Pour Cost Calculator

Pour cost is the percentage of a drink's selling price that goes toward the cost of the alcohol. It is the beverage equivalent of food cost percentage. For example, if a drink costs $1.50 to pour and sells for $8, the pour cost is 18.75%. The formula is: Pour Cost % = (Cost per Pour ÷ Menu Price) × 100. Bar owners use this metric to price drinks, evaluate supplier deals, and measure bartender performance.

It depends on the beverage category:

Liquor/spirits: 14-20% — highest margin, especially well drinks.
Draft beer: 15-18% — low cost per serving, high volume.
Bottled beer: 20-25% — higher cost than draft.
Well cocktails: 18-22% — high volume, lower-cost spirits.
Craft cocktails: 20-28% — premium spirits and fresh ingredients push costs up.
Wine by the glass: 30-40% — higher bottle cost, but less spoilage risk with proper preservation.

Most bars target 18-24% overall when blending all categories. If your blended pour cost consistently exceeds 24%, review pricing or investigate waste.

A 750ml bottle holds about 25.4 oz. The number of drinks depends on your pour size:

1 oz pour (shots, some cocktails): ~25 drinks
1.25 oz pour (standard in some states): ~20 drinks
1.5 oz pour (industry standard): ~16 drinks
2 oz pour (rocks/heavy): ~12 drinks

For a 1-liter bottle (33.8 oz), you get roughly 22 standard 1.5 oz pours. For a handle (1.75L / 59.2 oz), about 39 pours. Keep in mind that real-world yield is typically 5-8% less due to spillage, short pours that get topped off, and residual liquid left in the bottle.

Same concept, different product categories. Food cost percentage measures ingredient cost as a share of menu price for food items. Pour cost does the same for beverages. Both are COGS ratios.

The key practical difference: pour cost targets are lower (18-24%) than food cost targets (28-35%) because beverage preparation requires less labor and waste. Together, food cost + beverage cost + labor cost = "prime cost," which most restaurants aim to keep under 60-65% of total revenue. For a deeper breakdown, see our guide on how to calculate food cost.

The most common causes, roughly in order of frequency:

1. Over-pouring: A bartender who free-pours 1.75 oz instead of 1.5 oz wastes 17% more liquor per drink. This is the single biggest driver of pour cost variance.
2. Unrecorded comps and buybacks: Every untracked free drink inflates your actual cost without a matching sale.
3. Supplier price increases: If your distributor raised prices and you haven't adjusted menu prices, your cost ratio silently climbs.
4. Spillage and waste: Dropped bottles, returned drinks, expired beer kegs — these add up fast in high-volume bars.
5. Theft: Giving away drinks without ringing them up, or taking product home. Less common than operators think, but real.
6. Inaccurate inventory counts: If your beginning or ending inventory is off, your COGS calculation will be wrong — making pour cost appear higher or lower than it actually is.

Traditionally, pour cost refers only to the alcohol cost. But for accurate drink profitability, you should know the total cost per drink including mixers, garnishes, and consumables.

Consider a margarita: $1.50 in tequila + $0.30 lime juice + $0.20 triple sec + $0.15 garnish = $2.15 total. Using only the $1.50 liquor cost gives you an 18.75% pour cost on an $8 drink. The true cost including everything is 26.9% — a very different picture.

This calculator lets you add mixer and garnish costs in the advanced options so you can see both numbers.

Ideal pour cost is what your cost should be based on standard recipes and portion sizes — what you'd spend if every drink were made perfectly to spec with zero waste.

Actual pour cost is what you really spent, calculated from inventory and sales: (Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory) ÷ Total Beverage Sales.

The gap between them is called "variance" and it reveals operational problems:

Under 2% variance: Excellent — your bar runs tight.
2-5% variance: Acceptable, but worth investigating the biggest-moving bottles.
Over 5% variance: Needs immediate attention. Pull usage reports for your top 10 bottles by volume and compare theoretical vs. actual depletion.

Weekly is the industry best practice for high-volume bars. It catches problems — over-pouring, supplier price bumps, theft — before they compound into a month-long margin hit.

Monthly works for lower-volume operations or as a minimum cadence.

The key is consistency: pick a day (many bars use Monday before deliveries), count inventory, pull sales reports, and calculate. Many successful bar programs tie bartender performance reviews and even bonuses to pour cost variance, which creates accountability at the point of service.