Break-Even Calculator for Restaurants

Last reviewed: 17 May 2026

Calculate restaurant break-even covers and revenue from rent, payroll, food cost, and average ticket. Visual chart and target profit mode included.

Break-even units equal fixed costs divided by contribution margin per unit. Selling price minus variable cost is contribution margin. Five thousand divided by fifteen equals three hundred thirty-four units.

Restaurant break-even is calculated as fixed costs ÷ contribution margin per cover. With food cost typically 28-32%, beverage 18-24%, and labor 28-35%, contribution margin per cover usually sits between 30% and 45%. The National Restaurant Association's prime-cost rule (food + labor ≤ 60%) is the implicit operational guardrail.

Restaurant break-even has more moving parts than almost any other small-business calculation because revenue depends on two things you can only partly control — covers per service and average check — while costs include both per-cover variables (food, paper, card processing) and per-shift step-fixed labor (you can't half-staff a Friday night).

Fixed costs (monthly): - Rent + utilities + insurance (target ≤ 10% of sales; over 12% the lease is broken) - Salaried management - Software (POS, reservations, scheduling) - Marketing - Loan service and equipment leases

Variable cost per cover: - Food cost (price × food cost % — usually 28-32%) - Beverage cost (price × beverage cost % — 18-24% beer, 22-28% wine, 18-24% spirits) - Variable labor (servers, line cooks during peak — 15-25% of revenue) - Card processing (2-3%) - Paper, condiments, breakage

Step-fixed labor (per shift, not per cover): hosts, dishwashers, prep cooks, sous chefs scheduled to a shift regardless of cover count.

Enter average check as the price per unit, per-cover variable cost (food, beverage, processing), and monthly fixed costs and it returns: - Break-even units (treat one cover as one unit) — divide by your trading days for a per-day figure - Break-even revenue per month - Compare your current covers against the break-even units the tool returns to gauge your margin of safety - Re-run the calculator with a higher average check or lower per-cover cost to see the effect of menu-price increases or labor savings

Three structural patterns that put a restaurant permanently below break-even, no matter how busy: 1. Menu-price compression — operators afraid to raise prices, while food and labor have inflated 15-30% over 2022-2024 2. Prime cost > 65% — NRA data shows successful operators consistently below 60% 3. Seat-turn under industry norms — 1.5 turns at dinner for casual full-service is typical; below 1.2 and the throughput economics break

For US benchmarks, the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Industry Operations Report is the standard source.

Worked example

Restaurant example — one cover treated as one unit.

A casual full-service spot has £24,000 monthly fixed costs (rent, utilities, salaried management, POS, step-fixed prep and dishwashing labour). Average check is £32 per cover. Per-cover variable cost runs £14.40 — food at about 30%, beverage, card processing, and paper.

Contribution margin per cover: 32 − 14.40 = £17.60 (a 55% contribution).
Break-even covers: 24,000 ÷ 17.60 = 1,364 (rounded up) covers per month.
Break-even revenue: 1,364 × 32 = £43,648.

Spread over a 26-day trading month that's roughly 53 covers a day to cover costs. To fund a £6,000 monthly profit the owner enters it as the target: (24,000 + 6,000) ÷ 17.60 = 1,705 covers. The jump from 1,364 to 1,705 covers shows how thin restaurant economics are once prime cost is honestly loaded into the inputs.

See the formula

See parent calculator at /break-even-calculator for the full formula reference.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I model a restaurant when the tool works in units, not covers?

Treat one cover (one guest served) as one unit. Enter your average check as the selling price per unit and your per-cover variable cost — food, beverage, card processing, paper — as the variable cost. The calculator then returns break-even covers and the revenue they generate, which is the restaurant version of break-even units expressed per guest.

What goes in fixed costs versus variable cost per cover?

Fixed costs are monthly rent, utilities, insurance, salaried management, POS and reservation software, and loan or equipment-lease service. Variable cost per cover is everything that scales with each guest: food at 28-32% of check, beverage at 18-24%, card processing at 2-3%, plus paper and condiments. Peak-time server and line-cook labour is partly variable, so apportion it into the per-cover figure.

How should I treat step-fixed labour like dishwashers and prep cooks?

Roll it into monthly fixed costs, not the per-cover variable. Hosts, dishwashers, and prep cooks are scheduled to a shift regardless of how many covers arrive, so they behave as fixed cost for the month even though they feel labour-related. Putting step-fixed labour in the variable field would understate it on quiet shifts and distort the break-even cover count.

What contribution margin per cover should I expect?

With food at 28-32%, beverage at 18-24%, and variable labour and processing on top, contribution margin per cover usually lands between 30% and 45% of the average check. The implicit guardrail is the prime-cost rule — food plus labour at or below 60% of sales. If your contribution per cover falls outside that band, recheck which labour you've treated as variable versus fixed.

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Methodology & sources

Rates last verified: May 2026

Read the full methodology →

Standard break-even formula (Fixed Costs / Contribution Margin per Unit). Region-agnostic — only the currency symbol changes.

Rates are reviewed annually or when a region changes its headline rate. If you spot one that's out of date, email [email protected].

For information only. This calculator does not constitute financial, accounting, or tax advice. Consult a qualified professional before making business decisions.

Try these scenarios

Pre-filled examples — click any chip to load the inputs and result.

How to calculate your break-even point

Enter monthly fixed costsList rent, salaries, insurance, and any cost that doesn't change with output, then total them in the Fixed Costs field.
Add variable cost per unitMaterials, packaging, commission, and platform fees — the per-unit costs that scale with each sale.
Enter selling price per unitWhat you charge customers per unit sold.
Optionally add a target profitEnter a profit goal to see units needed to clear costs plus the target profit.
Read break-even units and chartThe chart shows the revenue and total-cost lines crossing at break-even. Round units up — you don't break even at 399 if the result is 400.

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Written by

James Blanckenberg

Founder, BusCalcTools

Founder of BusCalcTools and FinnCalc. Builds practical financial calculators for small business owners and freelancers across the US, UK, and South Africa.

Editorial review by: James Blanckenberg, Founder & Editor

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