Free Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
Enter your monthly fixed costs, variable cost percentage, and average ticket. The calculator returns break-even revenue, covers per day, contribution margin, and tags whether your margin band is strong, healthy, on watch, or critical.
Break-even calculator
Enter your monthly fixed costs, variable cost percentage, and average ticket. The calculator returns break-even revenue, covers per day, and your contribution margin.
Break-even revenue
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Break-even covers per day
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Contribution margin per $1 of sales
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Tip: include only true fixed costs (rent, salaried payroll, insurance, software, loan service). Hourly labor, COGS, processing fees and packaging go into variable cost %. Re-run the calculation whenever your cost structure changes - the default operator cadence is monthly.
Why break-even is the planning metric
How to use the calculator
Four inputs. The math runs live in your browser.
- 1
Enter monthly fixed costs - rent, salaried payroll, insurance, software subscriptions, loan service, and the fixed portion of utilities. Anything that does not move with sales.
- 2
Enter the variable cost percentage of sales - food and beverage COGS, hourly labor (with payroll tax + benefits on the hourly side), payment processing, packaging, performance marketing.
- 3
Enter your average ticket - net of taxes, gross of tip. Pull it from the POS daily summary.
- 4
Enter operating days per month (default 26 for a six-day-a-week venue). Adjust for closures or seasonal hours.
- 5
Read the result. Break-even revenue is the monthly target; covers per day translates it into the operational metric the floor and kitchen can act on; the contribution-margin badge tells you whether your variable cost mix is healthy for your format.
The break-even formula
The formula every operator should know:
Break-Even Revenue = Fixed Costs / (1 - Variable Cost %)
The denominator - one minus variable cost percentage - is the contribution margin ratio: the share of every dollar of revenue that survives variable costs and is therefore available to pay down fixed costs. From there you can derive break-even covers per day (break-even revenue divided by average ticket divided by operating days), break-even covers per shift, and the cushion you have for every dollar of sales above the threshold.
Contribution margin benchmarks by format
These are the contribution-margin bands operators in each format target. The calculator badges your variable cost % automatically against them.
| Format | Healthy band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fine dining | CM 38-42% | High food cost and hourly labor offset by high ticket; heavy fixed base means break-even revenue is the highest of any format. |
| Casual full-service / bistro | CM 38-42% | The classic operator band. Break-even reachable in 18-22 operating days a month if healthy. |
| Pizzeria | CM 45-55% | Dough economics and lower labor make this the most forgiving format on break-even. |
| Quick-service restaurant | CM 45-55% | Volume-and-throughput model; similar economics to pizzeria. |
| Bar / pub kitchen | CM 40-50% | Beverage margin lifts the average; offset by lower-volume kitchen hours. |
| Hotel F&B / banquet-heavy | CM 32-38% | Complex menu mix and embedded shared services compress the contribution margin. |
A worked example
A 70-cover neighbourhood bistro in a tier-two city, open six days a week:
- Fixed costs (rent + salaried payroll + insurance + utilities + software + loan + brand marketing): $45,000 a month
- Variable cost % (COGS 30% + hourly labor 25% + processing 2.4% + variable marketing 1.5% + variable utilities 1.1%): 60%
- Average ticket: $42 · Operating days: 26
Contribution margin ratio = 1 - 0.60 = 40%
Break-even revenue = $45,000 / 0.40 = $112,500 a month
Break-even covers per day = $112,500 / 26 / $42 = 103 covers a day (about 1.5 turns on the dining room)
Every dollar above $112,500 contributes 40 cents to operating profit. At 130 covers a day the restaurant clears $25,300 EBITDA; at 150 covers a day it clears $40,500. The relationship is linear above break-even and explains why a 30% lift in covers becomes a 60% lift in profit.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a fixed cost and what counts as variable?+
Fixed costs do not move with sales: rent, salaried payroll (GM, chef, controller), insurance, software subscriptions, loan service, the building portion of utilities. Variable costs scale with sales: COGS, hourly labor (servers, line cooks, dishwashers - with payroll tax and benefits on top), payment processing, packaging, performance marketing. The single most common mistake is treating all labor as variable - salaried roles are fixed, hourly roles are variable, and miscategorising them moves break-even by 10-20%.
How accurate does the variable cost percentage need to be?+
Accurate to within one point is good enough. Pull the prior month's P&L, add up everything classified as variable, divide by revenue. Re-run the calculation every month when the P&L closes. Re-audit the classification every quarter to catch costs that have migrated from variable to fixed (a software subscription that became multi-year, a marketing retainer that became fixed).
What is contribution margin and why does it matter?+
Contribution margin is the share of each dollar of revenue that survives variable costs. If variable costs are 60% of sales, contribution margin is 40 cents on the dollar. It is the operator's most important profitability lever because every dollar above break-even drops to operating profit at exactly that ratio. A two-point improvement in contribution margin lowers break-even by roughly 5%.
Should I include depreciation in fixed costs?+
For an operational break-even - the one the GM uses to know whether the month is clearing - no. Depreciation is non-cash; the restaurant survives if cash fixed costs are covered. For an accounting break-even at the annual budget, yes. Most operators run both: cash break-even for the weekly rhythm, accounting break-even for the planning conversation.
How do I lower my break-even revenue?+
Four levers, no more: cut fixed costs (highest direct leverage), improve contribution margin by lowering variable cost % (highest compound leverage), raise average ticket (means fewer covers needed), or add operating days/hours (spreads fixed cost across more revenue opportunities). The break-even guide walks through the trade-offs and typical impact of each.
Does this calculator store my data?+
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is logged, nothing is stored after you close the page. Safe for commercially sensitive financial inputs.
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