Pizza dough calculator
Pick a style and how many pizzas, tell it how long the dough will ferment and how warm, and get every gram — including the yeast for your schedule. Add a poolish, biga or sourdough levain and the recipe splits into the preferment and the final dough.
Pizzas
Typical Neapolitan ball: 250–280 g for 10–12 in (25–30 cm).
Formula % of total flour
Fermentation
Preferment
Your dough
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 00 flour | 100% | 630 g |
| Water | 62% | 391 g |
| Salt | 2.8% | 18 g |
| Instant yeast | 0.24% | 1.5 g |
| Total dough | 165.04% | 1,040 g |
Schedule: 4 h at 22°C + 24 h in the fridge at 4°C = 9 equivalent hours at 22°C. Yeast is an approximation from the model below; your flour, salt and dough temperature move it. Bake: 60–90 s at 430–485°C (800–900°F) on the stone.
Preset: 4 Neapolitan balls of 260 g · 630 g flour, 391 g water, 18 g salt, 1.5 g instant yeast for 4 h at 22°C + 24 h in the fridge
How to use it
- Pick a style and oven. Choose Neapolitan, New York, Detroit or Roman teglia and a pizza oven or home oven. The preset fills in ball weight or pan, hydration, salt, oil and sugar.
- Set the batch. Enter the number of pizzas and the ball weight, or the number of pans and the pan size. Add a few percent for dough left in the bowl.
- Enter your schedule. Type the hours at room temperature and in the fridge, with both temperatures. The yeast amount is calculated from that schedule.
- Add a preferment if you like. Choose poolish, biga or sourdough levain and the share of flour to preferment. The recipe splits into a preferment and a final dough with the same totals.
- Share or print. Copy a link that reopens this exact dough, or print a recipe card for the kitchen.
Style presets
Each preset is a starting formula, not a rule. Values for a pizza oven / home oven where they differ.
| Style | Size | Hydration | Salt | Oil | Sugar | Default schedule |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 260 g ball (250–280 g) | 62 / 65% | 2.8% | 0 / 2% | 0 / 1% | 4 h room + 24 h fridge |
| New York | 325 g ball (300–350 g) | 62 / 63% | 2% | 1 / 2% | 0 / 1% | 2 h room + 48 h fridge |
| Detroit / pan | 10 × 14 in Detroit pan: 476 g | 70% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 3 h room + 24 h fridge |
| Roman teglia | 30 × 40 cm teglia: 600 g | 80% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 0% | 3 h room + 48 h fridge |
Why the oven matters: a pizza oven such as an Ooni or Gozney runs at 430–485°C (800–900°F) and bakes a Neapolitan pizza in about 90 seconds, so sugar and oil would only burn. A home oven tops out around 260–290°C (500–550°F); there the pizza needs 5–9 minutes, and a little sugar and oil help the crust brown before it dries out. Pan styles (Detroit, teglia) are baked in a home or deck oven either way.
Dough for pan pizza by pan size
Pan pizza is sized by area: about 3.4 g of dough per square inch for Detroit (≈ 0.12 oz/in²) and 0.5 g per cm² (3.23 g/in²) for Roman teglia.
| Pan | Area | Detroit | Roman teglia |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in Detroit pan | 80 in² (516 cm²) | 272 g | 258 g |
| 10 × 14 in Detroit pan | 140 in² (903 cm²) | 476 g | 452 g |
| 9 × 13 in baking pan | 117 in² (755 cm²) | 398 g | 377 g |
| 13 × 18 in half sheet pan | 234 in² (1510 cm²) | 796 g | 755 g |
| 30 × 40 cm teglia | 186 in² (1200 cm²) | 632 g | 600 g |
| 60 × 40 cm teglia | 372 in² (2400 cm²) | 1,265 g | 1,200 g |
The yeast model
The yeast amount is an approximation from a stated model, not a measurement. Each stage of your schedule is converted to equivalent hours at 22°C (72°F), counting twice as fast for every 8°C warmer and half as fast for every 8°C cooler — the same rule as our starter peak estimate. Then:
instant yeast % = 4.17 × (equivalent hours)^−1.3, kept between 0.02% and 2%.
