Pizza Dough Hydration Calculator
Water, salt and yeast from flour weight and hydration %.
Reviewed by the Calculation Machine team · Updated 24 October 2026 · How we check our maths
Your values
ⓘ Live results
- Water
- 325 g
- Salt
- 10 g
- Yeast
- 1.5 g
- Total dough weight
- 836.5 g
Quick answer
Pizza dough hydration is water weight ÷ flour weight × 100. To make dough at 65% hydration with 500 g of flour, use 500 × 0.65 = 325 g of water. Salt (typically 2–3%) and yeast (around 0.1–1% depending on rise time) scale the same way: 2% salt is 10 g and 0.3% instant yeast is 1.5 g, for 836.5 g of dough.
What the Pizza Dough Hydration calculator does
This calculator turns a flour weight and a few baker's percentages into exact grams of water, salt and yeast, plus the total dough weight so you can divide it into balls. Every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour, which is how professional bakers write formulas: change the flour and everything else scales with it.
Hydration is the number that most changes how the dough handles and bakes. Lower hydration (around 55–62%) gives a firm, easy dough and a crisper, denser crust. Higher hydration (70% and up) gives an open, airy crumb but a sticky dough that needs stretch-and-folds and confident handling.
Weigh everything in grams; cups are too imprecise for hydration to mean much. The calculator assumes commercial yeast and plain water. If you use a sourdough starter, its flour and water count toward the totals, so use the sourdough ratio calculator instead. Oil, sugar or honey are not included; add them as a percentage of flour yourself (for example 2% oil = 10 g per 500 g flour).
The formula
Water = flour × hydration% Salt = flour × salt% Yeast = flour × yeast% Dough = flour + water + salt + yeast
| Symbol | Meaning | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| flour | Total flour weight, the 100% that every other ingredient is measured against | g |
| hydration% | Water as a percentage of flour weight | % |
| salt% | Salt as a percentage of flour weight, usually 2–3% | % |
| yeast% | Yeast as a percentage of flour weight; written here for instant dry yeast | % |
This is the baker's percentage system used in professional baking, described in professional baking texts such as Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread and taught by the Bread Bakers Guild of America. Yeast percentages assume instant dry yeast. For active dry yeast use about 1.25 times as much, and for fresh (cake) yeast about 2.5–3 times as much.
Worked examples
New York style for a party
A 1 kg batch at 62% hydration with 2.5% salt and 0.4% instant yeast, for a same-day or overnight rise.
Inputs
- Flour weight1000 g
- Hydration62 %
- Salt percentage2.5 %
- Yeast percentage0.4 %
Result
- Water620 g
- Salt25 g
- Yeast4 g
- Total dough weight1649 g
That is 620 g water, 25 g salt and 4 g yeast, for 1,649 g of dough: six balls of about 275 g. New York recipes often add 1–2% oil and sugar for browning in a home oven, which this total leaves out.
Neapolitan-style, slow cold ferment
600 g of 00 flour at 60% hydration with 2.8% salt and just 0.2% yeast for a 48-hour fridge ferment.
Inputs
- Flour weight600 g
- Hydration60 %
- Salt percentage2.8 %
- Yeast percentage0.2 %
Result
- Water360 g
- Salt16.8 g
- Yeast1.2 g
- Total dough weight978 g
360 g water, 16.8 g salt and 1.2 g yeast make 978 g of dough, or four balls of about 245 g. The tiny yeast amount is deliberate: a long, cold rise builds flavor without over-proofing. A 0.01 g jeweler's scale helps with amounts this small.
High-hydration pan pizza
400 g of bread flour at 75% hydration with 2.2% salt and 0.5% yeast, baked in an oiled pan.
