Meal Prep Cost per Serving Calculator
This meal prep cost calculator adds up ingredients, edible yields, packaging, energy and labor for a full batch, then divides by the number of servings to give the cost per serving of your meal prep. No exchange-rate conversion is applied: you work in a single currency.
Calculated results
Packaging, energy and labor not provided: zero is assumed, with no automatic estimate.
Method and limits
How to use this calculator
Enter each ingredient on its own line: name, purchased quantity and purchase price, quantity used and edible yield. Disable unused lines and add up to 30 as needed. Set the number of servings the batch produces, then the additional costs — packaging, energy, labor — and your currency. Batch cost and cost per serving appear instantly, with a per-ingredient breakdown.
The cost per purchased unit is c_i = P_i / Q_i; the cost of the quantity used is C_i = (P_i / Q_i) × (U_i / Y_i), where Y_i is the edible yield as a fraction. Batch cost is C_batch = Σ C_i + packaging + energy + labor, and cost per serving is C_serving = C_batch / N. Costs left blank count as zero, with no automatic estimate.
Unit cost and edible yield
Each ingredient's purchase price is divided by the purchased quantity to get a unit cost, then the quantity used is valued and adjusted for edible yield. If you need 500 g of trimmed vegetables at an 80% yield, the raw purchase is the equivalent of 625 g and the cost follows proportionally; a 100% yield means the whole purchase is used with no trim loss. Purchased and used quantities share the same unit on each line — grams, milliliters or pieces.
From batch to serving
The batch cost adds up every active ingredient plus packaging, energy and labor; dividing by the number of servings gives the cost per serving, the key number for weekly batch cooking and for cooking to sell. Zero purchased quantities, yields outside the 1–100% range and zero servings are blocking errors; negative prices are rejected. The total is not a selling price: margin and fixed costs remain yours to set.
Worked example
A six-serving batch: 1 kg of rice bought for $2.50 with 500 g used at 100% yield ($1.25), and 1.2 kg of chicken bought for $9.00 with 600 g used at an 85% yield ($5.29). Packaging $1.00, energy $0.50, labor $3.00: ingredients $6.54, batch cost $11.04, or $1.84 per serving. Reproduce these values in the tool: you must get exactly the same results.
Assumptions and limits
The currency is a display label only — no exchange-rate conversion is applied, so every amount must be entered in the same currency. The formula assumes the quantity you enter as “used” is the edible quantity needed, with the yield determining the raw purchase. Packaging, energy and labor left at zero count as zero and are flagged as such — every kitchen has its own rates, and no average is invented for you. The cost per serving is an estimated production cost, not a selling price.
Frequently asked questions
Limits of use