To find a coffee shop's profit margin, take one month's sales and subtract beans, milk, syrups, pastries, cups and lids, barista wages, rent and every other bill, then divide what is left by sales. For example, the calculator below opens with a café in US dollars: $32,000 a month in sales, 30% for coffee, milk, food and cups, 34% for labor, and a small 10% share of orders through delivery apps. Put in your own month and it shows the margin before and after commission, and what the same app orders would leave if they came to you direct.
Part of the free Restaurant profit margin calculator.
Last updated
Your net margin
Example numbersFood, drink and labor together.
What you would keep if no order paid commission.
Delivery apps take $800 a month: 71% of the profit you would otherwise keep.
At 25% commission, once 14% of your sales come through the apps, the month makes nothing.
The same $3,200 of orders on your own ordering page, paying a 2.9% card fee ($92.80) instead of commission.
Moving those orders to your own page would keep $707 more a month, $8,486 a year.
Compare with US restaurants
US limited-service median income before taxes, 2024: 4% of sales (food and drink 32.4%, labor 31.7%). From the National Restaurant Association's survey of more than 900 US restaurants. Medians, not targets.
Move app regulars to your own ordering page
Make a Menuthere ordering page with your menu and a QR code. Orders on it pay 0% commission, so regulars who order direct leave you more.
Sales, food and labor as a share of sales, rent and other costs. Example numbers are filled in to start.
The share of sales that comes through the apps and their average commission. The calculator takes it off your margin.
See your margin with the apps and with the same orders coming direct, then copy the numbers for your partner or accountant.
Re-cost drinks when the bean price moves
Ground coffee averaged $9.33 a pound in US stores in September 2026, up from $7.02 in January 2025, by the government's own price survey. Your roaster's wholesale price moves on its own timetable, but if it rose too, a latte priced two years ago may now carry a much higher drink cost.
Put cups, lids and sleeves in the drink cost
A to-go cup with its lid and sleeve can cost more than the espresso in it. Count them in the food and drink cost % rather than in other costs, so the margin you see for to-go drinks matches what each cup really costs you.
Staff the rush, not the whole day
Counter staff, baristas included, earned a US median of $15.00 an hour in May 2025. Most cafés sell the bulk of their coffee in a few morning hours, so check your till by hour and set the labor % from a rota built around those peaks.
Questions owners ask
Checked against
Put your items on a Menuthere page. Customers pick, fill in their details and the order arrives on your WhatsApp. Free, with no commission.