How much dough do you need for six pizzas?
Start with the dough ball, then work backwards to flour, water and salt.
Start with your dough ball weight
The number of pizzas alone does not determine how much dough you need. Choose a ball weight that suits the diameter and style you already bake. For this example, use six balls of 250 g each: 6 × 250 g = 1,500 g of total dough. This is a planning example, not a promise of a particular crust thickness.
Understand what hydration means
Hydration compares water weight with flour weight. At 65% hydration, every 100 g of flour has 65 g of water. It does not mean that 65% of the finished dough is water. Salt, yeast, oil and sugar also contribute to total dough weight.
Compare the example
Same formula, different batch sizes: 250 g balls, 65% water, 2.5% salt, 0.2% yeast, no oil
| Pizzas | Dough (g) | Flour (g) | Water (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1000 | 596.3 | 387.6 |
| 6 | 1500 | 894.5 | 581.4 |
| 8 | 2000 | 1192.6 | 775.2 |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways if needed.
Try this in the calculator
Set six pizzas at 250 g each. Enter 65% hydration, 2.5% salt, 0.2% yeast and 0% oil. Save the result as “Six pizzas”, change the count to eight, save again and compare the two scenarios.
Try the example ↗Work backwards from 1,500 g
For an illustrative formula with 65% water, 2.5% salt, 0.2% yeast, and no oil or sugar, divide the total dough by 1 + 0.65 + 0.025 + 0.002. Flour = 1,500 ÷ 1.677 ≈ 894.5 g. Water is about 581.4 g, salt 22.4 g, and yeast 1.8 g. Small differences in the displayed total come from rounding.
Adjust the process, not just the numbers
The 0.2% yeast figure is an arithmetic example. Yeast type, dough temperature and fermentation time affect what you should actually use. Start with a tested recipe and enter its percentages. A calculator scales the formula; it does not choose a fermentation schedule for you.
Try two batch sizes
Open the calculator, set six pizzas and 250 g per ball, and enter your recipe percentages. Save that scenario, then compare it with eight pizzas. Keep the dough ball weight and percentages unchanged if you want the same formula at a different scale.