Food Truck Menu Pricing Calculator

Getting a price takes four quick steps. Enter the cost of one serving, pick the food cost percentage you want to hit, add the overhead for that serving, and tell the calculator how many you expect to sell in a month.

1. Type the food cost per serving. This is the ingredients and packaging for one item, before overhead.
2. Type the overhead per serving. This is the share of fuel, commissary rent, event fees and other running costs that one serving must carry. Enter 0 if you already include it in the food cost.
3. Type your target food cost percentage. The calculator starts at 30%, which is the usual target for a food truck main dish.
4. Type how many of this item you expect to sell each month. This number is used only for the monthly profit.
5. Press Calculate, or press Enter. The menu price appears first and large, with the total cost per serving, the profit per item, the monthly profit and the step-by-step math below. Press Reset to clear the form and start over.

One formula sets the price. It starts with the full cost of a serving and divides it by the target food cost percentage, so the price leaves room for everything else the truck must pay for.

Menu price = (Food cost per serving + Overhead per serving) / Target food cost percentage as a decimal. Food cost per serving is what the ingredients and packaging for one item cost you. Overhead per serving is the share of fuel, commissary rent, fees and other running costs that one item must carry. The target food cost percentage is the share of the menu price you want food and overhead to take, written as a decimal, so 30% becomes 0.30.

Profit per item is the menu price minus the food cost and the overhead. Monthly profit is the profit per item times the number of items you expect to sell. The formula comes from the food cost percentage method used across the restaurant trade, where food cost percentage equals cost divided by menu price times 100.

You sell a taco. The ingredients and packaging cost $3.50 per taco and the overhead is $1.50 per taco. You want a 30% food cost percentage and you expect to sell 1,000 tacos in a month. Here is exactly what the calculator does.

1. Total cost per serving = $3.50 + $1.50 = $5.00.
2. Turn 30% into a decimal: 30 / 100 = 0.30.
3. Menu price = $5.00 / 0.30 = $16.67.
4. Profit per item = $16.67 - $5.00 = $11.67.
5. Monthly profit = $11.67 x 1,000 = $11,670.00.

As a check, the same method prices the chicken taco in the Mobile Food Math guide. Its total cost is $5.18 per serving, so at 30% the price is $5.18 / 0.30 = $17.27, which matches the guide exactly.

There is no single right percentage. Drinks and desserts run low, mains run in the middle, and meat-heavy dishes run high. The table below shows the usual targets from the Mobile Food Math guide, so you can see where your item lands.

Aim for a blended 28% to 33% across the whole menu, not the same number on every item. Drinks and sides at 15% to 22% are your high-margin items, while a protein-heavy main at 32% to 38% can still be right if it brings customers in. If you force every item to exactly 30%, your signature dish ends up overpriced and your drinks end up underpriced. Before you lock a target, check it against your costs with our break-even calculator so the price covers your fixed costs too.

A lower target means a higher price, because you divide by a smaller number. The table below uses the worked example cost of $5.00 per serving, so you can see how much each target moves the price and the profit.

Moving from 30% to 25% adds $3.33 to the price and $3.33 to the profit on every item, but only if customers still buy at $20.00. If you prefer to think in markup instead of food cost percentage, use our markup calculator to see the same price from the other side.

Leaving out packaging is the most common mistake. Every sale leaves in a container, and clamshells, cups, napkins and bags typically run $0.30 to $0.80 per order. At 50 orders a day that is $15 to $50 a day, so always include packaging in the food cost per serving.

Portion drift is next. If staff overfill a plate by 10%, the food cost rises by about 10% and the price you set no longer hits your target. Standardize portions with scoops and pre-portioned proteins, and weigh a few plates during service to check.

Finally, set the price once and never review it is a slow way to lose money. Ingredient costs move constantly, so recompute the formula whenever a key ingredient moves by more than 10%, and review prices at least every quarter. Small regular rises of $0.50 or $1.00 are easier for customers to accept than one large jump, and keeping the price inside your wider plan helps too, so check the monthly profit with our budget calculator before you print a new menu.

This calculator gives an estimate for planning and is for informational purposes only, not financial advice. Actual food truck prices depend on your supplier costs, your overhead, your location and what customers in your area will pay. See our disclaimer.