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
The two choices that define your pizza: ball weight and hydration. A 250 g ball stretched to 30 cm gives the classic Neapolitan; 280 g makes a puffier crust, 230 g a thinner Roman-style disc. Hydration at 60-65% is easy to handle and right for home ovens; 70%+ gives an airier crumb but demands strong flour (W 280+) and confident hands. The silent variable is time: less yeast and a long, slow rise — ideally 24 hours in the fridge — builds more flavor than any ingredient you can add.
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.
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