OmniCalcsBread Hydration Calculator
Find your dough's hydration and see salt and yeast as baker's percentages.
How to Use This Bread Hydration Calculator
Enter the weight of each ingredient in grams. The calculator reports hydration — water as a percentage of flour — plus salt and yeast as baker's percentages.
- Hydration — the key number for dough handling; higher means a wetter, more open crumb.
- Salt — typically 1.8% to 2.2% of flour weight.
- Yeast — roughly 1% for dry yeast, more for a quick rise.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is bread hydration?
It is the weight of water divided by the weight of flour, expressed as a percentage. A dough with 500 g flour and 375 g water is 75% hydration.
Why use baker's percentages?
They let you scale a recipe by any amount and compare formulas easily, because every ingredient is measured against the flour.
What hydration should I use?
About 60% for bagels and sandwich bread, 65–75% for everyday sourdough, and 80% or more for ciabatta and focaccia.
Does milk or egg count as water?
For strict hydration, water includes the water in milk and eggs. Most bakers count only the added water for simplicity.
Is 2% salt correct?
Yes — 2% of the flour weight is a common target, giving about 10 g of salt for 500 g of flour.
Practical Example
A basic dough of 500 g flour, 375 g water, 10 g salt and 5 g yeast:
- Hydration = 375 ÷ 500 × 100 = 75%
- Salt = 10 ÷ 500 × 100 = 2%
- Yeast = 5 ÷ 500 × 100 = 1%
- Total dough weight = 500 + 375 + 10 + 5 = 890 g
What Your Results Mean
- Hydration — under 65% gives a firm, easy dough; 75% is slack; 85%+ is sticky and needs folding.
- Baker's percentage — each ingredient as a share of flour weight, with flour fixed at 100%.
- Total dough weight — the sum of all ingredients, useful for matching a pan or a batch size.