Restaurant Break-Even Calculator

Your break-even point is the level of sales where the restaurant covers all its costs and profit is exactly zero. Below it you're losing money; above it, every additional cover contributes to profit. Knowing the number turns vague pressure ("we need to be busier") into a concrete target you can plan shifts and marketing around.

Enter your fixed costs for the period — the bills that stay roughly the same whether you serve 10 guests or 1,000, like rent, insurance, and salaried pay. Then enter your average check (what a typical guest spends) and your variable cost per cover (the food and hourly labor that scale with each guest). The calculator returns both the revenue and the number of guests you need to break even.

Why "covers" matters more than revenue

A dollar target is abstract; a guest count is something your team can feel. If you need 1,059 covers a month to break even, you can divide that across your open days and see immediately whether your average night gets you there — and how much of each night is pure profit.

To lower your break-even point

Raise your average check (upselling, smart menu design), cut variable cost per cover (portioning, waste, scheduling), or reduce fixed costs. Faster table turnover raises the covers you can serve in the same hours, which is how busy restaurants clear break-even early in the month. Your variable cost per cover is driven by food cost and labor cost; once you're above break-even, the profit margin calculator shows what's left.

This model assumes your average check and variable cost per cover stay roughly constant across the period — a good planning approximation, not an exact forecast.