Restaurant Break-Even
Calculator

The break-even point is the amount of sales at which the costs you entered are exactly covered, so the operating result for the period is $0. Below it the restaurant loses money on those costs; above it, each extra sales dollar leaves its contribution behind. It answers a planning question: with this cost structure, how much do we have to sell?

Four figures are easy to confuse, and the calculator keeps them apart. The Break-even tool of the Break-Even Studio shows each of them on its own line.

If the percentage costs plus the per-order costs, as a share of the check, add up to 100% or more, each sale only pays for itself. The contribution ratio is then zero or negative, the division above has no meaningful answer, and more sales cannot cover the fixed costs. The Studio does not show a number in that case: it shows None and says why, and the chart states that the two lines never cross. A cost line missing from the list does the opposite and makes the point look lower than it is, so the result is flagged Incomplete when the fixed costs or the variable costs are absent.

For the method step by step, with worked examples and the limits of the model, read the Restaurant Break-Even Guide.

Each cost line in the Studio has a How it behaves choice, and the choice decides how the line reacts when sales change. Use Add a cost line for up to ten lines and Clear cost line to empty one.

These are simplifications, and the page cannot decide for you. Rent can step up when a lease renews; a card fee may change with the mix of payments; hourly wages move with the schedule rather than strictly with sales. If part of a cost moves and part does not, split it in two on a mixed line rather than forcing it into one box. The Studio never guesses the split, and a mixed part you leave empty is shown as not entered, not as $0.00.

Food cost shows why the classification matters. As a percentage of sales it grows with the price you charge; as the cost of the plate, an amount per order, it does not. The Food Cost Calculator helps you work out that cost per plate, and the Restaurant Profit Calculator explains how fixed, variable and mixed costs behave in a full profit and loss. For wages, the Labor Cost Calculator shows which pay is tied to hours and which to a salary, before you enter it here.

The What-if tool moves one lever at a time on your own entries: the price (the average check), fixed costs, variable costs, the volume of orders, or a single cost line through Change one cost line only. A price change keeps the same number of orders, so sales move by the same percentage. It is arithmetic, not a forecast: it does not predict whether guests will accept a price or how many will come.

A cost typed as a percentage of sales rises and falls with sales by definition, so a price increase cannot lower the share it takes. A cost typed per order does not move with the price. Take $10,000 of fixed costs and a $30 check, with food at $9.00 a plate, which is 30% of the check. Raise the price by 10%:

Neither is wrong; they describe different costs. The Studio warns you whenever you test a price change while percentage lines exist, and lists its assumptions under every scenario. To choose the price itself, start from the plate in the Menu Price Calculator.

In Sensitivity table: size of the change to test (%) you type your own step; none is suggested. Each lever is moved down and up by it, one at a time. With a 5% step on the example:

Three readings from this one table, true only for these entries. The price barely moves the break-even point, because most variable costs here are percentages that follow the price; it moves the result at your sales much more. Volume does not move the break-even point at all, since it is a property of the cost structure, but it moves the result. Fixed costs move the point in direct proportion.

A restaurant that sells in more than one way, such as dine-in, takeout and delivery, does not have one contribution ratio. In Sales channels the cost lines you entered apply to every channel, and each channel adds only its own: an average check, a percentage of its own sales, and an amount per order. The channel names are examples; use your own, up to four.

The mix is each channel’s share of sales in dollars (revenue), not of orders. You type it in Share of your sales in dollars (%) and the shares must total 100%; none is assumed or filled in. Each channel’s check, percentage costs and per-order cost are weighted by that share of dollars, and its number of orders follows from its own check.

“Alone” means: if that channel had to carry all $20,000 of fixed costs itself. It does not depend on the mix. The $0.45 of packaging on the base lines applies to every channel, which is why the dine-in contribution matches the single-structure example. Now type a mix of 60% dine-in, 25% delivery and 15% takeout:

This table is the exact, continuous result: it keeps your 60% / 25% / 15% mix to the dollar and its contributions add up to exactly the fixed costs. The break-even point for the mix is $33,508.22, higher than dine-in alone because delivery and takeout contribute less per order. Each row is rounded to the cent for display, so the three rows add up to $33,508.21, one cent below the exact total. The blended average check is $27.97 and the blended contribution is $16.70 per order. The orders are fractions: 1,197.81 in all, or 1,198 when rounded up once.

Nobody serves 670.16 orders. If you round each channel up on its own, you get whole orders:

The whole orders add up to 1,200, while the total rounded once is 1,198. They bring $33,568.00 of sales in a mix of 59.97% / 25.02% / 15.01%, not exactly the mix you typed, and $20,034.02 of contribution, $34.02 above the fixed costs. So the 671 / 300 / 229 split is a way of counting, not a plan: it does not guarantee the revenue mix, and it does not hit the break-even point exactly. Use the exact table for the mix and the whole orders only to picture how many guests that means.

Under Move sales between channels (optional) you choose two channels and a number of percentage points. Moving 10 points of sales from dine-in to delivery changes the mix to 50% / 35% / 15%. The contribution ratio falls from 59.7% to 57.7%, the break-even point rises to $34,676.39 (+$1,168.17) and needs 1,247.82 theoretical orders, 1,248 when rounded up once. Whether delivery orders replace dine-in orders or come on top of them is not something the model knows.

That is the limit of any multi-channel break-even point: it is valid only for the mix you typed, and the real mix drifts. Treat the result as one scenario, then test a shifted mix before you judge a platform. A break-even number of orders does not tell you the room can serve them either; the Table Capacity Calculator shows how many covers your dining room can seat.