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Pour Cost & Cocktail Cost Calculator
See exactly what your bar program is costing you — per pour, per cocktail, per bottle. Free, no signup.
Use the same unit — ml or oz — for bottle size and pour size.
Cost per pour
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Pour cost (%)
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Gross margin
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Contribution margin per pour
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Most bars target a pour cost of roughly 18–24% for spirits — below that and you may be over-pouring; above it, you're likely pouring away margin on every drink.
Total cost
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Cost (%)
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Gross margin
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Contribution margin per cocktail
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Glass Breakage
Estimated annual replacement cost
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Ice Machine Cost
Ice cost per drink
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Industry data puts unmanaged glass breakage at roughly 33% of inventory a year — proper glasswasher racking and handling can cut that closer to 10%. A single commercial ice machine typically runs $600–$1,700 a year in electricity, water, and maintenance — a real cost almost never priced into any individual drink.
Why calculating your pour cost changes everything
Pour cost, cocktail cost, wine yield, keg yield, and espresso waste are really the same discipline applied to five different pours — cost every component of a drink the way a kitchen costs every component of a plate. Here's the full picture, one article at a time.
- Pour cost %, explained
- What a cocktail really costs (garnish and ice included)
- Wine by the glass: bottle yield and spoilage waste
- Draft beer keg yield and foam waste
- Espresso dial-in waste
- Ice: the volume-filler nobody prices in
- The right glass for every drink (and what it costs you)
- Cost your kitchen recipes too with our free Food Cost Calculator
Frequently asked questions
- What's a good pour cost percentage for a bar?
- Most bars target a blended pour cost of roughly 18–24%, with 20% commonly cited as the benchmark. The healthy range varies by category: spirits typically run 15–22%, draft beer 20–26%, bottled beer 24–28%, and wine by the glass 22–34% because of oxidation waste on opened bottles.
- Does pour cost include ice or mixers?
- No. Pour cost specifically means the cost of the spirit poured divided by the drink's selling price. Ice, mixers, garnish, and dilution aren't part of that ratio, though they're real costs worth tracking separately — that's what the Cocktail Cost mode above is for.
- What's the standard pour size for spirits?
- In the US it's typically 1.5oz (44ml) by convention, not law. The UK regulates it directly: gin, rum, vodka, and whisky must legally be served in 25ml or 35ml measures, and a venue must pick one size and stick to it.
- How much does ice actually cost a bar?
- More than most spec sheets admit. Industry cost guides put a single commercial ice machine's annual electricity and water spend at roughly $400–$1,000, plus $200–$700 in maintenance — real costs that almost never show up on an individual drink's recipe card.
- Why does my pour cost keep drifting even when my recipes haven't changed?
- Free-pouring is inherently variable. Beverage-cost consultancy Bar-i has found bars typically pour roughly 15% more alcohol than they actually sell — a gap that never shows up on a POS report because the drink still rings in at the same price.
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