Pizza Dough Calculator
Pick a style, how many balls and how heavy, and how long the dough will ferment. Get flour, water, salt, yeast, oil and sugar in grams, with an optional poolish split.
Flour, water, salt, yeast only; 60-65% water; 250-280 g balls for 12-inch pies baked hot and fast.
Flour
605 g
Water
375 g
62% of flour
Salt
17 g
2.8%
Yeast
2.42 g
0.4% instant dry yeast
Total dough
1000 g
4 × 250 g
Flour = total dough ÷ (1 + 62% + 2.8% + 0% + 0% + 0.4%) = 605.3 g; every other ingredient is its percentage of that flour. Yeast follows the fermentation you picked; halve it in a warm kitchen, add a quarter in a cold one.
Worked example
Four 250 g Neapolitan balls, 62% hydration, 2.8% salt, 0.4% instant yeast for a 24-hour cold ferment. Total dough is 1,000 g. The percentages sum to 165.2, so flour is 1,000 ÷ 1.652 = 605 g. Water is 62% of that (375 g), salt 2.8% (16.9 g), yeast 0.4% (2.4 g). Add them up and you are back at 1,000 g, which is the check.
The five styles side by side
| Style | Hydration | Salt | Oil | Sugar | Ball | Flour for 4 balls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 62% | 2.8% | 0% | 0% | 250 g | 605 g |
| New York | 63% | 2.5% | 2% | 1.5% | 340 g | 803 g |
| Detroit / pan | 72% | 2.5% | 2% | 0% | 500 g | 1131 g |
| Sicilian / sheet | 70% | 2.5% | 3% | 1% | 900 g | 2035 g |
| Thin & crispy | 55% | 2% | 3% | 1% | 220 g | 545 g |
Yeast by fermentation, instant dry
| Fermentation | IDY % of flour | Per 600 g flour | Active dry / fresh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same day, 2 hours at room temp | 0.6% | 3.6 g | 4.5 g / 10.8 g |
| Same day, 4 hours at room temp | 0.35% | 2.1 g | 2.62 g / 6.3 g |
| 8 hours at room temp | 0.15% | 0.9 g | 1.13 g / 2.7 g |
| 12 hours at room temp | 0.1% | 0.6 g | 0.75 g / 1.8 g |
| 24 hours at room temp | 0.05% | 0.3 g | 0.38 g / 0.9 g |
| 24 hours cold (fridge) | 0.4% | 2.4 g | 3 g / 7.2 g |
| 48 hours cold | 0.3% | 1.8 g | 2.25 g / 5.4 g |
| 72 hours cold | 0.2% | 1.2 g | 1.5 g / 3.6 g |
These are the common pizza-forum conventions for a kitchen around 72°F. Cold ferments need more yeast than the same hours at room temperature because the fridge nearly stops the yeast; the dough still gains flavour from enzymes and slow fermentation. If your kitchen is hot, halve the room-temperature figures.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the pizza dough calculator work?
It uses baker's percentages. Flour is 100% and every other ingredient is a share of the flour weight: 62% water, 2.8% salt, 0.3% yeast and so on. Total dough is the number of balls times the ball weight, so flour = total ÷ (1 + the sum of the other percentages), and each ingredient is its percentage of that flour. Four 250 g Neapolitan balls at 62% hydration need about 606 g flour, 376 g water and 17 g salt.
What hydration should pizza dough be?
Neapolitan 58-65% for a very hot oven; New York 60-65% with a little oil; Detroit and pan styles 70-75% for an open, airy crumb; thin and crispy 50-55%. Higher hydration is stickier and harder to handle but bakes lighter; in a home oven under 550°F, 62-68% is the sweet spot for most people.
How much yeast do I use?
It depends on how long the dough ferments and how warm it is. Same-day dough proofed for two hours needs about 0.6% instant dry yeast; a 24-hour cold ferment in the fridge needs about 0.4%; a 24-hour room-temperature ferment only 0.05%. Active dry yeast needs about 25% more than instant; fresh yeast three times as much. The calculator applies these multipliers.
How heavy should a dough ball be?
About 250 g for a 12-inch Neapolitan, 300-340 g for a 14-inch New York, 400 g for 16 inches, 500 g for a 10 × 14 Detroit pan, and 800-1,000 g for a half-sheet Sicilian. Thin-crust styles take 20-30 g less than the same size Neapolitan.
What is a poolish and why use one?
A poolish is a wet preferment: equal weights of flour and water with a pinch of yeast, left 12-16 hours before you mix the final dough. It adds flavour and extensibility without a long cold ferment. The calculator moves the flour you choose (typically 20-40%) plus its equal weight of water into the poolish and subtracts them from the final mix, so the totals do not change.
These tools use baker's percentages, salt-by-weight brining, coffee ratios by weight and the USDA roasting and thawing tables, all stated on each page. They are starting points for your kitchen, your flour and your oven: taste the brine, watch the dough, and always cook poultry to 165°F on a thermometer.