Calculating your hydration is straightforward once you know the Dough Hydration formula and what each input means. This guide explains the method in plain language, walks through a manual calculation, and gives worked examples you can follow — then you can do it instantly with the Dough Hydration Calculator.
What is Dough Hydration?
The Dough Hydration calculation tells you your hydration from a few simple inputs. The figure you are solving for here is the hydration, expressed in percent.
The Dough Hydration formula
The core formula is:
Hydration = Water weight ÷ Flour weight × 100Here is what each input means:
- Flour weight — a value measured in g. Example: 1,000 g.
- Water weight — a value measured in g. Example: 700 g.
How to calculate it step by step
- Write down the flour weight (for example, 1,000 g).
- Write down the water weight (for example, 700 g).
- Apply the formula above to get your hydration.
- Double-check the result with the Dough Hydration Calculator.
Worked examples
Example 1
| Input / Output | Value |
|---|---|
| Flour weight | 1,000 g |
| Water weight | 700 g |
| Hydration | 70.0% |
With flour weight of 1,000 g and water weight of 700 g, the hydration works out to 70.0%.
Example 2
With flour weight of 2,000 g and water weight of 700 g, the hydration works out to 35.0%.
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Hydration | 35.0% |
Example 3
With flour weight of 500 g and water weight of 700 g, the hydration works out to 140.0%.
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Hydration | 140.0% |
Tips for an accurate result
- Keep your units consistent — mixing, say, months with years or grams with kilograms is the most common source of error.
- Round only at the very end. Rounding inputs early can shift the final answer noticeably.
- Re-run the numbers whenever an input changes, rather than estimating from an old result.
Prefer not to do the maths by hand? — the Dough Hydration Calculator does it instantly, for free, with the formula and a worked example built in.
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