Sourdough Dough Weight Calculator

Scale any sourdough formula to your banneton or loaf pan so your final shape proofs and bakes correctly. This calculator gives you exact ingredient targets from dough weight, hydration, and inoculation.

How to Use This Calculator

Pick your target total dough weight.
Set hydration and inoculation.
Use the net ingredient amounts for direct mixing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What dough weight should I use for a standard sourdough loaf?

For an 8-inch round banneton (the most common size), 850–950g of dough is the right range. Under 800g and the loaf will not fill the banneton properly and may spread. Over 1,000g and it risks overflowing during proofing. For a 10-inch oval batard, 900–1,100g works well. For a 9×5-inch loaf pan, 800–900g is the typical range.

Why does this calculator show different flour and water amounts than my recipe?

Most published recipes list total flour (including the flour inside the starter) as the base, then list the starter as a separate addition. This calculator separates the two clearly: the net amounts show what you add to the bowl on top of the starter, and the true totals show the full picture. If your recipe says "500g flour + 100g starter + 350g water," you can verify the true hydration by dividing total water (350g + 50g from starter) by total flour (500g + 50g from starter) = 400 ÷ 550 = 72.7%.

What does inoculation percentage mean in sourdough?

Inoculation is the weight of starter expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. A 20% inoculation means 20g of starter for every 100g of flour — or 100g of starter for a recipe with 500g of flour. Higher inoculation speeds up fermentation (more active organisms working from the start); lower inoculation slows it down. Most home recipes use 15–25%, with higher percentages useful in cold kitchens and lower percentages useful in warm ones.

Does changing hydration affect the dough weight?

Yes — for a fixed total dough weight target, increasing hydration means less flour and more water (since the total is the same but the ratio shifts). The flour weight decreases slightly and the water weight increases. For a fixed flour weight, total dough weight increases as hydration increases. The calculator works from the total dough weight target, so it automatically adjusts all ingredients when you change hydration.

Can I use this calculator for enriched doughs with butter, eggs, or oil?

This calculator is designed for lean sourdough doughs — flour, water, starter, and salt only. Enriched doughs (those with butter, eggs, oil, or dairy) do not follow the same baker's percentage structure, because fats and eggs affect hydration in complex ways and contribute to dough weight without functioning like water. For enriched sourdough recipes, the percentages in this calculator will not give accurate results.

Why Dough Weight Matters for Sourdough

Every banneton, loaf pan, and Dutch oven has an ideal dough weight range. Too little dough and your loaf won’t fill the shape, producing a flat result. Too much and it overflows during proofing. Getting the weight right means every loaf fills its container properly and bakes with the right crust-to-crumb ratio.

Most oval bannetons are designed for 800–900g of dough. Round bannetons typically fit 700–850g. A standard 9×5 loaf pan works best with 900–1000g. This calculator takes the guesswork out by scaling your exact formula to hit any target weight.

How to Scale a Recipe Using Baker’s Percentages

All sourdough recipes are expressions of baker’s percentages, where every ingredient is a percentage of total flour weight. Flour is always 100%, and everything else — water, salt, starter — is expressed relative to that. To scale a recipe up or down, you change the total flour weight and recalculate proportionally.

This calculator does that automatically. Enter your target dough weight and the recipe’s original yield, and it scales every ingredient to match. It’s especially useful when you want to bake two loaves instead of one, or when adapting a recipe to a different banneton size.

Dough Weight vs. Finished Loaf Weight

Dough loses 15–20% of its weight during baking as moisture evaporates. A loaf that goes in at 900g will come out closer to 720–765g. Keep this in mind when a recipe lists a “baked loaf weight” rather than a “dough weight.”

The rule of thumb: target a pre-bake dough weight about 20% higher than your desired finished loaf weight. If your goal is a 750g finished loaf, aim for roughly 900g of dough before it goes in the oven.