |
| Box | 1 | $0.45 |
| Oven gas | $3.60 per hour ÷ 12 pizzas | $0.30 |
| Labour | $15 per hour ÷ 15 pizzas | $1.00 |
| Total | $4.24 |
Waste. If one pizza in 30 burns or gets remade, spread its cost over the 29 you sell: 4.24 × 30 ÷ 29 = $4.38 per pizza sold.
Look at the mozzarella: $1.80 of $4.24, more than four dollars in every ten. If your cheese goes up $2.00 a kilo, the pizza goes up $0.40 without anything else changing.
Cost by size
"How much more should a 16-inch be?" is answered by area, not diameter. With the same dough thickness and the same layer of cheese, everything on top grows with the square of the diameter.
| Size | Area compared with 12 inch | Mozzarella at the same layer |
|---|---|---|
| 10 inch | 0.69 times | 139 g |
| 12 inch | 1 time | 200 g |
| 16 inch | 1.78 times | 356 g |
The working is (diameter ÷ 12)². For the 16-inch: (16 ÷ 12)² = 1.78, and 200 g × 1.78 = 356 g. Dough and sauce scale the same way. The box, topping time and oven share do not, so measure those separately for each size.
If your 16-inch costs only a little more than the 12-inch on the menu, you are probably giving cheese away.
Pizzas with toppings
For each flavour, start from the cheese pizza and add only what goes on top. Pepperoni adds the slices; a ham and mushroom adds both. Count pepperoni slices and weigh ten of them to get the weight of one.
If a topping covers the surface and you use less cheese under it, take that cheese off. Every pizza on the menu has its own cost, and some will always earn more than others.
From cost to price
The cost per pizza is your floor. For the menu price, the plate price tool works out a price from the cost and the food cost percentage you want. If you sell through apps, the delivery price tool gives the app price that keeps your margin after commission.
With the example above, if you want a 60% margin on the price before any sales tax, the price is 4.38 ÷ (1 − 0.60) = $10.95. Sales tax, where it applies, goes on top; check your local tax rules.
Do it with the calculator
In the food cost calculator, enter your dough batch and how many balls it gives, the grams of sauce, cheese and toppings, the oven cost per pizza and the box. It returns the cost for each size and the price you need for your margin.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a 16-inch pizza cost so much more than a 12-inch?
Because cheese, sauce and dough grow with the area, not the diameter. A 16-inch pizza has about 1.78 times the surface of a 12-inch, so with the same cheese layer it takes about 1.78 times the cheese.
How much cheese goes on a 12-inch pizza?
Whatever your recipe and your pizzaiolo actually put on. Weigh the cheese on five pizzas made the usual way and average them. Use that number, not one you read somewhere.
Should oven fuel go into the cost of each pizza?
Yes. Measure what the oven burns in an hour of service and divide by the pizzas you bake in that hour. A half-empty oven puts more fuel on every pizza.
Is the cost of a delivery pizza the same as dine-in?
No. Delivery adds the box, any bag or seal, and the app's commission. The commission is taken from the price, so you have to raise the menu price on the app, not only the cost.