Free Pizza Dough calculator
Scale any pizza dough recipe from the weight you want: set the number of pizzas and a dough-ball weight, pick a style, and the calculator solves the flour, water, salt and yeast in baker's percentages, updated live, as you type.
On this page14 sections
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 605.7 g |
| Water | 62% | 375.5 g |
| Salt | 2.8% | 17 g |
| Yeast (instant) | 0.3% | 1.82 g |
Percentages are fractions of the flour weight. Yeast assumes instant dry yeast; use about 1.25× for active dry or 3× for fresh.
Flours absorb water differently; adjust by feel. How accurate is this?
Results are estimates. Consult a professional.
How the pizza dough calculator works
A pizza dough calculator works backward from the dough you want to the flour you need. You fix two things — how many pizzas and how heavy each dough ball is — and the calculator multiplies them to get the total dough weight. From there it splits that weight into flour, water, salt, yeast and any oil or sugar using baker's percentages, the system every pizzeria scales its recipe with.
Baker's percentage sets flour at 100% and measures every other ingredient against it. A 62% hydration dough has 62 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. Because flour is the unknown here, the calculator solves for it first, then derives the rest.
What goes into a pizza dough recipe
Four ingredients build a basic dough; two more tune it. Each one is a lever, and baker's percentage is how you pull each lever without re-weighing the whole batch.
Flour — the 100% everything scales from
Flour is the base. Every other quantity is a percentage of it, so once the calculator solves for flour the rest fall out automatically. Neapolitan dough leans on fine "00" flour; New York and thin-crust doughs use higher-protein bread flour for chew and structure.
Water — the hydration percentage
Hydration is water as a percentage of flour, and it shapes the crumb more than any other number. Lower hydration around 55–60% gives a stiffer dough and a crispier base; higher hydration of 65–75% gives a wetter, harder-to-handle dough that bakes up light and open.
Salt and yeast — flavour and rise
Salt sits at roughly 2–3% of flour: it seasons the dough and slows fermentation so flavour develops. Yeast is tiny by weight — often 0.1–0.5% for a long, slow rise. Double the yeast and the dough proves in roughly half the time, which is why same-day doughs use more than overnight ones.
Oil and sugar — the optional extras
Traditional Neapolitan dough is flour, water, salt and yeast only. New York and thin-crust styles add a little oil (around 1.5–2%) for a more tender, browned crust, and sometimes a touch of sugar (around 1%) to help the edge colour in a home oven that never gets blazing hot.
A worked example using the pizza dough calculator
Maria is making four 12-inch Neapolitan pizzas on Friday night. She wants 250 g dough balls at a classic 62% hydration, with 2.8% salt and 0.3% instant yeast. She needs the flour, water, salt and yeast in grams.
Step 1 — Find the total dough weight
Four balls at 250 g each: 4 × 250 = 1,000 g of dough in total.
Step 2 — Solve for the flour
Add the percentages: 1 + 0.62 + 0.028 + 0.003 = 1.651. Then 1,000 ÷ 1.651 = 605.7 g flour.
Step 3 — Derive water, salt and yeast
Water is 605.7 × 0.62 = 375.5 g. Salt is 605.7 × 0.028 = 17 g. Yeast is 605.7 × 0.003 = 1.82 g.
Pizza dough recipe by style (per 1,000 g of dough)
This table gives the grams for four 250 g dough balls — 1,000 g of dough — in each common style. Change the ball weight or pizza count and the figures scale in proportion; the percentages stay fixed.
| Style | Flour | Water | Salt | Yeast | Oil / sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan (62% / 2.8% / 0.3%) | 605.7 g | 375.5 g | 17 g | 1.82 g | none |
| New York (62% / 2% / 0.4%) | 599.2 g | 371.5 g | 12 g | 2.40 g | 9 g oil · 6 g sugar |
| Thin & crispy (55% / 2% / 0.5%) | 627 g | 344.8 g | 12.5 g | 3.13 g | 12.5 g oil |
| High-hydration (72% / 2.5% / 0.3%) | 572.1 g | 411.9 g | 14.3 g | 1.72 g | none |
All rows total 1,000 g of dough (four 250 g balls). Percentages shown are hydration / salt / yeast, all as a fraction of flour weight; yeast assumes instant dry yeast.
