Pour Cost Calculator
Pour cost is the bar's version of food cost percentage: the share of a drink's price that goes into the liquor itself. Enter your bottle details and selling price to see pours per bottle, cost per drink, and your margin verdict. Everything updates live.
What you paid for the bottle, before tax.
Standard spirits bottle is 750 ml; a liter is 1000 ml.
Standard shot is 1.5 oz; many cocktails use 2 oz.
The menu price of the cocktail or shot.
Why pour cost runs the bar
Liquor is usually a bar's highest-margin category: and its leakiest. Unlike a kitchen, where every plate leaves a paper trail of recipe cards, a bar loses money in quarter-ounce increments: a heavy free pour here, a spilled shaker there, a comped round that never gets rung in. Pour cost percentage turns that invisible drain into a number you can manage. When your actual pour cost drifts above the theoretical number your recipes predict, you know to look at pour discipline, spillage, and shrinkage.
Worked example: a $28.00 bottle of vodka, 750 ml. Convert to ounces: 750 ÷ 29.5735 = 25.36 oz. At 1.5 oz pours, that's 16.9 pours per bottle. Cost per pour: $28.00 ÷ 16.9 = $1.66. Sell the cocktail for $12.00 and your pour cost is 13.8%, excellent, with $10.34 profit per drink. But if bartenders free-pour closer to 2 oz, you only get 12.7 pours, cost per drink jumps to $2.21, and pour cost rises to 18.4%. Same bottle, same price, 4.6 points of margin lost to the wrist. That's why jiggers and measured pourers pay for themselves in weeks.
Cost per drink = Bottle cost ÷ Pours per bottle
Pour cost % = (Cost per drink ÷ Drink price) × 100
Practical tips for the bar
Cost your cocktails fully, base spirit plus modifiers, syrups, and garnish, for the real number; this calculator handles the spirit, and you can add $0.50–$1.50 per drink for the rest depending on your recipes. Track pour cost by category (well, call, premium) rather than one blended number, because a blended 20% can hide a well program bleeding at 30%. Reconcile weekly: bottles used versus drinks sold should match within a few percent, and the gap is your training agenda.
Frequently asked questions
What is pour cost?
Pour cost is the bar equivalent of food cost percentage: the cost of the liquor in a drink divided by the drink's selling price, expressed as a percentage. It covers the base spirit in a standard cocktail; garnishes, mixers, and syrups can be costed separately or added as a per-drink overhead. Tracking pour cost by bottle lets you see exactly which spirits are making money and which are being given away.
What is a good pour cost percentage?
Most bars target 18–24% pour cost. Under 18% is excellent: typical for high-volume cocktail bars with strong pricing power. Over 24% means margins are leaking, usually through overpouring, heavy-handed free pours, spillage, or underpricing. Well drinks should run lower (12–18%) while premium pours and shots can run higher and still be profitable in dollar terms.
How do I reduce my pour cost?
The biggest lever is controlling the pour itself: train on jiggers instead of free pouring, or use measured pourers, because a quarter-ounce of overpour on every drink adds up to thousands of dollars a year. Track spillage and comp drinks separately so they don't hide in your numbers. Price to your market: a signature cocktail list lets you charge for craft instead of discounting the well. Finally, renegotiate with distributors and watch for shrinkage.
How many shots are in a 750 ml bottle?
A 750 ml bottle holds about 25.4 fluid ounces. At a standard 1.5 oz pour, that yields roughly 16–17 pours. At a 1 oz pour you get about 25 pours, and at a heavy 2 oz pour only about 12–13. The calculator above computes exact pours per bottle from your bottle size and pour size.