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Restaurant Break-Even Calculator: Sales and Covers You Need

Enter your fixed costs, variable cost percentages, delivery app mix and average check to find the monthly sales and orders a day you need to break even.

Break-even sales equal monthly fixed costs divided by contribution margin, the share of each sale left after food, hourly labor, card processing, packaging and delivery app commissions. Example: $38,000 in fixed costs and a 38% contribution margin means $38,000 / 0.38 = $100,000 in monthly sales to break even. At a $35 average check over 30 open days, that is about 2,857 orders a month, or 95 a day. Every dollar of sales above $100,000 adds 38 cents of profit.

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Restaurant break-even calculator

How much you need to sell each month, and each day, before you make a dollar of profit.

▶ SELECT PRESET
▶ FIXED COSTS ($ PER MONTH)

TOTAL FIXED COSTS: $38,000 A MONTH

▶ VARIABLE COSTS (% OF SALES)
▶ DELIVERY APPS

BLENDED COMMISSION: 20% × 25% = 5% OF ALL SALES

▶ CHECK, DAYS AND CURRENT SALES

Break-even sales

$100,000

a month

2,857 orders a month at $35

Orders per day

95

on 30 open days

covers or tickets, whichever you track

Contribution margin

38%

of every sale

62% goes to variable costs

Margin of safety

9.1%THIN

Thin cushion. Sales can fall 9.1% before you start losing money. One slow month can erase that. Profit at current sales: $3,800 a month, a 3.5% net margin.

▶ WHERE EACH DOLLAR GOES AT CURRENT SALES
Variable costs
$68,200 (62% of sales)
Fixed costs
$38,000 (34.5% of sales)
Profit
$3,800 (3.5% of sales)
▶ IF HALF OF YOUR APP ORDERS CAME DIRECT

Blended commission

5% → 2.5%

Contribution margin

38% → 40.5%

Break-even sales

$100,000 → $93,827

That is $6,173 less in monthly sales, about 6 fewer orders a day, before you make a profit. Card processing still applies on direct orders. A flat-fee ordering platform such as DirectOrders adds $249 a month in fixed cost, worth about $615 of break-even sales at the new margin, so the net drop is about $5,558.

▶ HOW IT IS CALCULATED
Blended app commission20% of sales × 25% commission5% of all sales
Total variable costs32% food + 19% hourly labor + 3% processing + 3% other + 5% commission62%
Contribution margin100% minus 62%38%
Break-even sales$38,000 fixed costs ÷ 38%$100,000 a month
Break-even orders$100,000 ÷ $35 average check2,857 a month
Orders per open day2,857 ÷ 30 days95 a day
Margin of safety($110,000 minus $100,000) ÷ $110,0009.1%
Profit at current sales$110,000 × 38% minus $38,000 fixed costs$3,800

▶ YOUR BREAK-EVEN

$100,000

95 orders a day on 30 open days

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How to use this calculator

1

Pick the preset closest to your restaurant

Cafe, Full-service and High-volume load a realistic set of fixed costs, cost percentages and an average check. They are starting points, not benchmarks. Edit any field and the Custom key lights up with your numbers.

2

Enter your monthly fixed costs

Pull last month's rent, salaried payroll, insurance, utilities, loan or lease payments and software from your P&L or bank statement. If a cost is billed quarterly or yearly, divide it down to one month.

3

Enter variable costs as a percent of sales

Food and beverage cost is your cost of goods divided by sales, usually 28% to 35%. Hourly labor is hourly wages divided by sales. Card processing is around 3% for most restaurants. Packaging and supplies add a point or two for takeout-heavy menus.

4

Add your delivery app mix

Enter the share of sales that comes through DoorDash, Uber Eats and similar apps, and the commission you pay on those orders (15% to 30% for most restaurants). The tool blends that into one percentage of total sales and adds it to your variable costs.

5

Read the results

The headline is the monthly sales you need to break even. Below it: the orders per day that figure means at your average check, your contribution margin, and, if you entered current sales, your margin of safety and profit or loss right now.

Fixed costs versus variable costs in a restaurant

Fixed costs are the bills that arrive whether you serve 10 covers or 500. Rent, the manager's salary, insurance, the loan payment on the kitchen build-out, the POS subscription. They do not move with sales in the short run, so the only way to cover them is volume. Variable costs rise and fall with every sale. Food and beverage cost is the big one, usually 28% to 35% of sales. Hourly labor counts as variable because you schedule more hands for a busy Friday and fewer on a quiet Tuesday. Card processing takes a few percent of every ticket. Packaging and paper goods scale with takeout. Delivery app commissions only exist when an order comes through the app, which is why this calculator treats them as a variable cost too. Some costs are a mix. A salaried chef is fixed. A line cook on the schedule is variable. Utilities have a fixed base and a variable part that climbs when the ovens are on. Put the part that does not move in the fixed cost fields and the part that moves with sales in the percentages. Do not agonize over the split. Close is good enough, and you can change an input in seconds. What matters is the contribution margin: what is left from each dollar of sales after variable costs. If variable costs eat 62 cents of every dollar, 38 cents is left to pay fixed costs. Once fixed costs are covered, that same 38 cents becomes profit. That is the whole idea behind the break-even point, and it is why the same restaurant can lose money in February and make money in May without changing a single price.

