Dough Hydration & Baker’s Percentage Calculator

Dough hydration tells you how much water a dough contains in relation to its flour. Baker’s percentages take the same idea further by expressing every ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight.

Those two numbers make it much easier to compare bread and pizza formulas, scale a recipe, understand a sourdough formula, or work out why one dough feels much wetter than another.

Use Basic mode for a straightforward flour, water, salt and yeast dough. Switch to Advanced mode when you need to include sourdough starter, more than one flour, additional hydration liquids, oil or sugar.

How Dough Hydration Is Calculated

Hydration is based on flour, not total dough weight.

The formula is:

Hydration % = total water ÷ total flour × 100

For example:

500 g flour
350 g water

gives:

350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70%

So the dough is 70% hydration.

Salt, yeast and oil are not added to the denominator. Flour always forms the 100% reference point in baker’s maths.

What Is Baker’s Percentage?

In baker’s percentage, the total flour in a formula is always 100%.

Every other ingredient is compared with that flour weight.

For a dough containing:

• 500 g flour
• 350 g water
• 10 g salt
• 2.5 g yeast

the baker’s percentages are:

• Flour: 100%
• Water: 70%
• Salt: 2%
• Yeast: 0.5%

This makes two formulas easy to compare even if their batch sizes are completely different.

Multiple Flours

All flour used in the dough contributes to the flour total.

If a formula contains:

• 400 g bread flour
• 75 g wholemeal flour
• 25 g rye flour

the total flour is:

500 g

That 500 g becomes the 100% reference amount.

The flour labels are useful for understanding the recipe, but their names do not change the mathematics.

Sourdough Starter and Hydration

A sourdough starter already contains flour and water, so those amounts must be included in the overall hydration calculation.

A 100 g starter at 100% hydration contains:

• 50 g flour
• 50 g water

If a starter has a different hydration, the split changes.

The calculator works out the flour and water contribution from the starter’s total weight and hydration percentage, then adds those amounts to the rest of the formula.

This prevents the common mistake of treating starter as a separate ingredient while ignoring the flour and water it already contributes.

Which Liquids Count?

For practical baker’s maths, water-based liquids such as milk, beer or juice can be entered as hydration liquids.

Oil is not counted as hydration.

Butter and eggs also affect dough softness and handling, but this calculator does not automatically treat them as hydration water.

That keeps the calculation transparent rather than pretending every ingredient has the same water content.

What Do Hydration Numbers Mean?

Hydration gives useful context, but it does not tell you exactly how a dough will feel.

As a broad guide:

• around 55–65% often produces a firmer dough
• around 65–75% covers many moderate doughs
• around 75–85% often feels wetter or stickier
• 80% and above is commonly described as high hydration

These ranges are only orientation.

A 75% wholemeal dough can feel much firmer than a 75% dough made with white flour because wholegrain flour usually absorbs more water.

Protein level, flour type, temperature, fermentation and mixing method also affect handling.

Pizza Dough Hydration

There is no single ideal hydration for pizza.

Different styles deliberately use different formulas. Neapolitan-style dough often sits around the low-to-mid 60% range, while pan styles such as Detroit pizza can use much more water.

Use hydration as one part of the formula rather than as a quality score. Higher is not automatically better.

Target Hydration

If you know the flour weight and the hydration you want, the calculator can also determine how much water is required.

For:

500 g flour
70% target hydration

the required total water is:

500 × 0.70 = 350 g

When sourdough starter is included, its existing water is deducted before calculating how much extra water needs to be added.

Worked Example — Sourdough Formula

Suppose the dough contains:

• 450 g bread flour
• 300 g water
• 100 g starter at 100% hydration
• 10 g salt

The starter contains:

• 50 g flour
• 50 g water

Total flour:

450 + 50 = 500 g

Total water:

300 + 50 = 350 g

Hydration:

350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70%

Salt:

10 ÷ 500 × 100 = 2%

Prefermented flour:

50 ÷ 500 × 100 = 10%

Total dough weight:

450 + 300 + 100 + 10 = 860 g

FAQs

Related Resources

• Yeast Conversion Calculator
• Recipe Scaling Calculator
• Why Does My Bread Dough Not Rise?
• Kitchen Tools