The two constants were fitted so the model lands inside commonly published pizza yeast ranges: roughly 0.7–1.2% instant yeast for a 2–4 hour dough, 0.25–0.5% for 6–8 hours, 0.05–0.2% for 12–24 hours at room temperature, and around 0.3–0.4% for 24 hours in the fridge (Tom Lehmann's usual 0.375% for a 24-hour cold ferment). Active dry yeast is × 1.25 and fresh yeast × 3, as in the yeast converter.
| Schedule | Equivalent hours | Instant | Active dry | Fresh | Instant per 500 g flour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 h at 22°C (72°F) | 3 | 1% | 1.25% | 2.999% | 5 g |
| 6 h at 22°C | 6 | 0.406% | 0.508% | 1.218% | 2.03 g |
| 8 h at 22°C | 8 | 0.279% | 0.349% | 0.838% | 1.4 g |
| 12 h at 20°C (68°F) | 10.1 | 0.207% | 0.258% | 0.62% | 1.03 g |
| 24 h at 18°C (64°F) | 17 | 0.105% | 0.131% | 0.315% | 0.53 g |
| 2 h + 24 h fridge at 4°C (39°F) | 7 | 0.33% | 0.412% | 0.989% | 1.65 g |
| 2 h + 48 h fridge | 12.1 | 0.163% | 0.204% | 0.49% | 0.82 g |
| 2 h + 72 h fridge | 17.1 | 0.104% | 0.13% | 0.311% | 0.52 g |
What the model leaves out: salt above 2.5% and very cold or very warm dough out of the mixer slow or speed fermentation; a fridge door opened often runs warmer than its setting; and a big tub of dough cools more slowly than single balls. Treat the first bake as calibration. For the details of fridge schedules, read how to cold ferment pizza dough.
Two-stage recipes: poolish, biga and levain
With a preferment, the calculator works in a total formula: hydration, salt and the other percentages refer to all the flour, including the flour in the preferment. The preferment's flour and water are taken out of the final dough, so the totals and hydration do not change when you add one. Commercial yeast for the final dough is applied only to the flour that was not prefermented; a poolish gets 0.1% and a biga 0.33% instant yeast of their own flour (12–16 h at 18–21°C (64–70°F) and 16–18 h at 18°C (64°F)). A sourdough levain replaces commercial yeast: the model suggests about 3.8% prefermented flour for the default schedule. See the poolish and biga pages for tables, or batches for 2, 3, 4 and 6 pizzas.
FAQ
How much yeast for a 24 hour cold ferment pizza dough?
About 0.33% instant yeast (of the flour) for 2 hours at room temperature and 24 hours in a 4°C (39°F) fridge, by the calculator's model. Published cold-ferment doughs commonly use 0.2–0.4% for 24 hours and less for 48–72 hours.
How much dough do I need per pizza?
Neapolitan: 250–280 g for a 10–12 inch pizza. New York: 300–350 g for 14 inches. Detroit: about 475 g for a 10 × 14 inch pan. Roman teglia: about 0.5 g per cm², so 600 g for a 30 × 40 cm tray.
What changes when I bake in an Ooni or Gozney instead of a home oven?
A pizza oven at 430–485°C (800–900°F) browns dough in about a minute, so leave out sugar and most of the oil. In a home oven at 260–290°C (500–550°F) the pizza bakes for 5–9 minutes: 1–2% sugar and about 2% oil help it brown before it dries out, and slightly higher hydration keeps it tender.
How does a poolish or biga change the recipe?
Part of the flour (the prefermented flour, PFF) is mixed with water and a little yeast the day before. The calculator keeps the total flour, water and hydration the same and splits them into two columns: the preferment and the final dough that you mix with it.
Can I make sourdough pizza dough with this calculator?
Yes. Choose Sourdough levain under Preferment. Commercial yeast is dropped, and the calculator suggests how much flour to preferment for your schedule from the same model, using 32 g of ripe starter for each gram of instant yeast.
How accurate is the yeast estimate?
It is a starting point. The model fits commonly published yeast levels, but flour, salt, dough temperature after mixing and how cold your fridge really is all shift the timing. Bake once, note whether the dough was under- or over-proofed, and adjust the yeast by 20–30%.