The worked example, line by line

Full-service restaurant, $35 average check, open 30 days a month, 20% of sales through delivery apps at 25% commission

Rent and occupancy$12,000
Salaried and management labor$16,000
Insurance$1,500
Utilities and other fixed$4,000
Loan or lease payments$3,500
Software and subscriptions$1,000
Total fixed costs$38,000 a month
− Food and beverage cost32%
− Hourly labor19%
− Card processing3%
− Other variable (packaging, supplies)3%
− Blended app commission (20% share × 25% rate)5%
Contribution margin (100% minus 62%)38%
Break-even sales ($38,000 ÷ 0.38)$100,000 a month
Break-even orders ($100,000 ÷ $35)2,857 a month
Break-even orders per day (2,857 ÷ 30)95 a day

How the break-even point moves

FeatureContribution marginBreak-even salesOrders a day
Baseline: food 32%, hourly labor 19%, rent $12,000, app share 20%, $35 check38%$100,00095
Food cost up 3 points to 35%35%$108,571103
Food cost down 3 points to 29%41%$92,68388
Hourly labor up 3 points to 22%35%$108,571103
Rent up $2,000 to $14,00038%$105,263100
Rent down $2,000 to $10,00038%$94,73790
Delivery app share up to 40% of sales33%$115,152110
No delivery app sales at all43%$88,37284
Average check up $3 to $3838%$100,00088
Key Takeaway

In the worked example, winning back one point of contribution margin (38% to 39%) lowers break-even by about $2,600 of monthly sales. Cutting $1,000 of fixed cost does almost exactly the same.

Keep that trade-off in mind when you are choosing between a menu re-cost and a rent negotiation. Both work. One takes a week; the other takes a lease renewal.

Industry insight

Why delivery app commissions raise your break-even

A commission is a cost that only exists when an order happens, so it behaves like food cost, not like rent. If 20% of your sales come through apps and the apps keep 25%, that is 5% of total sales gone before you count food or labor. Your contribution margin drops from 43% to 38%, and every fixed dollar now needs more sales to cover it. In the worked example that one line moves break-even from $88,372 to $100,000 a month, about 11 more orders a day. The math is the same whether the rate is 15% or 30%: the app takes a slice of every app sale, so it raises the sales you need before profit starts.

Pro tip

The three fastest ways to lower a break-even point

First, raise the average check. Break-even sales do not change, but the orders needed to reach them fall. In the example, a $35 check needs 95 orders a day and a $38 check needs 88. A dessert prompt at checkout, a second drink, a side that is easy to add: these do it without touching costs. Second, cut one variable cost point. Each point of food cost or hourly labor you win back goes straight into contribution margin. From 38% to 39% takes break-even from $100,000 to $97,436 with no change in volume. Third, renegotiate a fixed cost. Every $1,000 you take out of rent, insurance or a lease payment lowers break-even by $1,000 divided by your margin, which is $2,632 of monthly sales at 38%. It is the slowest lever to pull, but it lasts all year.

Restaurant break-even FAQ

What is a good break-even point for a restaurant?

There is no universal number, because break-even is set by your own rent, payroll and cost percentages. A better test is the margin of safety: how far sales can fall before you lose money. Under 10% is thin, and one slow month can erase it. The more room you have above that, the more you can absorb a bad quarter without cutting staff. If your break-even is above your current sales, that is the first thing to fix.

How long does a new restaurant take to break even?

It varies widely, and a single quoted number is a guess. What drives it: how much of the opening budget was borrowed (loan payments become a fixed cost every month), how fast word of mouth builds volume, whether the menu was costed on day one, and whether the lease included free rent. A useful habit is to run this calculator monthly for the first year and watch the margin of safety climb from negative to positive.

Is rent a fixed or variable cost?

Rent is a fixed cost. You pay the same amount whether you serve 50 covers or 500, so it belongs in the fixed cost fields alongside insurance and salaried payroll. The exception is percentage rent, common in malls and food halls, where the landlord takes a share of sales above a set threshold. Put the base rent in fixed costs and the percentage part in other variable costs.

How do delivery apps change my break-even point?

Commissions only apply to orders that come through the app, so they act like a variable cost. The calculator multiplies your app share of sales by the commission rate to get a blended percentage of total sales, then adds it to food, labor and processing. A higher app share means a lower contribution margin and a higher break-even. The scenario line in the tool shows what happens if half of those orders came through a direct channel instead.

What is the difference between break-even and profit?

Break-even is the sales level where profit is exactly zero: contribution margin covers fixed costs and nothing more. Above it, every extra dollar of sales adds your contribution margin to profit, so at a 38% margin an extra $10,000 in sales adds $3,800. Below it, the same math runs in reverse. That is why the calculator asks for current sales: it turns the break-even number into a profit or loss you can act on today.

Should I use covers or orders as the average check?

Use whichever unit you already track. A full-service restaurant usually thinks in covers and check per person. A counter-service or takeout spot thinks in orders and average ticket. The math is the same either way: break-even sales divided by the average check gives the count you need per month, and dividing by open days gives the daily target. Just keep the unit consistent with the sales number you enter.

Related resources

Commission calculatorDoorDash fee calculatorRestaurant survival scoreThe 30/30/30 ruleFood cost percentageProfit margin benchmarksRestaurant opening budgetWhy restaurants failPricing

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