Coffee Shop Drinks Margin Calculator
Excel (.xlsx) — also opens in Google Sheets & Numbers
To find the margin on a coffee, add up what goes into the cup, milk, coffee or syrup, and the cup and lid, then compare it with the selling price. This calculator does it for every drink on your board: total cost, GP £, GP % and a status flag (Great at 80% GP or more, OK from 70%, Low below 70%) so weak drinks stand out.
What's inside
- Per-drink cost, GP £, GP % and food cost %
- Status flag on low-margin drinks
- Built for cafes and coffee shops
- Worked example built in
What it does
Coffee margins look great until you cost the milk, the syrup, the lid and the cup. This calculator builds the true cost of every drink on your board, then shows per-drink cost, GP £, GP % and food cost % against your sell price — with a status flag on any drink whose margin is weak.
Oat milk surcharge decisions, syrup pricing, cup sizes — the sheet makes each one a number instead of a guess.
Who it's for
Cafés and coffee shops. If drinks are most of your revenue, drink margins ARE your business — and they deserve the same costing rigour as food. Also check your overall margin on the free GP calculator.
Worked example: four drinks
The Drinks Margin tab opens with these drinks filled in:
| Drink | Milk | Coffee / syrup | Cup + lid | Total cost | Sell price | GP £ | GP % | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat white | £0.22 | £0.18 | £0.09 | £0.49 | £3.20 | £2.71 | 84.7% | Great |
| Latte | £0.30 | £0.18 | £0.09 | £0.57 | £3.40 | £2.83 | 83.2% | Great |
| Mocha | £0.30 | £0.34 | £0.09 | £0.73 | £3.80 | £3.07 | 80.8% | Great |
| Espresso | £0.00 | £0.18 | £0.04 | £0.22 | £2.40 | £2.18 | 90.8% | Great |
The mocha is the one to watch: its chocolate takes the coffee/syrup line to £0.34 and it sits just above the 80% line. Swap to a pricier oat milk at £0.45 a portion and its GP drops to 76.8%, from Great to OK, which is the kind of change the status column is there to catch.
Enter sell prices ex-VAT. Takeaway hot drinks are standard-rated, so a £3.20 board price is £2.67 before VAT. Typed as £3.20 the flat white shows 84.7%; at its real ex-VAT price of £2.67 it is 81.6%. The sheet works on whatever you type, so be consistent.
How to use it
- Cost each component per drink: milk (ml used × price per ml, including what is lost when steaming), the coffee dose or syrup pumps, and the cup, lid and sleeve.
- Enter the sell price ex-VAT. The total cost, GP £, GP % and status fill in.
- Add a row per size and per milk option (up to 24 drinks) so the oat or large-size surcharge is set from real numbers.
What it does not do
It does not include labour, card fees or waste beyond what you build into each component. It covers drinks only; cost food on the free food cost calculator or check overall margin on the GP calculator.
Questions people ask
Is this a subscription?
No. It is a one-off £8.99, with no VAT charged: buy it once, download the file and it is yours to keep. It works offline.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets; the formulas carry over. It also opens in Apple Numbers.
What GP should a coffee make?
Espresso drinks commonly run at 75–85% GP before labour. The sheet's thresholds (80% and 70%) are a starting point; change them in the status formula if your board needs different bands.
Is food cost % shown too?
The sheet shows GP %; food cost % is simply 100% minus GP %, so a flat white at 84.7% GP has a 15.3% ingredient cost.
Goes well with
Try the numbers first, free: the food cost & GP calculator and the recipe costing tool run in your browser.