Bar Profitability
Pour Cost Calculator
Pour cost is the single fastest read on whether a bottle is priced correctly. Enter what you pay, the bottle size, your standard pour and the menu price to get pour cost percentage, cost and profit per pour, and total revenue per bottle.
Run it across your well spirits and your top-selling call brands — that is usually where the money is hiding.
Pour cost calculator
Work from a known cost per pour, or start at the bottle and let us do the ounce math.
Used on the results card.
Your wholesale invoice cost.
Holds 25.36 fl oz.
Current menu price per drink.
Pour cost
22.2%
Acceptable, but thin for spirits. Check the pour size and the price together.
Gross profit
$6.23
Per drink, before labor
Gross margin
77.8%
Profit ÷ selling price
Cost per ounce
$1.18
Cost per pour
$1.77
Pours per bottle
16.9
Revenue per bottle $135.26
Drives the price and the weekly profit projection below.
BarCalcs · Pour cost
Well vodka
$30.00 bottle · 750 ml · 1.5 oz pour
Pour cost
22.2%
At your $8.00 price
Cost per pour
$1.77
$1.18 per oz
Gross profit
$6.23
Per drink sold
Gross margin
77.8%
Multiplier 4.5x
Selling Well vodka at $8.00 on a $1.77 cost is a 22.2% pour cost and $6.23 of gross profit. Acceptable, but thin for spirits. Check the pour size and the price together.
What-if pricing
Current price $8.00 · current pour cost 22.2%
At 18% target
$9.86
Charm $9.95 · +$1.86 vs now
At 20% target
$8.87
Charm $8.95 · +$0.87 vs now
At 22% target
$8.07
Charm $8.95 · +$0.07 vs now
At 25% target
$7.10
Charm $7.95 · −$0.90 vs now
Projected impact at a 20% target
Moving from $8.00 to $8.87 per drink — gain of $0.87 per drink.
- 50 drinks / week+$43.60/wk
- 100 drinks / week+$87.21/wk
- 250 drinks / week+$218.01/wk
- 500 drinks / week+$436.03/wk
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How this calculator works
Cost per ounce
Cost per pour
Pour cost percentage
Bottle yield
How to calculate pour cost
Pour cost is the percentage of a drink's selling price that goes to the liquor in the glass: pour cost % = cost per pour ÷ selling price × 100. If a pour costs you $1.77 and sells for $8, your pour cost is 22.1% and you keep $6.23 of gross profit.
Working from the bottle takes two extra steps. Convert the bottle to ounces (750 ml = 25.36 fl oz, 1 L = 33.81 oz, 1.75 L = 59.17 oz), divide the invoice price by those ounces to get cost per ounce, then multiply by your pour size. A $30 750 ml bottle is $1.18 per ounce, so a 1.5 oz pour costs $1.77.
Two variables move pour cost far more than most operators expect: pour size and price rounding. Going from a 1.5 oz pour to 1.75 oz on that same bottle pushes cost per pour to $2.07 — a 3.7-point swing at an $8 price with no change in what you buy.
Ideal bar pour cost by category
| Category | Target pour cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spirits / liquor | 15–20% | Well pours often sit below 12% |
| Craft cocktails | 18–24% | Fresh juice and garnish add real cost |
| Draft beer | 18–24% | Foam and line loss are the usual leaks |
| Bottled & canned beer | 22–28% | Little labor, so higher cost is tolerable |
| Wine by the glass | 28–35% | Price to recover the bottle in 2–3 glasses |
| Whole beverage program | 18–24% | Blended result of your actual sales mix |
Pour cost vs. liquor cost percentage
Pour cost is a per-drink number you calculate before you sell anything. Liquor cost percentage is a period number: beverage cost of goods sold divided by beverage sales for a week, month or period. The first tells you whether an item is priced correctly; the second tells you whether the bar is actually running the way you priced it.
This calculator gives theoretical pour cost — the best case, where every pour is measured and nothing is lost. Actual cost comes from inventory: opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory, divided by sales. The gap is your variance. Two or three points is normal; five or more usually means free pouring, untracked comps, breakage or an inventory process that needs tightening.
Fixing a high pour cost
- Jigger everything. A free-poured 1.5 oz is usually 1.7–2 oz. Measuring is the single biggest one-day fix.
- Reprice with the what-if ladder above. Small moves at high volume matter more than a big move on a slow SKU.
- Move the well. A $4 swing on a handle you go through weekly beats any menu redesign.
- Count weekly, not monthly. Variance you find seven days later is still fixable.
- Watch dollars, not just percent. A 25% pour cost on a $16 drink keeps more cash than 15% on a $7 well drink.
Keep going with these calculators
- Cocktail Cost Calculator — cost a full drink including juice, syrup and garnish, not just the spirit.
- Menu Pricing Calculator — work backwards from a target pour cost to a clean menu price.
- Bar Break-Even Calculator — turn contribution margin into the covers you need to cover fixed costs.
- Liquor Cost Calculator — period liquor cost percentage from inventory counts and purchases.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate pour cost?
- Divide the cost of the liquor poured by the price you sell it for, then multiply by 100. Cost per pour is bottle cost ÷ ounces in the bottle × pour size. A $28 750 ml bottle poured at 1.5 oz costs $1.66; sold at $12 that is a 13.8% pour cost.
- What is a good pour cost percentage?
- Spirits typically run 15–20%, beer 20–25%, wine 28–35%, and an overall bar program usually targets 18–24%. Lower is not automatically better — pricing too aggressively can cost you volume and guest goodwill.
- How many pours are in a 750 ml bottle?
- About 16 pours at 1.5 oz, 20 at 1.25 oz, or 12 at 2 oz. Expect real yield to be slightly lower once you account for over-pour, spill and waste — many operators budget 2–5% shrinkage.
- Why is my actual pour cost higher than this calculation?
- This is theoretical pour cost, the best case. Real variance comes from free pours, over-pouring, comps, spills, breakage and theft. Comparing theoretical to actual pour cost from inventory is the fastest way to find where product is going.
- Does pour cost include garnish and mixers?
- Pour cost as used here is the spirit only. For full drink cost including juice, syrups, garnish and ice, use the Cocktail Cost Calculator.
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