Find your GP, or find your price
The calculator works both ways:
- Find your GP: enter what a dish costs you and what you sell it for.
- Find your price: enter the cost and the GP you want, and it gives you the menu price. It can round to a tidy ending such as £11.49 or £11.95.
It's free, there's no sign-up, and it uses UK VAT rates.
What GP means in UK hospitality
GP is gross profit. In a UK kitchen, it's the share of the selling price left after paying for the ingredients. Chefs and pub managers usually talk about it as a percentage: "that dish runs at 68%".
- Cost means the ingredient cost of one portion. Include sauces, garnish and oil. For takeaways, many owners add packaging too.
- Selling price means the price without VAT. VAT isn't your money. You collect it for HMRC.
- GP £ is the cash left over to pay staff, rent, energy and you.
Food cost % is the other side of the same coin. If your GP is 70%, your food cost is 30%.
The VAT trap: always work out GP on the ex-VAT price
This is the most common GP mistake in UK kitchens.
If you're VAT-registered, a £13.95 burger eaten in isn't £13.95 of income. It's £11.63 of income plus £2.32 of VAT. Work out GP on £13.95 and you'll think you're making 75.6%. The real figure is 70.8%. That gap is nearly 5 points on every burger.
The VAT rate depends on what you sell and where it's eaten:
| Sale | Usual VAT rate | Divide the menu price by |
|---|---|---|
| Any food or drink eaten in | 20% | 1.2 |
| Hot takeaway food (chips, curry, pizza, burgers) | 20% | 1.2 |
| Hot takeaway drinks (tea, coffee, hot chocolate) | 20% | 1.2 |
| Most cold takeaway food (sandwiches, salads, cakes) | 0% | 1 (no VAT) |
| Cold takeaway confectionery, crisps, soft drinks, alcohol | 20% | 1.2 |
| Not VAT-registered | none | 1 |
So the same cold sandwich can have two GPs. Sold to take away it's zero-rated. Eaten in, it carries 20% VAT. Read our VAT on takeaway food guide for the full rules.
How to calculate GP on food: 4 steps
- 1
Cost the dish
Add up the cost of every ingredient in one portion. Use our recipe cost calculator if you need help.
- 2
Take off VAT
Divide the menu price by 1.2 if the sale is standard-rated. Leave it if it's zero-rated.
- 3
Find GP in £
Price ex VAT minus cost.
- 4
Find GP %
GP £ divided by price ex VAT, times 100.
To find the price for a target GP: price ex VAT = cost ÷ (1 − target GP). Then add VAT. For a £3 cost at 70% GP: £3 ÷ 0.30 = £10 ex VAT, so £12.00 inc VAT.
Worked examples
Burger and fries (eaten in, 20% VAT)
- Cost: £3.40. Menu price: £13.95.
- Price ex VAT: £13.95 ÷ 1.2 = £11.63
- GP: £11.63 − £3.40 = £8.23
- GP %: £8.23 ÷ £11.63 = 70.8%
Chicken tikka masala (hot takeaway, 20% VAT), priced for 70% GP
- Cost: £2.85. Target GP: 70%.
- Price ex VAT: £2.85 ÷ 0.30 = £9.50
- Inc VAT: £9.50 × 1.2 = £11.40
- Rounded to £11.49: actual GP 70.2%. Rounded to £11.95: actual GP 71.4%.
Takeaway latte (hot drink, 20% VAT)
- Cost: beans £0.36 + milk £0.24 + cup, lid and sleeve £0.18 = £0.78
- Menu price: £3.40. Ex VAT: £2.83
- GP: £2.05, which is 72.5%
Cold sandwich (takeaway 0% vs eaten in 20%)
- Cost: £1.60. Menu price: £4.50 either way.
- Takeaway (zero-rated): GP £2.90, 64.4%
- Eaten in (20%): price ex VAT £3.75, GP £2.15, 57.3%
Same sandwich, same price, 7 points less GP when it's eaten in. That's why some cafés charge more to eat in. The ingredient costs here are examples, not benchmarks.
What's a good GP for food in the UK?
There's no official target. These are rule-of-thumb ranges often quoted in UK hospitality, not official benchmarks. Use them as a starting point, then set your own target from your costs.
| Venue | Typical food GP | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 65%–70% | Many aim for about 70% across the menu |
| Fine dining | 70%–75% | Higher prices, more labour per plate |
| Pub food (dry GP) | 60%–70% | Pub classics often sit lower |
| Takeaway | 60%–70% | Before packaging and app commission |
| Café hot drinks | 70%–80%+ | Coffee often carries cheaper food items |
Not every dish must hit your target. A steak might run at 55% while chips run at 80%. What matters is your overall GP, weighted by what you actually sell. The dish table in the calculator does this for you.
For drinks, the maths is the same but costs are per measure or per pint. Use our drinks GP calculator for pints, measures and bottles.
GP vs margin vs markup
People mix these up. Here they are for a dish that costs £3 and sells for £10 ex VAT.
| Measure | Formula | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| GP % (gross margin) | (price − cost) ÷ price | 70% |
| Food cost % | cost ÷ price | 30% |
| Markup % | (price − cost) ÷ cost | 233% |
| GP £ | price − cost | £7.00 |
In UK hospitality, "GP" almost always means gross margin on the ex-VAT price.
6 ways to improve your GP
- Re-cost dishes every quarter. Supplier prices move. A dish that ran at 70% last year may run at 64% now.
- Price for the target, then round up. Use the "Find price" mode and round to a .49 or .95 ending.
- Cut portion drift. Weigh proteins and use set scoops. A few grams more on every plate adds up.
- Engineer the menu. Push high-GP dishes with better menu placement, and drop dishes nobody orders.
- Count packaging in takeaway costs. Boxes, bags and sauce pots can add tens of pence to every order, so price them in.
- Watch the channel. App commission comes off after GP. A 70% GP dish on a 14% commission app leaves much less in your pocket. Our menu price calculator prices each channel. You can also move regulars to a commission-free ordering page.
Got your prices right? Put them on your own ordering page with 0% commission. Create your free ordering page.