Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
How much does your restaurant need to sell just to cover its costs? Enter your monthly fixed costs, your variable costs as a percent of sales and your average check. This restaurant break-even calculator shows the sales you need per month and per day, how many guests that takes, and what it takes to hit a profit goal.
Your numbers
The sample numbers match Toast's worked example ($66,666 a month in fixed costs, 40% variable costs, a $45 average check). Replace them with yours.
How to use the restaurant break-even calculator
- List your monthly fixed costs. Rent and occupancy, salaries and base labor, insurance, utilities, loan payments, software and marketing. If you’re still planning, use your best estimates and update them once you have quotes.
- Enter your variable costs as a percent of sales. Food and beverage cost is the big one. Add card fees, to-go packaging and any labor that truly flexes with sales.
- Enter your average check. Total sales divided by guests. Your POS reports this.
- Pick your days open to see the daily numbers, and add your seat count to see how many times each seat has to turn.
- Add a profit goal or your current sales to see the sales you need to make real money, or how far you are from break-even today.
Worked example (from Toast): $66,666 a month in fixed costs and variable costs at 40% of sales gives a contribution margin ratio of 0.6. $66,666 ÷ 0.6 = about $111,110 a month to break even. At a $45 average check, that’s about 2,469 guests a month, or roughly 83 a day if you’re open every day. The sample line items in the calculator are a made-up split of that $66,666 total, so swap in your own.
Still pricing your build-out? Start with the Restaurant Startup Cost Calculator, then set prices with the Restaurant Menu Price Calculator. Buying an existing place? Run the seller’s numbers through this tool and read our guide to buying a restaurant with no experience.
Where these numbers come from
- The break-even formulas, the $66,666 / 40% / $45 worked example and the 2,469 guests (about 83 a day) result: Toast, Break-Even Analysis for Restaurants. Toast also notes that prime costs (food and labor) make up about 60% of operating costs.
- The 32% food cost default and the cost benchmarks (food 32% to 33%, labor 22% to 25%, rent 6% to 10%, food + labor + rent about 65% or less): BizBuySell, Buying a Restaurant: What You Need to Know.
- The individual fixed cost line items and the 8% “other variable” default are placeholders that add up to Toast’s example totals. They are not published figures. Replace them with your own.
Break-even is a planning number, not a forecast. Costs vary a lot by city, concept and season, so rerun it whenever your rent, menu prices or staffing change.
Restaurant break-even FAQ
Divide your total monthly fixed costs by your contribution margin ratio. The contribution margin ratio is (sales minus variable costs) divided by sales. Toast’s example: $66,666 in monthly fixed costs at a 0.6 ratio means about $111,110 in monthly sales to break even.
Divide your break-even sales by your average check. In Toast’s example, about $111,111 a month at a $45 average check is about 2,469 guests a month, or roughly 83 a day.
Fixed costs stay about the same whether you’re busy or slow: rent, salaries, insurance, loan payments, software. Variable costs move with sales, like food and beverage cost and card fees. Toast suggests grouping mixed costs such as power and water with fixed costs to keep the math simple.
BizBuySell’s buyer guide puts restaurant food cost around 32% to 33% of sales, labor around 22% to 25% and rent around 6% to 10%, with food, labor and rent together around 65% or less. Your concept and market will move these.
Cut fixed costs (rent, salaried hours, subscriptions), lower variable costs (food cost, waste, card fees), or raise the average check. Small changes to your margin move break-even more than you might expect, so try a few scenarios in the calculator.
Know your number before you sign a lease.
Not ready to buy? Grab the free Restaurant Starter Kit below, or try the free Restaurant Startup Cost Calculator.
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