Pizza Dough Ball Calculator
Build a pizza dough recipe from the ball weight and number of pizzas you want. Pick a style for sensible defaults, then fine-tune hydration, salt, yeast, and oil — every ingredient is scaled by baker's percentage.
Percentages are of flour. Yeast % is for instant dry yeast — for the amount by temperature and time, use the fermentation calculator.
Formula & how it works
Total dough = ball weight × number of pizzas. With flour at 100%, flour = total × 100 ÷ (100 + hydration + salt + yeast + oil).
Each other ingredient = flour × its percentage ÷ 100, so they always sum back to the total dough weight.
Worked example
Four Neapolitan balls at 250 g is 1,000 g of dough. At 62% hydration, 2.8% salt, 0.2% yeast, the divisor is 165, so flour is 606 g, water 376 g, salt 17 g, and yeast about 1.2 g. Scale to six 280 g New York balls and the same math gives roughly 1,004 g flour for 1,680 g of dough.
Dialing in your dough
Ball weight sets the size
Ball weight, not diameter, is the reliable lever — a 250 g ball opens to about a 12-inch Neapolitan, and heavier balls give bigger or thicker pies. Decide the weight per pizza and the count, and the total flows from there, which makes it easy to hit a specific tray or peel size every time.
Hydration is the character dial
Wetter dough bakes lighter and blisters more but is trickier to stretch; drier dough is easier to handle and crisps differently. Neapolitan sits in the low 60s, pan styles push higher for an open, fluffy crumb, and cracker crusts drop low. Match hydration to your flour's strength — stronger 00 and bread flours absorb more before turning slack.
Salt and yeast are small but decisive
Salt around 2–3% controls flavor and tightens the gluten, and it also slows yeast, so the two are linked. The yeast percentage here assumes instant dry yeast, but the right amount depends heavily on how warm and how long you ferment — a long cold proof needs only a pinch. Use the fermentation calculator to set yeast for your schedule rather than trusting a single fixed number.