Pour cost and price per glass
Enter what the bottle or keg costs you and how much you pour. You’ll see how many serves you really get, what each one costs and what to charge to make the margin you want.
Choosing a type sets a starting measure. Pick a common one or type the measure you pour.
How to use the calculator
- Enter what the bottle or keg costs you, as it appears on your supplier’s invoice (ex VAT if you’re VAT-registered), and choose its size: 750 ml, 700 ml, 1 litre, 1.5 litres, a 50-litre keg or any other.
- Choose what you serve. Wine, sparkling, spirits or beer set a starting measure; pick one of the common measures or type your own. If you use an optic or a jigger, that’s your number.
- Enter the wastage: how much of each bottle or keg is lost. If you don’t know it, measure it for a few weeks (see below).
- Add the extras per serve if there are any: tonic or mixer, ice, garnish, the nibbles that come with it.
- Choose your target cost percentage and look at the suggested price. If you already have a price, enter it to see your real pour cost and what each bottle leaves you.
In the US, switch the units to fluid ounces and untick the VAT box: menu prices are shown before sales tax, which is added at the till.
The formulas
- Serves per bottle = size × (1 − wastage) ÷ measure.
- Cost per serve = bottle cost ÷ serves per bottle + extras per serve.
- Price ex VAT = cost per serve ÷ target cost percentage. At 25%, the cost is multiplied by 4.
- Price inc VAT = price ex VAT × 1.20 at the UK standard rate. The suggested price is rounded up to the next 10p.
- Margin per bottle = serves per bottle × (price ex VAT − cost per serve). It’s what’s left to pay for staff, premises and profit.
UK and US measures
In the UK, still wine by the glass is sold in 125 ml or 175 ml (or multiples of them), gin, rum, vodka and whisky in 25 ml or 35 ml (or multiples, but not both in the same venue), and draught beer and cider in a third, a half or two-thirds of a pint, or multiples of a half pint (a pint is 568 ml). Cocktails of three or more drinks are exempt. The details are in the government’s guide to specified quantities.
In the US there’s no single legal pour: 1.5 oz of spirits, 5 oz of wine and 12 or 16 oz of beer are common, but it depends on the bar and the state. Whatever you pour, measure it the same way every time, or the numbers here won’t match what happens behind the bar.
Why wastage matters so much
With drinks by the glass, what gets lost never shows up on a receipt. A 750 ml bottle gives six 125 ml glasses only if nothing is poured away. If the last quarter of a bottle has oxidised by the end of the week, or every glass comes out a little fuller than it should, that bottle ends up giving four or five. The cost per glass goes up and, if the price was worked out for six, the margin goes with it.
To measure it, note for a few weeks the bottles you open to sell by the glass and the glasses you sell from each one. The difference is your real wastage. To bring it down:
- Sell by the glass the wines that move fastest, and keep the rest by the bottle only.
- Use a measure, an optic or a lined glass, especially for spirits and fortified wines.
- Seal open bottles well, keep them cold and write the opening date on them.
- Open in order: finish the started bottle before opening a new one. For draught beer, keep the cellar cool and clean the lines on schedule.
What cost percentage to use
No figure works for everyone. As a rough guide, many bars run drinks at lower cost percentages than food, because they take little preparation: often between 20% and 30% for wine by the glass. In the UK many people talk about gross profit instead: a 25% cost is a 75% GP. But the percentage isn’t everything. A £15 bottle sold at a 35% cost makes more money per glass than a £5 one sold at 20%. Look at both: the percentage and the margin per bottle.
Compare with what bars near you charge and with the price of the whole bottle on your list. If the glass looks expensive next to the bottle, guests notice. To lay out glasses and bottles in columns, see how to write a wine list; for mixed drinks, the cocktail menu, and for a bar, the drinks menu. For the kitchen, the sister tool is the recipe cost calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How many glasses are in a bottle of wine?
It’s a division: the size of the bottle divided by what you pour. A 750 ml bottle gives six 125 ml glasses, about four 175 ml glasses or three 250 ml glasses. If some wine is lost because an open bottle goes off or gets spilt, you get fewer, and that’s what the wastage figure corrects.
What is wastage on drinks?
What you pay for and never sell: the end of a bottle that oxidises, the glass that gets spilt, the over-generous pour, beer lost when you clean the lines. If one 175 ml glass is lost from every 750 ml bottle, wastage is about 23% and every glass you sell costs you about 30% more.
What pour cost percentage should I aim for?
There’s no official figure. As a rough guide, many bars run drinks at a lower cost percentage than food, often somewhere between 20% and 30% for wine by the glass. It depends on your venue, your guests and each product: an expensive wine can run at a higher percentage and still make more money per glass.
How do I price a mixed drink?
Choose “Spirits”, enter the cost of the bottle and the measure you pour, and put everything else in “Extras per serve”: the tonic or mixer, the ice and the garnish. The calculator adds it all up before working out the price.
Should the bottle cost include VAT?
If you’re VAT-registered, use the price ex VAT, because you reclaim the VAT on your purchases; VAT is then added to the selling price. If you’re not registered, use what you actually pay. In the US, use your cost before sales tax and untick the VAT box.