Food & drink · Coffee and tea
Coffee and tea cost per cup.
Price a bag of beans, loose tea, pods or tea bags per cup, add milk or sugar, and see the daily, monthly and yearly cost against a café price.
Inputs
Your cost
Enter the package price and size.
How to work out the cost of a cup of coffee or tea
By weight: cost per cup = package price ÷ package grams × grams per cup. By count: package price ÷ number in the package × pods or bags per cup. Add whatever goes in the cup (milk, sugar, syrup) to get the cost per cup, then multiply by cups per day and by 365 for the year.
Worked example. A 340 g bag at $14.99 and 15 g per cup (the dose for a 250 mL cup at a common brewing ratio of 60 g/L) costs $0.66 per cup, or $0.81 with 15 cents of milk. Two cups a day is $1.62 a day and $592 a year; against a $4.50 café cup that is $2693 a year saved. A box of 48 pods at $24 with one pod per cup is $0.50 each.
Prices in the example are made up. Equipment, filters, electricity and water are not included. For the dose itself, use the coffee to water ratio calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a cup of coffee cost to make at home?
It depends on your beans and dose. With a $14.99 340 g bag and 15 g per cup it is $0.66 before milk.
How many cups are in a bag of coffee?
Divide the bag weight by the grams per cup. A 340 g bag at 15 g per cup makes about 22.7 cups.
How many grams of coffee per cup?
A common brewing ratio, written as 60 g/L in an article in the Specialty Coffee Association’s 25 Magazine (issue 9), is 60 g of coffee per litre of water, which is 15 g for a 250 mL cup. It is a common rule of thumb, not a published standard. Adjust to taste.
Is it cheaper to use pods or beans?
Enter both: the cost per cup from each package is the number to compare. The tool calculates it from your own prices.
Sources
Opened
- Specialty Coffee Association magazine (25 Magazine, issue 9): Water and coffee acidity: Brew ratio is commonly written as 60 g of ground coffee per litre of water, or a water-to-coffee ratio of 16.7.
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Scope
Price arithmetic from the numbers you enter. Does not include equipment or electricity.