Pour Cost / Liquor Cost Calculator
Find pour cost percentage and profit per drink from bottle cost, pour size, and drink price.
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About the Pour Cost / Liquor Cost Calculator
Behind the bar, small pouring errors turn into large losses because liquor is sold by the ounce but bought by the bottle. This calculator translates your bottle cost into the cost of a single pour, then measures that cost against the price you charge to give you pour cost percentage and profit per drink. It is the bar's equivalent of plate costing and the fastest way to see whether your drink prices actually protect margin.
A standard 750 ml bottle holds about 25.36 ounces, but how many drinks you get from it depends entirely on your pour size. A heavy hand that pours two ounces instead of one and a half quietly shrinks your yield and inflates cost per drink by a third. This tool makes that relationship visible so you can standardize pours, spot over-pouring, and price cocktails and shots with confidence.
Use it when you build a cocktail list, review well versus call pricing, or investigate why liquor cost is running high despite steady sales. It works for spirits poured by the ounce and adapts to any bottle size, pour size, and price you enter.
How the Pour Cost / Liquor Cost Calculator works
The calculation runs in three steps. First it divides bottle size in ounces by your pour size to find pours per bottle. Then it divides bottle cost by pours per bottle to find the cost per pour. Finally it divides cost per pour by the drink price and multiplies by 100 to express pour cost as a percentage, and subtracts cost per pour from drink price to show profit per drink.
Pour cost percentage is the bar's headline efficiency metric, and most operations target 18 to 24 percent, meaning liquor should cost roughly a fifth of the drink's price. Higher-end spirits and craft cocktails with multiple ingredients tend toward the upper end of that band, while high-volume well drinks should sit lower. Because pour size drives pours per bottle, tightening portion control from two ounces to a measured 1.5 is one of the most direct levers on your liquor cost.
Worked example
Take a bottle costing $24 with a size of 25.36 ounces and a standard 1.5-ounce pour. Dividing 25.36 by 1.5 gives about 16.9 pours per bottle. Dividing $24 by 16.9 pours gives a cost per pour of roughly $1.42.
If that drink sells for $9, pour cost percentage is $1.42 divided by $9, or about 15.8 percent — comfortably under the 18 to 24 percent target — and profit per drink is $9 minus $1.42, or $7.58. Now watch what over-pouring does: bump the pour to 2 ounces and you get only 12.7 pours per bottle, cost per pour climbs to $1.89, and pour cost jumps to 21 percent, eroding nearly fifty cents of profit on every single drink.
Tips & common mistakes
- Standardize on measured pours with jiggers or metered spouts — the difference between a free-poured 2 ounces and a measured 1.5 can swing pour cost by five points or more.
- Remember a 750 ml bottle is 25.36 ounces and a liter is 33.8; enter the actual bottle size so pours-per-bottle is accurate.
- Price craft cocktails on the sum of all their liquor pours, not a single spirit, or multi-ingredient drinks will run over target.
- Compare well, call, and premium tiers separately, since a flat pour cost target across all of them will leave the top shelf underpriced.
- Audit actual bottle yield against theoretical pours monthly — a persistent gap points to over-pouring, spillage, or unrecorded comps.
Pour Cost / Liquor Cost Calculator: frequently asked questions
What is a good pour cost percentage?
Most bars target 18 to 24 percent overall. Beer often runs higher (near 25 percent) and spirits lower, while wine varies widely by list. If your pour cost climbs above the mid-20s, look first at pour sizes and comps before adjusting menu prices.
How many ounces are in a standard bottle?
A 750 ml bottle contains about 25.36 ounces and a 1-liter bottle about 33.8 ounces. Enter the exact size you buy, because pours per bottle — and therefore cost per pour — depend directly on it. Using the wrong bottle size is the most common source of an inaccurate result.
Why does pour size matter so much?
Because it determines how many drinks each bottle yields. Increasing a pour from 1.5 to 2 ounces cuts yield by 25 percent and raises cost per pour proportionally. Consistent, measured pours are the single biggest control you have over liquor cost.
How do I cost a cocktail with several spirits?
Calculate the cost per pour for each spirit and mixer in the recipe, add them together for a total plate cost, then measure that combined cost against the cocktail's price. This calculator handles one pour at a time, so sum the ingredients for a full cocktail.
My theoretical and actual liquor costs do not match — why?
A gap between what the calculator predicts and what your inventory shows usually means over-pouring, spillage, breakage, unrecorded comps, or theft. The calculator gives you the theoretical benchmark; comparing it to a physical inventory count reveals how much variance your bar is actually losing.