Sourdough Hydration Calculator

Yes, and most calculators ignore this. If you use a 100% hydration starter (equal weights flour and water), half of your starter weight is flour and half is water. For 100g of starter, that's 50g flour and 50g water hidden inside it. This calculator includes those in your true totals, which matters when comparing recipes or troubleshooting dough that feels wetter or drier than expected.

Start at 68–70%. It is soft enough to develop good gluten through stretch and folds, but firm enough to shape without frustration. Once you can consistently produce a good loaf at this hydration, move up to 72–74% and notice what changes. Jumping straight to 80% is one of the most common reasons beginners give up on sourdough.

Several reasons: your flour absorbs water differently than the recipe writer's flour (whole grain and lower-protein flours absorb more slowly), your kitchen temperature affects how the gluten behaves, and newly mixed dough always feels wetter than it will after autolyse and the first set of stretch and folds. Give it 30–45 minutes before deciding it needs more flour.

No — whole wheat absorbs significantly more water because the bran particles soak it up slowly. If you switch from white to whole wheat at the same hydration, your dough will feel firmer at first then become wetter as the bran absorbs moisture over time. As a starting point, add 5% extra hydration for every 20% whole wheat in your blend.

Hydration measures the ratio of water to flour. Inoculation measures the ratio of starter to flour. They are independent variables — you can have high hydration with low inoculation or low hydration with high inoculation. Both affect your results, but in different ways. Hydration controls dough feel and crumb structure. Inoculation controls fermentation speed. Use our Bake Planner to dial in both at once.