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Frequently Asked Questions
Hydration depends on your pizza style. Neapolitan pizza uses 62–65% hydration, producing a light, airy crust when baked at very high temperatures. New York-style uses 58–63% for a chewy, foldable slice. Pan pizza (Sicilian, Detroit) uses 70–80% for a thick, soft, focaccia-like crust. Beginners should start at 62–65% as the dough is easier to handle.
Pizza size and style determine dough ball weight. For a 10-inch Neapolitan: 230–250g. For a 12-inch: 260–280g. For a 14-inch New York slice pizza: 300–340g. For a 16-inch pan pizza: 500–600g depending on desired thickness. The calculator handles any weight — just enter your desired ball weight and number of pizzas.
For a cold ferment of 24–72 hours at refrigerator temperature (38°F), use 0.1–0.2% Instant Dry Yeast. This slow fermentation develops superior flavor complexity. For a room-temperature 6–8 hour ferment, use 0.3–0.5% IDY. Using too much yeast with cold fermentation results in over-proofed, gassy dough that collapses when shaped.
Instant Dry Yeast (IDY) has smaller granules, higher live-cell density, and can be added directly to flour without proofing. Active Dry Yeast (ADY) has larger granules and should be dissolved in warm water first to activate. For the same fermentation speed, you need about 25% more ADY than IDY. Fresh yeast requires 3 times the weight of IDY and has a very short shelf life.
Yes. Set hydration to 62–65%, use 2.5–3% salt, and 0.1–0.2% IDY for a 24-hour cold ferment. Dough ball weight for a standard Neapolitan is 250–280g. These parameters match the AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana) specification for authentic Neapolitan pizza dough.
Tearing usually indicates under-fermented dough or insufficient gluten development. Gluten needs time to relax before the dough becomes extensible. Let dough balls rest at room temperature for 2–3 hours before stretching. If the dough springs back immediately when pushed, it needs more time. Cold dough also tears easily — bring it to room temperature for at least 90 minutes before shaping.
For Neapolitan-style pizza, use 00 flour (like Caputo Pizzeria) with 12–13% protein for a soft, supple dough. For New York-style, bread flour (13–14% protein) gives more chew and structure. All-purpose flour (10–12% protein) works as a versatile substitute but produces a less chewy crust. Higher protein creates stronger gluten networks that retain fermentation gases and give the crust structure.
Refrigerate dough balls in individual airtight containers or lightly oiled zip-lock bags for up to 3 days. For longer storage, freeze dough balls after the initial ferment — they keep for up to 3 months. To use frozen dough, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for 2 hours before stretching. Frozen dough produces slightly denser crust compared to fresh-fermented dough.
What Is the Pizza Dough Calculator?
The pizza dough calculator is a free tool that takes your target pizza count, dough ball weight, hydration percentage, salt percentage, and yeast type — then returns gram-precise flour, water, salt, and yeast measurements using baker's percentage math. It handles Neapolitan, New York, pan, Detroit, and any other style you want to make.
Most pizza recipes give you fixed quantities for a specific batch size. That's fine until you need to scale. Want to make 6 Neapolitan pizzas instead of 2? The ratios don't change, but the arithmetic gets tedious fast — and small errors compound. This dough ratio calculator does the math instantly, so you spend your time on the dough rather than on arithmetic.
The tool is built on baker's percentages — the same system professional pizzerias and artisan bakeries use worldwide. Once you understand the percentages, you can tweak any variable and immediately see how it affects the batch. It's a much more flexible approach than following a fixed recipe. Learn more about how we built this tool and the standards behind the formulas.
How to Use This Calculator
Each step below covers a key decision you'll make when setting up your dough. Expand any section for the full explanation, including common mistakes to avoid.
How We Calculate Your Dough
The math behind this tool follows the baker's percentage system used by professional pizzaiolos worldwide. Expand the sections below to see the exact formula, a worked example, and why these calculations are accurate.
Pizza Dough Guide: Everything You Need to Know
Baker's Percentages: The Foundation of Dough Scaling
Baker's percentages make scaling dough repeatable and precise. Flour is always 100%, and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of that flour weight. A recipe at 65% hydration means 65g of water per 100g of flour — it doesn't matter if you're making 200g of dough or 5,000g. This system is standard across professional bakeries and pizzerias worldwide. Our baker's percentages guide covers the math in more detail if you want to go deeper.
Hydration and Crust Texture
Hydration is the single biggest variable in pizza dough behavior. Neapolitan dough at 62–65% hydration is smooth, extensible, and chars beautifully in a 900°F wood-fired oven. New York dough at 58–63% is slightly firmer, making it easier to hand-stretch wide without tearing. Pan pizza at 70–80% hydration creates a soft, focaccia-like crumb that absorbs olive oil well. Higher hydration generally means more open crumb structure and better oven spring — but also more challenging shaping. See our complete hydration guide for how to choose the right percentage for your oven and style.
Fermentation and Flavor Development
Fermentation is where flavor happens. A same-day dough made with 0.5% yeast at room temperature (70°F) is functional but bland. The same formula fermented cold for 48 hours at 38°F, with just 0.1% yeast, develops a complex, slightly tangy character from enzymatic activity and organic acid production. The Bread Baker's Guild of America classifies this as "controlled retarding" — slowing yeast activity to favor bacterial fermentation that creates flavor depth. Our cold fermentation guide walks through the exact process, timing, and temperature management.
Flour Types and Their Effects
Not all flour makes the same pizza. For Neapolitan-style, Caputo Pizzeria 00 flour (12–13% protein) gives a smooth, supple dough that stretches without snapping back. For New York-style, bread flour (13–14% protein) builds stronger gluten networks that give you the chewy, structured slice. All-purpose flour (10–12% protein) works as a substitute but produces a less chewy crust. Higher protein means more gluten, which means better gas retention during fermentation and a more substantial bite. Read the full pizza flour comparison to understand when to use each type.
Who Should Use This Calculator?
This tool is built for anyone who makes pizza dough from scratch and wants precise measurements — no matter your skill level.
- Home bakers scaling a recipe up or down for their household size. Making pizza for two? Set it to 1 ball at 260g. Hosting eight people? Set it to 8 balls and done.
- Aspiring Neapolitan pizzaiolos who need AVPN-compliant dough ratios (62–65% hydration, 2.5–3% salt, 0.1–0.2% IDY for cold ferment).
- Food bloggers and recipe developers who want to publish accurate baker's percentages alongside their recipes rather than just weight-based ingredient lists.
- Pizzeria owners and culinary students testing new dough formulations or verifying existing recipes against industry standards.
- Enthusiasts experimenting with different styles — Neapolitan vs. New York vs. Detroit vs. Roman — who want to understand how the ratios differ between styles and why.
Whatever your reason for being here, the goal is the same: better pizza through better math. Try the calculator above and you'll have your ingredient amounts in under 30 seconds.
ToolSite Team
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