Baker’s percentage & hydration
Convert a dough recipe to baker’s percentages, or scale to a target dough weight.
1.8–2.2% is typical
0 for a yeasted dough
100% = equal flour and water
0.5–1% for a same-day loaf
Your formula
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 500 g |
| Water (add to dough) | 70% | 300 g |
| Salt | 2% | 10 g |
| Starter (50 g flour + 50 g water) | 20% | 100 g |
| Total dough | — | 960 g |
Including the flour and water inside the starter
Hydration by style
How it works
Baker's percentage is the reason a professional formula fits on one line and scales to any batch. Flour is defined as 100%, and every other ingredient is a percentage of that flour weight — so “70% hydration, 2% salt” describes the dough completely, whether you are making one loaf or two hundred.
ingredient % = (ingredient weight ÷ flour weight) × 100 Hydration, and what it does
Hydration is the water percentage. Lower doughs (55–62%) are stiff, easy to shape and give a tight crumb — bagels, pretzels, Neapolitan pizza. Higher doughs (75–85%) are slack and sticky but produce the open, glossy crumb of ciabatta and rustic sourdough. Whole-grain flours absorb more, so the same percentage feels drier.
Why the starter changes the maths
A levain is itself flour and water. At 100% hydration, 100 g of starter is 50 g flour and 50 g water — both of which count toward the dough's totals. This calculator subtracts the starter's water from the water you add, so the true hydration lands on your target rather than drifting above it.
Salt
1.8–2.2% is the standard band. Below about 1.5% bread tastes flat; above 2.5% fermentation slows noticeably. Salt also tightens gluten, which is why some bakers add it after an initial autolyse rather than at the start.