Pour-over coffee ratio calculator

Enter the water volume you plan to pour and the ratio denominator you prefer, such as 16 for a 1:16 recipe. The result gives both the coffee dose and water weight, rounded to two decimal places. It is useful for scaling a familiar recipe to a different mug, brewer, or batch without changing the balance that made the original cup work.

Choose a ratio that matches the cup you want

A pour-over ratio describes how many parts of water are used for one part of dry coffee. A 1:16 ratio means sixteen grams of water for every gram of coffee. Lower denominators use more coffee for the same water amount and usually produce a more concentrated brew, while higher denominators use less coffee and usually taste lighter. Ratio is only a starting point: roast level, grinder, dripper, filter, water chemistry, and pouring technique all affect the cup. If you already have a recipe you enjoy, use its ratio and change only the target volume. If you are starting fresh, 1:16 is a practical middle point for many pour-over methods. Taste the result, then move the denominator in small steps. Try 15 for a stronger dose or 17 for a lighter dose while keeping grind, temperature, and pouring pattern steady. Changing one variable at a time makes the next cup informative instead of turning it into an unrelated experiment.

Enter volume and read the calculated weights

Enter your target water volume in millilitres and the denominator of the ratio you chose. The calculator treats one millilitre of brewing water as one gram, which is the convenient kitchen approximation used when a kettle or scale reports either unit. It then divides the water weight by the ratio to calculate the dry coffee dose. For example, the same method works whether you are preparing a small single cup or scaling a recipe for a larger brewer. The returned coffee and water amounts are rounded to two decimal places so the result remains deterministic and easy to copy. Most household coffee scales measure to one tenth of a gram, so you can round the coffee dose to the nearest value your scale supports. The target refers to water poured into the brewer, not the final beverage left in the cup. Coffee grounds retain some water, and evaporation also creates a small difference between input water and served drink volume.

Use the result as a repeatable brewing baseline

Weigh the calculated coffee dose, place the brewer and vessel on the scale, tare it, and pour until the displayed water weight reaches the calculated amount. Keep a note of the ratio alongside grind setting, water temperature, total brew time, and any staged pours. Those details turn a pleasant accident into a recipe you can reproduce. If the coffee tastes weak but extraction otherwise seems even, use a slightly lower ratio denominator on the next attempt. If it feels overly concentrated, try a slightly higher denominator. Sourness, bitterness, stalling, or a very fast drawdown may point to grind size or technique rather than dose alone, so avoid treating ratio as the answer to every brewing problem. This calculator performs only the arithmetic and does not claim to predict extraction yield or flavour. It runs without network access or randomness, so identical numeric inputs always return identical amounts. Browser use is free, while an automated API request uses the published base price of $0.002.