Add a dish's ingredients to get its plate cost, pick a target food cost to get a menu price, then see what that same dish actually settles for on Zomato or Swiggy once commission, GST and your discount come off. No signup.
Price is per buy unit (per kg, per litre, per piece). Quantity is what actually goes into the dish, in grams, millilitres, or pieces. Yield is the share of what you bought that survives trimming and cooking; leave it at 100 if nothing is lost.
Anything not itemised above: the takeaway box, condiment sachets, a share of your LPG bill.
Match these to your own contract. Uplift is how much higher you price the same dish on the app before the cuts come off.
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. It stays in this browser.
The formula is two lines. Plate cost is the sum of what each ingredient in one portion cost you. Menu price is plate cost divided by the food cost percentage you are aiming for.
| Step | Formula | Paneer sandwich |
|---|---|---|
| Plate cost | Sum of (quantity × price per unit ÷ yield) | ₹66 |
| Menu price | Plate cost ÷ target food cost | ₹66 ÷ 0.30 = ₹220 |
| Guest pays | Menu price + 5% GST | ₹231 |
Both halves are explained properly in how to calculate food cost percentage and how to price menu items in an Indian restaurant. This page is the working version.
You pay for the kilo you buy, not the grams that reach the plate. Trimming, bones, peeling, shrinkage in the pan and the bit left in the pot all come out before service.
So every ingredient row has a yield. Say you buy chicken at ₹300 a kilo and only 700 grams of it ends up usable. Your real cost is ₹300 divided by 0.7, about ₹429 a usable kilo, and a dish costed at ₹300 is quietly under-priced. Weigh it once, before and after prep, and put the real number in. It is the most honest line on the sheet.
This is the part a food cost calculator built outside India leaves out. The same dish earns very different money depending on where the order came from.
| Dine-in at ₹220 | App at ₹220 | App at ₹253 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You collect | ₹220 | ₹130 | ₹150 |
| Ingredient cost | ₹66 | ₹66 | ₹66 |
| Effective food cost | 30% | 51% | 44% |
The app columns assume a 20 percent discount you fund, 20 percent commission, 18 percent GST on that commission, a 2 percent payment fee plus its GST, and 0.1 percent TDS. Change any of them in the calculator to match your own contract. Where those numbers come from is set out in what Zomato and Swiggy commission really costs.
Costing every dish to the same percentage prices your cheapest dishes lowest, which is backwards if those are the ones you most want to sell. A dal costing ₹22 comes out at ₹73 on a 30 percent target, and would probably sell at ₹110 without a complaint.
Use the calculator to find the lowest price you can defend, then set the real price with the guest and the competition in view. Look at the rupee margin per plate as well as the percentage: a high food cost on an expensive dish can still earn more per cover than a low one on a cheap dish. That is the idea behind menu engineering. Running a bar? The same maths for drinks is in how to calculate pour cost.
A calculator gets one dish's menu price right for one moment in time. It does not track ingredient prices as they move, flag a dish drifting off its target food cost, or bill the table with GST once the guest orders. dineomAI runs on the same numbers, every order, automatically.
See it on your own menu →Add up the cost of every ingredient in one portion. For each one, multiply the quantity used by the price per unit, then divide by the yield, the share of what you bought that actually reaches the plate. Include oil, spices, garnish and packaging, not just the headline items.
Divide the plate cost by your target food cost percentage. A dish costing Rs.66 at a 30 percent target prices at Rs.66 divided by 0.30, which is Rs.220. Treat that number as a floor, then adjust for what guests will pay and what nearby restaurants charge.
Most kitchens aim for 28 to 35 percent. Fine dining often runs 30 to 40 percent, high-volume QSR 25 to 32 percent, and bar pour cost 18 to 24 percent. The right target depends on your format, cuisine and prices, so use the range as a starting point.
Usually, yes. A Rs.220 dish sold on an app with a 20 percent funded discount and 20 percent commission settles near Rs.130 after GST, payment fees and TDS, which turns a 30 percent food cost into about 51 percent. A 15 percent uplift gets it to about 44 percent. It narrows the gap but does not close it.
Most Indian restaurants show prices before GST and add it on the bill, usually 5 percent for a standalone restaurant without input tax credit. So a Rs.220 menu price reaches the guest as about Rs.231. The calculator shows both numbers so you can price to the figure the guest actually sees.
Yes. No signup, no watermark, no limit. It runs in your browser, remembers your last dish on this device only, and sends nothing to our servers. You can download the costing as a CSV for Excel.