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Free tool · Pricing

Catering pricing calculator

Enter what the event really costs (food, kitchen and service labor, rentals, overhead), pick your margin, and get a total price and per-person price you can defend with a straight face. No login, no spreadsheet.

Your event

Guests
Food cost / guest
$
Kitchen labor hoursprep + cook
Kitchen rate / hr
$
Service staff
Hours each
Service rate / hr
$
Rentals & disposablesflat
$
Overheadrent, insurance, van
%
Target profit margin
%

Quote this

Food$900

Kitchen labor$384

Service labor$672

Rentals$350

Overhead (10%)$231

True cost$2,537

Charge at least$3,382

Per person$45.10

$846 profit at 25% margin · cost $33.82/person · food is 27% of price

Before service charge & tax, add those on top

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How catering menu pricing actually works

Restaurants can price a dish by food-cost percentage because the dining room costs the same every night. Catering can't: every event carries its own labor, rentals, travel, and risk. That's why experienced caterers price by total event cost plus margin, in four steps:

  1. Cost the food honestly. Ingredients for the menu at the real headcount, including tastings, overage (most kitchens plan 5–10% extra), and the staff meal. This is your food cost per guest.
  2. Count every labor hour. Prep shifts, cook time, load-in, service hours, breakdown, dishes back at the kitchen. Multiply by what you actually pay, including payroll taxes.
  3. Add flat costs and an overhead share. Rentals, disposables, delivery. Then a slice of the bills that exist whether or not this event does: commissary kitchen rent, insurance, the van, software. 8–15% of direct costs is a common allocation.
  4. Apply margin by division, not addition. Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). A $4,000 event at a 25% margin is $4,000 ÷ 0.75 = $5,333, not $4,000 + 25% = $5,000. The difference is your margin actually being 25%.

Typical catering prices per person (US, 2026)

Service styleTypical range / personWhat moves it
Drop-off / corporate lunch$18–40Headcount, packaging, delivery radius
Buffet & stations$30–70Protein choices, attended vs. self-serve
Full-service plated$70–150+Courses, staff ratio, venue logistics
Premium wedding service$100–250+Season, market, rentals, bar program

Ranges are a sanity check, not a pricing method. If the calculator says your cost per person is $52 and the market “range” says charge $45, the range is wrong for your event, and the event is wrong for your business unless something changes.

Put the price to work

Paste your per-person price into the free catering quote template, lock the terms with the contract template, run the event from the BEO template, and collect with the invoice template. Or skip the document shuffle: join the PerPlate waitlist and get costing, quotes, BEOs, and invoices as one connected flow.

Common questions

How do you calculate catering cost per person?

Add up everything the event truly costs (food, kitchen labor, service labor, rentals, and a share of overhead), divide by guest count for your cost per person, then divide by (1 − target margin) to get your price per person. Example: $40 true cost per person at a 25% margin → $40 ÷ 0.75 ≈ $53.33 per person.

What is a good profit margin for catering?

Most independent caterers target a 20–30% net margin per event after all direct costs and an overhead share. Below 15%, one surprise (an extra staff hour, a price spike, a broken chafer) eats the event's profit.

How much does catering cost per person in 2026?

Typical US ranges: drop-off corporate lunch $18–40, buffet or stations $30–70, full-service plated dinner $70–150+, premium wedding service $100–250+. Your market and menu move these numbers, which is why pricing from your own costs beats copying competitors.

Should I price catering by food cost percentage or margin?

Restaurants price menus by food-cost percentage (food ≈ 28–35% of price). Catering carries event-specific labor and rentals, so margin-based pricing on total event cost is safer. The calculator shows your food-cost percentage as a sanity check while pricing by margin.