Coffee Shop Break-Even Calculator: how many cups a day keep the lights on?
A $5 latte costs about $1 to make. Sounds like a money printer — until rent, payroll, and insurance land. This calculator turns your real fixed costs into the one number that matters: the drinks you have to sell every single day before you make a dollar. Built from documented 2026 industry figures. Not a guess. Not a sales pitch.
Find your break-even point
Enter your numbers on the left. Where a cost is a documented industry range instead of your quote, we show the full low/high band — anyone who hands you one exact number is guessing.
Your shop
Six questions, then a stress test. Updates as you go.
Now stress-test it
Break-even is the floor. These two answers estimate your profit and how fast you earn your startup money back.
Your break-even point
What you must sell before a single dollar is profit.
Where these numbers come from
This is a planning estimate, not a forecast — and it is not financial advice. Your lease, your labor, and your menu move every figure. The documented ranges used here are the same ones in our published coffee-shop guides:
Per-drink economics (a $5.00 latte carries about $1.00 in beans, milk, syrup, cup, and lid — an 80% gross margin; beverage gross margins run 75–80%, and a blended menu with food runs 25–35% cost of goods), the benchmark P&L month ($20,000 revenue · $5,000 cost of goods · $6,000 labor · $3,000 rent and utilities), cost shares (labor 25–35% of revenue · rent + utilities 10–15% · other operating 5–10%), net-margin bands (2.5–6% conservative average · 13.8% independent-shop average · 10–25% healthy established), and the monthly revenue span ($9,000 to over $50,000): our Average Coffee Shop Profit Margin breakdown, drawn from the Restaurant Warehouse profitability guide, the Crimson Cup study cited by Just Love Coffee, and the Independent Coffee Shop Industry Report. Insurance (a working package runs $150–$500/mo; bare-bones cafe — BOP + workers' comp for two employees — $180–$250/mo; fully loaded cafe $400–$500/mo): our Coffee Shop Insurance cost guide, anchored to The Hartford's published 2026 cafe pricing. Startup investment tiers (small cafe/kiosk $80K–$140K · standard indie shop $150K–$250K · full-service with food $250K–$350K+): our "How much does it cost to open a coffee shop?" breakdown.
Deliberately not modeled (so your real break-even sits a bit higher): marketing, repairs, and POS fees — our profit-margin breakdown puts total "other operating" costs (which include the insurance we count separately here) at 5–10% of revenue — plus loan payments, taxes, waste, and any owner pay you didn't put in the payroll box. Budget those on top. Verify every figure with local quotes before you spend a dollar. Spotted something off? Tell us.
Keep planning
More free tools and guides, no email needed.
Know your daily number? Now build the shop that beats it.
This is the lite version. The full Coffee Shop Kit includes the complete P&L and financial-projection model (plug in your real rent, labor, and pricing), the startup budget calculator, equipment vendor lists, pre-opening checklist, business plan template, and 40+ more files — everything from idea to opening day, already built and branded.
