Tell the calculator how many pizzas you are making and what style, and it does the baker's-percentage math for you: grams of flour, water, salt, yeast, oil, and sugar that add up to exactly the dough you need. Style presets start you at sensible numbers for Neapolitan, New York, Detroit, Sicilian, and thin-crust pies, and every value stays editable so you can tune hydration and fermentation to your oven and schedule.
Swapping yeast types? The yeast converter shows the conversions in grams, teaspoons, and packets. For bread, the bread hydration calculator checks any dough's hydration, and the sourdough calculator handles starter-leavened loaves.
Frequently asked questions
What are baker's percentages in pizza dough?
Baker's percentages express every ingredient as a share of the flour weight, with flour fixed at 100 %. A dough at 62 % hydration with 2 % salt uses 62 g of water and 2 g of salt for every 100 g of flour. Because the ratios stay the same at any batch size, this calculator works backwards from the total dough you need (balls × ball weight): flour = total ÷ (100 % + water % + salt % + yeast % + oil % + sugar %), and every other ingredient follows from the flour.
How much should each dough ball weigh?
It depends on the pizza size and how thick you like it. The size buttons use a thickness factor — grams of dough per square inch of pizza. Neapolitan uses about 2.2 g/in², which makes a 12-inch pie from about 250 g, right in the 200–280 g range the Neapolitan pizza association (AVPN) specifies. New York style runs thicker at about 2.4 g/in² (roughly 370 g for a 14-inch), while Detroit and Sicilian pan pizzas use 3.5–3.8 g/in² because the dough fills a deep pan. Edit the weight freely if you prefer thinner or thicker crusts.
What hydration should I use for pizza dough?
Neapolitan dough is 55.6–62.5 % hydration by the AVPN rules (1 litre of water per 1.6–1.8 kg of flour; our preset uses 62 %), and most home recipes run 60–65 % for a softer, airier rim. New York style is around 60–65 % with a little oil and sugar to brown in cooler home ovens. Detroit and Sicilian pan doughs go wetter, 68–75 %, because the pan supports them. Thin, cracker-style tavern crusts are stiff at 45–50 %. Wetter dough is harder to stretch but bakes lighter; if you are new to shaping, start at the low end of the range.
Can I use active dry or fresh yeast instead of instant?
Yes. Yeast percentages in the presets are written as instant yeast, and the yeast selector converts them: active dry is about 1.2 × the instant weight and fresh (cake) yeast about 3 ×, following King Arthur Baking’s professional conversion factors. Dissolve active dry yeast in some of the recipe’s lukewarm water first. At small batch sizes yeast weighs a gram or less, so a jeweler’s scale that reads 0.1 g makes a real difference; the table shows yeast and salt to 0.1 g for that reason.
Why is there so little yeast in Neapolitan and New York dough?
Long, slow fermentation builds flavor and makes dough extensible. The Neapolitan preset uses 0.15 % instant yeast for an 8–10 hour room-temperature rise, and the New York preset uses 0.4 % because the dough spends one to three days in the fridge, where yeast works slowly. If you want pizza the same day, raise yeast to about 1 % and expect a 2–3 hour rise. Warmer kitchens need less yeast; colder ones need more or more time. Judge the dough, not the clock: it is ready when it has grown noticeably, feels airy, and a floured fingertip leaves a dent that springs back slowly.