Pour Cost Calculator

Pour cost is the beverage world's version of food cost: the share of a drink's price that goes to the liquor, beer, or wine in the glass. It's the number that tells you whether your bar program is actually as profitable as it looks — and beverage, poured right, is usually the highest-margin thing a restaurant sells.

Enter what the pour costs you and the price you charge, and you'll get the pour cost percentage instantly, along with the markup multiplier. Run it drink by drink to find the cocktails quietly dragging your margins down.

What's a good pour cost?

Most bars target a blended pour cost of around 18–24%, but it varies a lot by category. Spirits are the most forgiving; beer runs higher; wine runs highest of all. Your overall number is really a weighted average of your sales mix, so a wine-heavy list will sit higher than a cocktail bar's.

Where pour cost leaks

The usual suspects are over-pouring (free-pouring instead of using a jigger), unrecorded spillage and comps, and prices that haven't kept up with rising liquor costs. A single extra quarter-ounce on every cocktail adds up fast across a busy night. Tighten portioning first — it's the quickest point you'll ever claw back.

How pour cost fits the bigger picture

Because beverage runs a lower cost percentage than food, it pulls your overall prime cost down and lifts your profit margin. Watch pour cost alongside your food cost percentage to see your full cost-of-goods picture.

Benchmark ranges are widely-cited US bar norms — treat them as typical ranges, not guarantees.