Break-Even Calculator for Restaurants
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Restaurant Break-Even: What to Enter
- Fixed costs — rent, salaried staff, utilities, insurance, POS system, delivery platform fees.
- Average check — revenue per cover including drinks.
- Variable cost per cover — food cost + hourly server share + card processing.
Full-service restaurants typically target food cost at 28–32% of revenue. With a $45 average cover, $15 variable cost, and $30,000 monthly fixed costs, you need 1,000 covers per month to break even — about 33 per day.
Last reviewed: July 25, 2026. Industry benchmarks from National Restaurant Association 2024 report.
How to use the restaurant break-even calculator
- Enter monthly fixed costs — rent or mortgage, salaried kitchen and management staff, insurance, base utilities, licenses, POS.
- Enter average ticket per cover — total revenue ÷ number of guests served. Include drinks and dessert attach.
- Enter cost per cover — plate food cost plus per-guest share of hourly labor and disposables. Most full-service spots land at 30–45% of ticket.
- Set a target profit — the covers-for-profit figure is your real operating goal.
- Convert to seatings — daily covers ÷ seats ÷ turns tells you what occupancy you actually need.
How many covers does a restaurant need to break even?
A full-service restaurant with $28,000 in monthly fixed costs, a $24 average ticket, and $8 in per-cover costs breaks even at 1,750 covers a month — about 58 guests a day. For a 40-seat room, that's 1.5 turns a day, every day. This calculator turns your rent, staffing, and menu pricing into that one operational number.
Restaurant break-even: covers, not dollars
Industry P&Ls talk in percentages, but service teams execute in covers. Working out break-even per cover — guests through the door — gives managers a target they can act on nightly. Contribution margin per cover is your average ticket minus the true cost of serving one guest: plated food cost, that guest's share of hourly front-of-house labor, and disposables.
The fixed-cost trap
Restaurants carry the heaviest fixed base in food service: prime-location rent, salaried chefs and managers, equipment leases, insurance. That's why the same menu that thrives in a $12,000/mo space dies in a $30,000/mo one — break-even covers scale directly with rent. Before signing a lease, run it here: new rent in, and see what daily cover count it demands. If the number exceeds seats × realistic turns, the lease fails before you open.
Prime cost and this calculator
Operators track prime cost (food + all labor) at a target of 55–65% of sales. This calculator splits it differently: salaried labor sits in fixed, hourly in per-cover variable. Both views agree at the bottom line — but break-even covers translate into staffing plans and reservation targets in a way percentages never do.
Related tools
Lighter formats break even far lower — compare the coffee shop and food truck calculators. Planning a fit-out or renovation, estimate it with the construction cost estimator. The general break-even calculator explains contribution margin from first principles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good break-even point for a restaurant?
There's no universal number — it's a function of rent and ticket. The health check: break-even covers should be comfortably below seats × realistic daily turns. Needing 90% occupancy every day to break even means the model, not the marketing, is broken.
Should hourly staff be fixed or variable cost?
Split them. Salaried kitchen and management are fixed. Hourly servers and line cooks scheduled against forecast are closer to variable — estimate their cost per cover (hourly labor for a shift ÷ covers served).
What should cost per cover include?
Plate food cost (typically 28–35% of ticket), per-guest hourly labor share, disposables, and card fees. Exclude rent, salaries, and utilities — those are fixed.
How do I raise my average ticket without raising menu prices?
Attach rate: drinks, starters, dessert. Moving beverage attach from 40% to 60% adds $1.50–$2.50 per cover at near-90% margin — often worth more than a price increase, with zero guest pushback.
Does this work for QSR / fast casual?
Yes — use average order value as the ticket and per-order costs. Fixed costs are lower and tickets smaller, so expect a higher order count but much lower revenue break-even.