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Restaurant Prime Cost Calculator

Know the one number that decides whether your month made money. Enter your food and labor costs and see your prime cost in dollars, as a percentage of sales, and how it compares to healthy industry benchmarks.

See your prime cost calculated automatically, in dollars and as a percentage of total sales, the moment you enter your numbers.

Check your result against benchmarks for quick-service, full-service, and fine dining, so you know exactly where you stand.

Our free Restaurant Prime Cost Calculator combines your food cost and your labor cost into one number, then shows you where that number falls against industry benchmarks. Enter your labor inputs, your total sales, and your cost of goods sold, and the calculator does the rest: your restaurant prime cost in dollars, your prime cost as a percentage of sales, and a benchmark check for your restaurant format.

Key Benefits of the Restaurant Prime Cost Calculator

No manual math: Enter your inputs once and the calculator totals your labor cost, your cost of goods sold, and your prime cost automatically.
See both views at once: Your prime cost appears in dollars and as a percentage of sales, side by side, so you can judge scale and ratio together.
Instant benchmark check: Know immediately whether your number falls inside a healthy range for your restaurant's format, without pulling industry reports.
Built for weekly tracking: Reuse the sheet every week instead of waiting for a month-end close, so problems surface while there's still time to act on them.

How to Use the Restaurant Prime Cost Calculator

Calculate your total labor cost. Enter non-hourly wages, hourly wages, overtime, payroll taxes, bonuses, and benefits into the shaded input cells. The calculator totals your labor cost automatically.
Enter your total sales. Log total sales for the period you're measuring. Weekly works better than month-end, since it gives you time to react.
Calculate your cost of goods sold. Enter opening inventory, purchases, and closing inventory. The calculator solves for your cost of goods sold.
Review your prime cost. The teal result rows show your prime cost in dollars, as a percentage of sales, and flag whether you land in a healthy range for your restaurant format.