Costs you must cover
Rent, labour, utilities and other costs that need to be paid before profit appears.
Hospitality Operations Toolkit
Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
This restaurant break-even calculator helps you estimate how much revenue your restaurant needs to cover fixed costs, variable costs, labour and target profit — then calculate the daily sales and customers required.
Use this calculator in any currency. Enter your own fixed costs, variable costs, target profit and average spend using the currency and assumptions that fit your market.
Enter your weekly numbers
Tip: use weekly numbers to keep this simple. Labour cost can come from your Staff Schedule & Labour Cost Calculator. You can use £, $, €, AED or any other currency symbol.
Results
Total Fixed Costs
£0
Break-Even Sales
£0
Sales for Target Profit
£0
Daily Sales Needed
£0
Monthly Sales Needed
£0
Customers per Day
0
Waiting for calculation
How it works
The calculator treats food and beverage cost as a variable cost. If your food cost is 30%, then 70% of sales is available to cover fixed costs and target profit.
What is a restaurant break-even calculator?
A restaurant break-even calculator is a tool that estimates the sales level needed for a restaurant to cover its operating costs. It helps managers understand how much revenue is required before the business starts generating profit.
Break-even point matters because restaurants often feel busy without being profitable. A venue can have customers, bookings and strong-looking sales, but still fall short if fixed costs, labour and variable costs are too high for the revenue generated.
Costs linked to sales
Food and beverage costs that increase as revenue and customer volume increase.
Your profit goal
The extra sales required after covering operating costs to reach your profit target.
How to use the Restaurant Break-Even Calculator
Enter weekly figures for your restaurant. The calculator then estimates the weekly sales needed to break even, the sales needed to hit your target profit, the daily sales required and the number of customers needed per day based on your average spend.
- Currency symbol: choose the symbol you want results to display, such as £, $, €, AED or another local currency.
- Weekly rent / occupancy cost: rent, service charge or occupancy-related costs.
- Weekly labour cost: wages, salaries and employer-related staffing costs.
- Utilities / bills: energy, water, internet and other weekly operating bills.
- Food & beverage cost %: your variable cost percentage from ingredient and product usage.
- Average spend per customer: the average amount each guest spends.
For more detail on profitability, read the Restaurant Profitability Guide.
Break-even formulas used by the tool
Total Fixed Costs: Rent + Labour + Utilities + Other Fixed Costs
Contribution Margin: 1 − Variable Cost Percentage
Break-Even Sales: Fixed Costs ÷ Contribution Margin
Sales for Target Profit: (Fixed Costs + Target Profit) ÷ Contribution Margin
Customers Per Day: Daily Sales Needed ÷ Average Spend Per Customer
The most important assumption is your variable cost percentage. If food and beverage cost is 30%, then 70% of sales is available to cover fixed costs and profit.
How restaurants can use break-even analysis
Break-even analysis is useful for planning opening hours, reviewing rent pressure, setting sales targets and understanding whether a quiet trading period is financially manageable.
- Estimate minimum weekly sales required to cover costs
- Check whether labour cost is sustainable at current revenue
- Set realistic daily sales targets for managers
- Understand how average spend affects customer volume needed
- Review the impact of rising food cost, rent or supplier costs
- Plan target profit instead of only trying to survive
Use this calculator alongside the Restaurant KPI Calculator to review profitability, labour percentage, food cost and prime cost together.
Related hospitality tools and guides
Break-even analysis becomes more useful when combined with labour cost, food cost and KPI tracking. Use the related tools below to connect sales targets with staffing, margin and performance.
Restaurant Break-Even Calculator FAQs
What is break-even point in a restaurant?
Break-even point is the sales level where a restaurant covers its operating costs but has not yet made profit.
Should labour cost be included in break-even calculations?
Yes. Labour is one of the largest restaurant costs and should be included when estimating the sales needed to cover operating costs.
What does variable cost percentage mean?
Variable cost percentage usually represents food and beverage cost. It shows how much of each sale is used by product cost before covering fixed costs and profit.
Can this calculator estimate customers needed per day?
Yes. It divides daily sales needed by average spend per customer to estimate the number of customers required each trading day.