A restaurant does not break even in dollars first — it breaks even in covers. This page walks the calculation in guests per day, the unit a dining room actually runs on.
Revenue targets hide the operating question. A $34,000 sales month can be profitable or a loss depending on how many guests it took, what each guest spent, and what each plate cost. Covers convert break-even into a number the whole team can see: the dining room needs about 40 guests a day before the first dollar of profit appears.
The math is the standard break-even formula with restaurant inputs: monthly fixed costs divided by the contribution each cover leaves behind after food, beverage, supplies, and per-transaction fees.
Use last month's actuals — not the business plan's hopes — for every input.
A cover is not a cover. A delivery order through an app charging 20–30% commission has a much thinner contribution than the same meal served in-house, so a month that shifts mix toward delivery raises your break-even covers even at the same revenue. If delivery is a big channel, run the calculation twice — once for dine-in, once for delivery — and watch the blended number move with the mix. The Restaurant Profit and Food Cost Tracker separates channels for exactly this reason.
A neighborhood restaurant runs $18,500 a month in fixed costs. The average check is $28 per cover, and one cover costs $12.60 all-in ($8.40 food and beverage at 30%, plus $4.20 of disposables, card fees, and supplies). Contribution per cover is $28.00 − $12.60 = $15.40.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Monthly fixed costs | $18,500 |
| Average check per cover | $28.00 |
| Cost per cover | $12.60 |
| Contribution per cover | $15.40 |
| Break-even covers per month ($18,500 ÷ $15.40) | 1,202 covers |
| Break-even covers per day (30 days) | ~40 covers |
| Break-even revenue (1,202 × $28) | $33,656 |
If 40 covers a day is more than the room produces, the formula names the only four fixes:
The free Break-Even Calculator takes fixed costs, price, variable cost, and fees and returns break-even units and revenue — enter covers as units and it does this page's math in seconds. The Restaurant Profit and Food Cost Tracker goes further: daily sales, food cost percentage, and prime cost tracked month after month in Excel or Google Sheets.
Salaried and scheduled-minimum labor is fixed for this calculation — you owe it regardless of covers. Hourly labor that genuinely scales with volume can go in cost per cover. Pick one treatment and stay consistent month to month so the trend means something.
Monthly, whenever the menu, prices, or a major cost changes, and any time the channel mix shifts — a new delivery app changes the answer even if nothing else moves.
There is no universal good number; there is only your number versus your realistic covers. If break-even sits at 55–65% of your typical volume, slow weeks still clear it. If it sits at 90%+, one bad week puts the month underwater and the levers above matter more than marketing.