Bread Hydration Calculator
Dough hydration with multi-flour blends. Example: 500g flour + 350g water = 70%. Shareable links, reverse water mode.
Free Bread Hydration Calculator
Dough hydration in seconds: flour and water weights in, hydration % out. Free dough calculator, bread hydration chart, sourdough and pizza tools. No signup.
Dough Hydration Calculator
Type flour and water, get hydration % as you go. Or flip the mode to work out water for a target %. Free, no account.
Hydration
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Hydration is always calculated as water ÷ flour × 100. Only flour counts as the base.
The Hydration Spectrum
Every bread sits somewhere on this scale. For a full table by bread type, open the bread hydration chart.
What is bread hydration?
Hydration is water weight relative to flour weight, as a percentage. 500g flour and 350g water is 70%. For flour blends, add all flour weights first. This calculator does that for you.
Try the calculator →Baker's percentages explained.
Flour is always 100%. Water, yeast, salt, and fat are listed as a percent of that flour weight. Scale a recipe or compare two formulas without redoing the math from scratch.
Baker's % calculator →How hydration affects crumb structure.
Water shapes the loaf. Low hydration (55–65%) means a tight, dense crumb (bagels, pretzels). High hydration (75–85%+) means big, irregular holes and a rustic open crumb, like ciabatta.
Hydration chart →Why sourdough hydration differs from yeast breads.
A starter is flour and water (often 1:1). For true dough hydration, count the starter's flour and water in the totals. Don't treat starter as one mystery lump.
Sourdough calculator →All Baking Tools
Ten free calculators for bread and pastry. They run in your browser; nothing leaves your device. Want a visual reference? See the bread hydration chart by bread type.
Sourdough Hydration Calculator
Sourdough hydration with starter flour and water counted in. Baker's percentages, range tips, and open-crumb notes.
Pizza Dough Hydration Calculator
Pizza dough hydration for Neapolitan, NY, or pan. Baker's percentages and yeast tips included.
Baker's Percentage Calculator
Convert any bread recipe to baker's math. Scale up or down and compare formulas side by side.
Sourdough Starter Calculator
How much starter to keep and feed. Any feed ratio and target hydration.
Baguette Dough Calculator
Hydration, flour, and yeast for French baguettes. Poolish and autolyse friendly.
Bagel Dough Calculator
Hydration, malt, and boil-friendly ratios for chewy bagels. NY and Montreal presets.
Croissant Dough Calculator
Hydration, butter block weight, and lamination layers for flaky croissants.
Bread Hydration Chart
Dough hydration percentage chart by bread type: bagels, sandwich, sourdough, baguette, ciabatta, focaccia, and more.
Cookie & Cake Moisture Guide
Moisture ratios for soft cookies and moist cakes, with ingredient tips and fixes.
Water Temperature Calculator
Water temp to hit your final dough temperature. Factors in room temp and mixer friction.
Fermentation Time Calculator
Estimate bulk time from dough temp, yeast %, and hydration. Sourdough supported.
Pre-ferment Calculator (Poolish / Biga / Levain)
Poolish, biga, or levain amounts, then split the final dough correctly at any hydration.
Volume to Weight Converter (Cups to Grams)
Cups and tablespoons to grams for 8 flour types, or grams back to cups.
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Why BreadHydration.com?
Instant results
Numbers update as you type. No form submit, no reload, no waiting.
Stays on your device
Every tool runs in your browser. Recipes, ratios, and feeding history live in local storage on your machine, not on a server.
Available in 6 languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Free, forever
No subscription, no freemium cap, no account. All ten tools are free.
From the Blog
Guides on hydration, fermentation, flour, and technique.
Handling High Hydration Dough: Shaping Techniques
Mastering the techniques required to handle, fold, and shape high hydration bread dough without adding extra flour.
Read article →Autolyse vs Fermentolyse: Hydration and Dough Structure
A detailed comparison of autolyse and fermentolyse techniques, how they affect dough hydration, and when to use each method.
Read article →Baking with Fresh Milled Flour: Hydration Adjustments
How to adjust hydration when substituting fresh milled flour in bread recipes. Understanding bran absorption, extraction rates, and autolyse.
Read article →Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about bread hydration, baker's percentages, and dough handling.
- Dough hydration is the ratio of water to flour in a recipe, expressed as a percentage. If a recipe uses 500g of flour and 375g of water, the hydration is 75%. In baker's math, flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is expressed relative to it.
- Divide the total water weight by the total flour weight, then multiply by 100. For example: 350g water ÷ 500g flour × 100 = 70% hydration. When multiple flours are blended, add all flour weights together before dividing. Or use the free dough hydration calculator on this page and skip the arithmetic.
- Yes. Every tool on BreadHydration.com is free: the dough hydration calculator, bread hydration chart, sourdough tools, and baker's percentage calculator. No signup, no freemium cap. They run in your browser.
- A calculator turns your flour and water weights into an exact hydration percentage (or water for a target %). A bread hydration chart shows typical percentage ranges by bread type—bagels, sandwich, sourdough, focaccia, and so on—so you know a sensible target before you mix.
- Baker's percentage (also called baker's math) expresses every ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. So 10g of salt in a 500g flour recipe is 2% salt. This makes it easy to scale recipes up or down without recalculating ratios.
- A hydration of 65–70% is the sweet spot for beginners. The dough is workable without being sticky, holds its shape well, and gives a decent open crumb. Once you're comfortable with gluten development and shaping, you can push toward 75–80%.
- Low hydration doughs (55–65%) are stiff, easy to knead by hand, and produce dense, chewy breads like bagels and pretzels. High hydration doughs (75–90%+) are slack and sticky, require stretch-and-fold techniques, and produce an open, airy crumb with a thin, crispy crust.
- Yes, significantly. Whole wheat and rye flours absorb more water than white flour because their bran particles soak up liquid. A recipe calling for 70% hydration with white flour may need 75–80% when switching to whole wheat to achieve the same dough feel. Start lower and add water gradually.