Free tool

Pizza dough calculator

Tell us how many pizzas you're making and how long you'll let the dough rise. Get exact weights for flour, water, salt, oil and yeast — ready to scale up or down.

Your recipe

4 × 260 g dough balls

Total dough: 1,040 g (36.7 oz)

Flour (00 or bread flour)	616 g	21.7 oz
Water	401 g	14.1 oz
Salt	15.4 g	0.5 oz
Olive oil	6.2 g	0.2 oz
Instant dry yeast	1.54 g	0.1 oz

Weigh everything — cups are too imprecise for dough.

1. Mix water and yeast, add flour, then salt (and oil). Mix until no dry flour remains.
2. Knead 8–10 minutes by hand, or rest 20 minutes and do a few stretch-and-folds.
3. Ferment in a covered container, then divide into balls and give them a final rise (2–4 hours at room temperature).
4. Bake in a fully heated oven — see our favorite pizza ovens.

Yeast amounts are starting points; warm kitchens ferment faster. Reduce yeast in summer and increase it in a cold kitchen.

Gear that makes better pizza

Three inexpensive tools make the biggest difference to consistency.

Digital kitchen scale (1 g precision)

Dough is chemistry — weigh your flour and water.

Under $150

What we like

Weighing ingredients by gram makes dough repeatable
Required to use baker's-percentage dough recipes (see our free dough calculator)
Doubles as an everyday kitchen scale

Trade-offs

Look for a scale that measures in 1 g increments — 5 g jumps are too coarse for yeast

Best for: Anyone making their own dough.
Skip it if: You buy ready-made dough, or the scale you're considering only steps in 5 g increments.

Check price on Amazon

Perforated aluminum pizza peel (12–14 in)

The tool you'll touch every single pizza.

Under $150

What we like

Perforations shake off excess flour, so it doesn't burn on the stone
Thin aluminum slides easily under a finished pizza
Light enough for one-handed turning

Trade-offs

Aluminum handles get hot near the oven — pick one with a long, insulated handle

Best for: Anyone with a pizza oven — buy this before anything else.
Skip it if: You already own a peel with a long, insulated handle.

Check price on Amazon

Infrared thermometer gun (rated to 1,000°F+)

The easiest way to know the stone is actually ready.

Under $150

What we like

Instantly reads the stone surface temperature
Prevents under-heated stones and burnt bottoms
Handy for grills, griddles and smokers too

Trade-offs

Cheap units top out at low temperatures — check the maximum rating before buying

Best for: Anyone who wants consistent results on the first pizza, not the third.
Skip it if: You already have one, or the only model in reach tops out below pizza-oven temperatures.

Check price on Amazon

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Frequently asked questions

What hydration should I use for pizza dough?

Start around 60–65% (60–65 g of water for every 100 g of flour). It's easy to stretch and forgiving in a home or backyard oven. Higher hydration gives a lighter, airier crust but is stickier and harder to handle.

How much dough do I need per pizza?

Roughly 200–230 g for a 10-inch pizza, 250–270 g for 12 inches, 290–320 g for 14 inches and 350 g or more for 16 inches. Thinner crusts use less dough.

How much yeast should I use?

It depends on the rise time and temperature. A longer, cooler fermentation needs much less yeast — 0.1% of the flour weight is common for a 72-hour cold ferment, while a same-day dough uses about 0.4%. The calculator sets these as starting points.

Should I use 00 flour?

00 flour is traditional for very hot Neapolitan ovens, but high-protein bread flour works well in most backyard ovens, especially at slightly lower temperatures.