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Pour cost calculator.
The free pour cost calculator for bars. Enter cost per pour and menu price to get pour cost percentage and gross profit. Works for cocktails, beer, wine, and liquor.
Liquor / beer / wine cost in the glass
What the guest pays for the drink
Pour cost %
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Gross profit
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Status
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Formula: Pour Cost % = Cost per Pour ÷ Menu Price × 100. Target ranges by category: liquor 18–22%, beer 22–28%, wine 28–35%.
Want pour cost tracked across your whole bar?
Try Stockcount freeBy Jeremy Dudet, founder of Stockcount · Last updated 2026-05-19
What is pour cost?
Pour cost is the cost of what’s in the glass as a percentage of what the guest pays. It is the single most important number behind a bar — the beverage equivalent of food cost percentage. Lower is better, within reason.
Pour Cost % = Cost per Pour ÷ Menu Price × 100
Pour cost targets by category
| Category | Target pour cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Liquor / cocktails | 18–22% | Highest-margin category |
| Draft beer | 22–28% | Account for foam & line loss |
| Bottled / canned beer | 24–28% | Simple case ÷ units math |
| Wine by the glass | 28–35% | Bottle-pour variance matters |
A blended bar pour cost around 20% is healthy for most concepts. The exact target depends on your liquor/beer/wine sales mix.
How to calculate beverage cost percentage
The bar-wide number. Beverage Cost % = (Beginning Beverage Inventory + Beverage Purchases − Ending Beverage Inventory) ÷ Beverage Sales × 100. It is the bar equivalent of food cost percentage. Run it weekly. A healthy blended beverage cost is around 20–24% depending on your liquor/beer/wine mix.
How to calculate cocktail cost
Sum every component poured — base spirit, liqueurs, modifiers, fresh juice, house syrup, bitters, garnish. A Margarita with 2 oz tequila ($1.80), 1 oz triple sec ($0.55), 0.75 oz lime ($0.30), 0.5 oz agave ($0.15), and a salt rim ($0.05) costs $2.85. At a $14 menu price that is a 20.4% cocktail pour cost — right on target.
How to calculate beer cost
Draft: keg cost ÷ servable pints (account for ~5% foam and line loss). A $160 half-barrel yields roughly 118 servable 16 oz pints — about $1.36 per pint, or a 17% pour cost at a $8 pint. Bottled/canned: case cost ÷ units. A $32 case of 24 is $1.33 per bottle.
How to calculate liquor cost
Bottle cost ÷ pours per bottle. A 750ml bottle is 25.4 oz; at a 1.5 oz pour that is about 16.9 pours. A $24 well bottle is ~$1.42 per pour. Premium and top-shelf bottles cost more per pour but usually carry a higher menu price, so the percentage can still land in range.
Theoretical vs actual pour cost
This calculator gives you theoretical pour cost — what the drink should cost if poured to spec. Actual pour cost is what your inventory and sales produced. The gap between them is bar variance: free-pour heavy hands, spillage, comps, breakage, and theft. A 2–5 point gap is common; anything wider means it’s time for jiggers, portion training, or a tighter count cadence.
Common pour cost mistakes
- Ignoring foam and line loss on draft. A keg never yields its full theoretical pint count. Build in ~5% loss or your beer cost looks better than it is.
- Costing cocktails at the base spirit only. The triple sec, the juice, the syrup, the garnish — they’re 30–40% of a cocktail’s cost and routinely get skipped.
- Assuming a 1.5 oz pour. If your bartenders free-pour, the real average is often 1.75–2 oz. Measure it before you trust the percentage.
- Running one blended number. A 24% blended pour cost can hide a 32% wine problem behind a great liquor number. Break it out by category.
Pour cost for the whole bar
One drink is easy. A bar with 80 bottles, 12 taps, and 30 wines is not — and free-pour variance makes the per-drink math drift from reality fast. Stockcount counts the back bar by voice, tracks every beverage invoice, and reports actual beverage cost percentage weekly so you see the gap between theoretical and actual without a clipboard. See Stockcount for bars.
Frequently asked questions
- What is pour cost?
- Pour cost is the cost of the liquor, beer, or wine in a drink expressed as a percentage of its menu price. Pour Cost % = Cost per Pour ÷ Menu Price × 100. A drink that costs $2 to pour and sells for $10 has a 20% pour cost.
- What is a good pour cost percentage?
- Target pour cost depends on the category. Liquor and cocktails should run 18–22%. Draft and bottled beer runs 22–28%. Wine by the glass runs 28–35%, and wine by the bottle can run higher because the absolute margin is large. A blended bar pour cost of around 20% is healthy.
- How do I calculate cocktail cost?
- Add up the cost of every component in the cocktail — base spirit, modifiers, liqueurs, juice, syrup, garnish — for the exact amounts poured. That total is your cocktail cost. Divide it by the menu price to get the cocktail pour cost percentage. Cocktails with fresh juice and house syrup cost more to make than a simple two-ingredient pour.
- How do I calculate the cost of a single liquor pour?
- Take the bottle cost and divide by the number of pours per bottle. A 750ml bottle holds about 25.4 oz; at a 1.5 oz pour that is roughly 16.9 pours. A $24 bottle therefore costs about $1.42 per pour. Free pour adds variance — a heavy hand of 1.75 oz drops you to 14.5 pours and raises cost per pour to $1.65.
- How do I calculate beer cost?
- For draft beer, divide the keg cost by the number of servable pints. A half-barrel keg holds 15.5 gallons (1,984 oz). At a 16 oz pour with ~5% line and foam loss, expect roughly 118 servable pints. A $160 keg is then about $1.36 per pint. For bottled or canned beer, the cost per unit is simply the case cost divided by the number of units.
- What is the difference between pour cost and beverage cost?
- They measure the same thing at different scopes. Pour cost is usually per-drink. Beverage cost percentage is the bar-wide version — total beverage COGS divided by total beverage sales for a period, calculated the same way food cost percentage is calculated for the kitchen.
- Why is my actual pour cost higher than calculated?
- Almost always free-pour variance, over-pouring, spillage, comps, and breakage. The calculator gives you the theoretical pour cost — what the drink should cost. The gap between theoretical and actual is your bar variance, and it is usually 2–5 percentage points. Jiggers, portion control, and counting reduce it.
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Track pour cost across the whole bar.
Stockcount counts the back bar by voice, parses every beverage invoice, and reports actual pour cost weekly — so you catch variance before it eats the month.