Hydration and percentages by pizza style
The math is identical for every pizza; the percentages are what make a Neapolitan a Neapolitan. Pick the style first, then let the hydration set the crust.
| Style | Hydration | Salt | Yeast | Crust character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 60–65% | ~2.8% | ~0.3% | Soft, puffy cornicione; baked hot and fast |
| New York | 60–65% | ~2% | ~0.4% | Foldable, chewy; oil and sugar for a home oven |
| Thin & crispy | 50–55% | ~2% | ~0.5% | Crackery, firm; lower water for a crisp base |
| High-hydration / contemporary | 70–80% | ~2.5% | ~0.3% | Open, airy crumb; wet and slack to handle |
Hydration ranges follow Ooni's dough-hydration guidance; the New York percentages match the Serious Eats New York-style formula. Yeast assumes instant dry yeast.
Need to swap a recipe between cups and grams while you work? The baking conversions calculator handles flour, water and sugar; the cooking converter covers any ingredient by weight or volume.
What should a pizza dough ball weigh?
Ball weight sets the size of the finished pizza. Too little dough and you tear it stretching; too much and the base is bready. Most home pizzas land between 230 g and 320 g per ball.
If you prefer to size by diameter, the weight scales with the pizza's area — a circle's area grows with the square of its radius, so a 14-inch pizza needs far more dough than a 12-inch one. The calculator can turn a diameter into a ball weight using a thickness factor: grams of dough per square centimetre of surface.
| Pizza diameter | Surface area | Ball weight (≈0.5 g/cm²) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 in (25 cm) | 491 cm² | ≈245 g |
| 12 in (30 cm) | 707 cm² | ≈353 g |
| 14 in (35.6 cm) | 995 cm² | ≈498 g |
| 16 in (40 cm) | 1,257 cm² | ≈628 g |
Ball weight = π × (diameter ÷ 2)² × thickness factor. A factor near 0.5 g/cm² suits a medium crust; drop to ~0.4 for thin, raise to ~0.65 for a thicker or pan crust.
Tips for getting the dough right
The numbers get you a balanced dough; technique turns it into pizza. These are the points that trip up most home bakers — the ones the recipe rarely spells out.
- Weigh, don't scoop. Baker's percentages only work with a scale. A cup of flour can vary 20% by how you pack it, which throws every other ingredient off.
- Know your yeast type. These figures assume instant dry yeast. Use about 1.25× for active dry yeast (and bloom it in the water first), or roughly 3× for fresh yeast.
- Cut the yeast for a long rise. A 24–48 hour cold ferment in the fridge needs only a fraction of the yeast a same-day dough does, and it builds far more flavour.
- Hold back a little water. Flours absorb differently, so mix in most of the water, judge the feel, then add the rest. A dough that is too wet is harder to fix than one that is slightly dry.
- Salt is not optional. At ~2–3% it controls fermentation and flavour. Skip it and the dough over-proofs fast and tastes flat.
Pizza dough terms
How accurate is this pizza dough calculator?
The baker's-percentage math is exact. Given your ball weight, pizza count and percentages, the flour, water, salt and yeast are computed to the gram, and they always add back to the total dough you asked for. If your scale is right, the recipe is right.
The judgement calls are yours. Flours absorb water differently, so the same hydration can feel wetter or drier depending on your brand and the day's humidity — hold back a little water and adjust by feel. Yeast quantity depends on type and on how long and how warm your rise is, so treat the yeast figure as a starting point and lean lower for a long, cold ferment. The percentages set a balanced dough; your oven and your hands finish the job.
Style hydration ranges follow Ooni's "Pizza Dough Hydration Explained" guide; the New York-style percentages (62% hydration, 2% salt, ~0.4% yeast, 1.5% oil, 1% sugar) match the Serious Eats New York-style pizza dough formula.Frequently asked questions about the free Pizza Dough calculator
About this Pizza Dough calculator
The pizza dough calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server: the recipe is computed instantly on your device, so you can adjust the pizza count, ball weight or hydration and watch every gram update.
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