This calculator vs. BinWise
Two different shapes: BinWise links to your point-of-sale system and tracks pour cost automatically across your whole bar, under an ongoing subscription account. This page is a free, private worksheet for one recipe — its pour cost against your target, and what a small over-pour is quietly costing you across a year — with nothing to set up.
What each tool is for
BinWise is bar and beverage inventory software, sold under an ongoing subscription account to bars, restaurants, hotels, and restaurant groups running a full beverage program. It links to your point-of-sale system, updates inventory depletion in real time as drinks sell, and reports pour cost percentage and variance per product across your whole bar without anyone re-typing a recipe. Setting it up means an account, POS integration, and stocking your inventory into the system — not a one-off calculation. BinWise's own site is not reachable from this session to confirm today's specific plan names, feature tiers, or pricing, so only its well-documented category and identity are stated here: nothing about it is invented, and no dollar figure for it appears on this page.
This calculator does none of that. It does not link to a POS, track inventory depletion, or report variance across a bar's whole beverage program. It takes one recipe — a primary spirit plus an optional modifier and mixer, each with its own bottle cost and pour size — and works out the pour cost percentage against your own target, the menu price that exact recipe would need to hit it, and the weekly and annual cost of a stated over-pour on the primary spirit across your own drink volume. It runs free in any browser, keeps no account, and nothing you type is uploaded.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| I run a full beverage program and want pour cost and variance tracked automatically from my POS, across my whole inventory. | BinWise, or a comparable bar inventory platform. |
| I have one recipe and want to check its pour cost against my target, right now, with nothing to set up. | This calculator — free, instant, private, no account. |
| What is a small over-pour on this recipe actually costing me across a year of shifts? | This calculator's over-pour section. |
| I need my POS linked so inventory depletion and variance update automatically as drinks sell. | BinWise, or a comparable platform — this calculator has no POS link or inventory tracking at all. |
| How do I calculate pour cost by hand, with the formula and a worked example? | This calculator's worked walkthrough. |
| Do I need an account or POS integration to use the tool? | This calculator: no. BinWise and comparable inventory platforms are sold through an ongoing account with POS integration. |
Most beverage programs get different value from each: BinWise (or a comparable inventory platform) for ongoing, POS-linked pour cost and variance tracking across a whole bar's inventory, and a private calculator like this one for an instant, no-login check on one recipe's pour cost and what an over-pour on it is really costing, before or without ever setting up an inventory system. This page's own figures are an arithmetic comparison built from what you typed in, not an inventory count, a variance report, or a guarantee of profit.
This tool needs no account and no sign-in: it is a static page, the arithmetic runs in your browser, and once it has loaded it keeps working with the connection off. Nothing you type is uploaded.
Common questions
Should I use this calculator or BinWise?
They do different jobs, and a bar running a full beverage program with POS integration will likely end up using something like BinWise for day-to-day inventory while still reaching for a plain calculator to sanity-check one recipe. BinWise is bar and beverage inventory software, sold under an ongoing subscription account: it links to your point-of-sale system, tracks depletion and variance across your whole inventory automatically, and reports pour cost percentage per product in real time without anyone re-entering a recipe. Setting it up means an account, POS integration, and stocking your inventory into the system, not a one-off calculation. BinWise's own site is not reachable from this session to confirm today's specific plan names, feature tiers, or pricing, so only its well-documented category and identity are stated here: nothing about it is invented, and no dollar figure for it appears on this page. This calculator does none of that. It takes one recipe — a primary spirit plus an optional modifier and mixer, their bottle costs and pour sizes — and works out the pour cost percentage against your own target, the menu price that recipe would need to hit it, and the weekly and annual cost of a stated over-pour on the primary spirit across your own drink volume, instantly in the browser, with no account, no POS link, and nothing uploaded. A bar running ongoing inventory and variance tracking across its whole beverage program is better served by BinWise or a comparable inventory platform; someone who wants to check one recipe's real pour cost and what an over-pour is quietly costing them a year, right now, without setting anything up, is in the right place here.
Is this page affiliated with BinWise?
No. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by BinWise. BinWise is a trademark of its owner, named here only to describe what this calculator is and is not.
Open the Pour Cost Calculator to check your own recipe, or read how to calculate pour cost.