Inputs
- Flour weight400 g
- Hydration75 %
- Salt percentage2.2 %
- Yeast percentage0.5 %
Result
- Water300 g
- Salt8.8 g
- Yeast2 g
- Total dough weight710.8 g
300 g water, 8.8 g salt and 2 g yeast give 710.8 g of very soft dough. At this hydration, mix with wet hands or a dough scraper and use a few sets of stretch-and-folds rather than kneading on a floured bench.
Hydration by pizza style
Typical ranges, not rules. Flour matters too: strong bread flour and high-protein flours absorb more water than all-purpose flour, so the same percentage feels drier.
| Style | Hydration | Salt | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thin and crisp (cracker, bar pizza) | 50–55% | 2% | Rolled thin; often includes oil |
| Traditional Neapolitan (AVPN rules) | about 56–63% | about 2.5–3.5% | 00 flour, very hot oven, no oil or sugar |
| New York style | 58–65% | 2–2.5% | Bread flour, often 1–2% oil and sugar |
| Home-oven Neapolitan-style | 63–70% | 2.5–3% | Extra water offsets a longer, cooler bake |
| Detroit and Sicilian pan | 68–75% | 2–2.5% | Baked in a well-oiled pan |
| Roman al taglio and focaccia-style | 75–85% | 2–2.5% | Long ferment, very open crumb |
Choosing yeast and rise time
Less yeast with a longer, cooler rise gives more flavor and better browning. More yeast suits a same-day dough. As a starting point with instant yeast:
- Same day, 4–8 hours at room temperature: about 0.5–1%.
- Overnight, 12–24 hours mostly in the fridge: about 0.2–0.5%.
- Two to three days cold: about 0.1–0.3%.
Warm kitchens speed everything up, so cut the yeast in summer. Salt slows yeast slightly and tightens gluten; do not drop it below about 1.8% or the crust tastes flat.
Dough ball weights and scaling
Work backwards from the pizzas you want. Multiply the number of balls by the ball weight to get total dough, then divide by (1 + hydration + salt + yeast) to find the flour. For six 250 g balls at 65% hydration, 2% salt and 0.3% yeast: 1,500 ÷ 1.673 = about 897 g flour. Typical ball weights are around 200–280 g for a 10–12 inch Neapolitan-style pizza and somewhat more for a large New York pie. To scale an existing volume-based recipe, convert cups to grams first with the cooking measurement converter or resize it with the recipe scaling calculator.
How to use the Pizza Dough Hydration Calculator
- 1Enter the flour weight in grams, or work it out from the dough ball sizes you need.
- 2Set hydration for your style: about 60% for an easy dough, 70% or more for an airy crumb.
- 3Set salt (2–3%) and instant yeast (0.1–1% depending on how long the dough will rise).
- 4Weigh out the water, salt and yeast shown, and divide the total dough weight into equal balls.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good hydration for pizza dough?
About 60–65% suits most home bakers and New York-style pizza. Go to 70% or more for an airier crust or pan pizza once you are comfortable handling sticky dough.
How do I calculate dough hydration?
Divide the water weight by the flour weight and multiply by 100. A dough with 350 g water and 500 g flour is 70% hydration.
Why is my high-hydration dough so sticky?
Gluten has not developed enough to hold the water yet. Rest the dough, use stretch-and-folds every 30 minutes, and handle it with wet hands rather than adding flour.
How much salt goes in pizza dough?
Usually 2–3% of the flour weight, or 10–15 g per 500 g of flour. Traditional Neapolitan doughs sit at the higher end.
Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant?
Yes. Use about 25% more by weight and dissolve it in some of the recipe water first. For fresh yeast, use about 2.5–3 times the instant amount.
Can I bake this dough in an air fryer?
Yes, for small pizzas that fit the basket. The air fryer conversion calculator converts an oven temperature and time to air fryer settings.
References
- Disciplinare (International Regulations) for Verace Pizza Napoletana — Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN)
- Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes — Jeffrey Hamelman (Wiley)
About this calculator
- Built and reviewed by the Calculation Machine team · How we build and test calculators
- Last reviewed: October 24, 2026
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