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Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
Break-even in dollars is hard to act on. Break-even in covers per day is checkable at 9pm. This gives you both.
Marji
marji.co/tools/break-even-calculator
Illustrative sample, not a restaurant result.
Break-even covers per day
91
You need 91 covers a day before the restaurant makes a dollar. Every 10% of sales above that line is $3,400 a month of profit.
Your numbers
- Monthly fixed costs
- $34,000
- Variable cost ratio
- 62.0%
- Average check
- $38.00
- Open days per month
- 26
- Contribution margin ratio
- 38.0%
- Break-even sales per month
- $89,474
- Break-even covers per month
- 2,355
- Monthly profit at 10% above break-even
- $3,400
Re-run these numbers free at marji.co/tools/break-even-calculator. Results use the inputs shown. Review quantities, units, yields and supplier costs before making a menu decision. Ingredient contribution excludes other restaurant expenses.
Print the full calculation or share a clean link to this tool. To connect a purchase cost to a dish, enter its reviewed quantities in the recipe calculator.
Cost one recipe →Common questions
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything that doesn't move with sales: rent, insurance, licences, salaried management, base utilities and debt service. If you'd pay it on a day you served nobody, it's fixed.
How do I find my variable cost ratio?
Add food cost, hourly labour and variable overhead from a recent normal month, then divide by that month's sales. Use your own figures rather than a published range: restaurants split the same costs into fixed and variable differently.
Should break-even include my own pay?
It should. Break-even without owner compensation tells you when the business stops losing money, not when it starts working. Add your target draw to fixed costs and recompute.