Pour Cost Calculator
Work out pour cost per drink or for a bar period from bottle cost, bottle size and pour size, and the menu price that hits your target. Pick a standard bottle or type any size in mL or fl oz, add the mixers, and every result shows the working.
Your numbers
What you pay for one bottle, after any case discount.
The amount of this liquor in one drink, as your bar measures it.
Mixers, juice, syrup, garnish, a second spirit: their cost for one drink.
Before sales tax.
Your own goal. Shows the menu price, or the liquor cost, that meets it.
Pour cost
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- Liquor cost per pour
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This is the cost of the recipe as written. Spills, overpours and comps are not in it; the period figure from your counts is where they show up.
The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.
The pour cost formula for one drink
Pour cost % = drink cost ÷ menu price × 100, where the drink cost is the liquor in the pour plus everything else in the glass. Cost per pour = bottle cost ÷ bottle size × pour size, with both sizes in the same unit. The calculator converts fl oz to mL for you.
Worked example: a 1 L bottle costs $28 and the bar pours 1.5 fl oz (44.4 mL). That is 1,000 ÷ 44.4 = 22.5 pours, so each pour costs $28 ÷ 22.5 = $1.24. Add $0.35 of mixer and a lime and the drink costs $1.59. On the menu at $9 the pour cost is $1.59 ÷ $9 = 17.7%, and the drink leaves $7.41 of gross profit.
To price from a target instead, divide the drink cost by the target as a decimal: at 18%, $1.59 ÷ 0.18 = $8.84. If you round to your usual price steps, enter the rounded price to see the percentage it gives.
Bottle sizes in fl oz
Spirits in the US are sold in fixed metric sizes, the standards of fill in federal rules (27 CFR 5.203). The ones behind most bars are 750 mL, 1 L and 1.75 L; 375 mL and 50 mL are others. With 1 US fl oz = 29.5735 mL: 750 mL = 25.36 fl oz, 1 L = 33.81 fl oz, 1.75 L = 59.17 fl oz and 375 mL = 12.68 fl oz.
A bigger bottle of the same product can cost less per ounce, or not, depending on the price list. Run both sizes and compare the cost per fl oz row before you switch, and check that the bigger bottle fits the speed rail and gets used up at a pace the bar is happy with.
Pour cost for a week or a month
The bar's real pour cost comes from inventory: liquor used = opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory, all at cost, and pour cost % = liquor used ÷ liquor sales for the same dates. Example for a month: $8,400 on the shelf at the start, $5,200 bought, $7,900 counted at the end. The bar used $5,700, and on $27,500 of liquor sales that is 20.7%. With a 20% target the liquor should have cost $5,500, so the month ran $200 over.
Count at the same time each period, before opening or after close, and count partial bottles the same way every time (by tenths or by weight). Use sales without sales tax. If beer, wine and spirits have different targets, count and sell them as separate categories, or a shift in what guests order will move the total for no other reason.
Pour cost, food cost and margin
Pour cost is the bar's version of food cost: cost as a share of the selling price. The food cost calculator is built for the kitchen (recipes with yield, plate cost, menu price), with a short tab for a single spirit. This page is for the bar: the whole drink with its other ingredients, bottle sizes in ml or fl oz, and the monthly figure from bar inventory.
Pour cost and margin are two sides of one number: a 20% pour cost is an 80% gross margin on the drink before labor and overhead. The margin calculator turns margin into markup and back. A supplier setting the price of a bottle to distributors and bars works from the other end, with the wholesale price calculator.
For wine, spirits and beverage sales reps
A bar manager decides on a new spirit by what it does to the drink, not by the case price. Before the visit, run the account's own pour and menu price through the per drink mode for the brand on the rail now and for yours. A bottle that costs more can still hold the pour cost if it goes into a drink at a higher price, and showing that in the manager's own numbers keeps the talk on the menu.
Ask how the bar measures its pours and what it charges for the drink you have in mind. Those two answers decide the pour cost far more than a few cents on the bottle.
Sources, each read on 2026-11-08. Results are arithmetic on your own numbers:
- 27 CFR 5.203, Standards of fill for distilled spirits: the authorized metric bottle sizes, including 375 mL, 750 mL, 1 L and 1.75 L
- NIST Special Publication 811, Appendix B.8: 1 US fluid ounce = 29.57353 mL
Related: the food cost calculator for recipes and plates, the margin calculator for margin and markup, and the wholesale price calculator for pricing down the supply chain.
More for beverage and foodservice sales: Beverage distributor sales rep, Wine sales rep, Foodservice sales rep.
The numbers start the menu talk
The pour cost shows what a drink earns; the meeting with the bar manager decides what goes on the menu. Record that conversation in ParrotNotes and you get a transcript, a summary and the action items, so the agreed prices and next steps are written down.
Get Started FreeRelated tools
- Food Cost CalculatorWork out a dish's plate cost and food cost percentage from its ingredients, and the menu price that hits your target food cost.Open the tool
- Margin and Markup CalculatorWork out margin, markup and selling price from cost, convert markup to margin, and see what a discount does to your margin before you quote.Open the tool
- Wholesale Price CalculatorWork out a wholesale price from unit cost and target margin, then the distributor and retail prices down the chain, with the margin at each step.Open the tool