Cooking
How much flour, water, yeast and salt for pizza dough?
Exact grams of flour, water, salt and yeast for any number of pizzas, with adjustable hydration and dough ball weight.
Quick answer
Pizza dough is four ingredients and one number: baker’s percentage. Everything is measured against the flour — water at 60-70% (the "hydration"), salt at around 2.8%, yeast at a fraction of a percent. Work this way and a recipe scales perfectly from 2 pizzas to 20, which is exactly what the calculator does: pick how many balls and how heavy, and it walks the math backwards to flour, water, salt and yeast in grams.
Flour
595 g
- Water
- 386 g
- Salt
- 17 g
- Fresh yeast (dry in brackets)
- 2.4 g (0.8 g)
Classic Neapolitan ratios: salt at 2.8% of flour, fresh yeast around 0.4% for a 6-8 hour room-temperature rise — use a third of that for dry yeast, and much less for long cold fermentations (24-48 h in the fridge, 0.1-0.2%). 250 g balls make a classic 30 cm Neapolitan; use 280 g for a fuller crust and 230 g for thinner. 65% hydration is the sweet spot for home ovens; go higher only with strong flour (W 280+).
How it works
Two choices define the pizza before any topping does: the weight of the ball and the hydration.
| Ball | Stretched to | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 230 g | 30 cm | thin, Roman-style disc |
| 250 g | 30 cm | classic Neapolitan |
| 280 g | 30 cm | puffier rim |
Hydration at 60–65% is easy to handle and right for a home oven; above 70% gives an airier crumb but demands strong flour (W 280+) and confident hands, because the dough stops holding its shape on the bench.
The yeast percentage only makes sense together with the schedule, and this is where copied recipes fail. Yeast is a function of time and temperature, not of flour: the same dough wants a small fraction of the yeast for twenty-four hours in the fridge that it needs for four hours on the counter — roughly, halving the rising time doubles the yeast. A recipe you found for an overnight dough, made in an afternoon, simply will not rise; the same recipe rushed with extra yeast rises but tastes of yeast. Decide when you want to bake first, then set the yeast to fit.
Frequently asked questions
How much dough for one pizza?+
250 g is the classic Neapolitan ball for a 30 cm pizza; 230 g for a thinner, crispier disc; 280-300 g for a generous crust or a 34 cm round. For a rectangular home tray (30 × 40 cm, pizza in teglia style), use 550-600 g — roughly half a gram per square centimetre is the rule of thumb.
How much yeast do I really need?+
Far less than most recipes say. For a same-day rise (6-8 h at room temperature), ~0.4% fresh yeast on flour weight — the calculator’s default. For 24-48 h cold fermentation in the fridge, drop to 0.1-0.2%. Dry yeast is roughly a third of fresh by weight. Cubes suggesting 25 g per 500 g of flour produce fast, bready, yeasty pizza — the opposite of what you want.
What hydration should I use for home oven pizza?+
60-65%. Home ovens max out around 250 °C and bake for 8-12 minutes, so a slightly drier dough crisps up instead of drying out. Save 70%+ hydrations for pizza steel or outdoor pizza oven setups at 400 °C+, where the bake takes 2-3 minutes and the extra water turns to steam and puff instead of sogginess.
Can I prepare pizza dough the day before?+
You should. Mix, do a 2-hour rise at room temperature, ball up, then refrigerate covered for 24-48 hours: the slow fermentation develops flavor and digestibility that same-day dough can’t match. Take the balls out 2-3 hours before baking so they return to room temperature — cold dough fights the stretch and tears.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — the price does not change for you.