Coffee Cost Per Cup Calculator: What Your Home Brew Really Costs
Work out what a cup of home-brewed coffee actually costs from the price of the bag and the cups it makes — and see just how big the gap is between brewing at home and buying out.
Adjust the inputs and select Calculate for a full breakdown.
Compare Common Scenarios
How the numbers shift across typical situations for this calculator:
| Scenario | Cost per cup |
|---|---|
| $15 bag · 30 cups ($0.50) | $0.50 |
| $40 specialty · 30 cups | $1.33 |
| $9 value bag · 40 cups | $0.23 |
| $25 bag · 50 cups (light brew) | $0.50 |
How This Calculator Works
Enter the price of the bag and how many cups it makes. The calculator divides one by the other for the cost per cup. A standard 12 oz bag makes roughly 30 cups at about 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per cup.
The Formula
Cost per Unit
Total Amount is the full cost or price, Quantity is the number of units it covers
Worked Example
A $15 bag making 30 cups is $0.50 a cup. The same coffee from a café runs $4 to $6 — an 8x to 12x markup. If you drink one café coffee a day, brewing at home instead saves roughly $1,300 a year. Even a $40 specialty bag making 30 cups is only about $1.33 a cup, still a fraction of café pricing.
Key Insight
The per-cup cost of home coffee is so low that the bag price barely matters — even premium beans land under $1.50 a cup, while the convenience purchase out is $4 to $6. The real cost of café coffee isn't the coffee; it's the markup on convenience, labor, and rent. This is a textbook small-recurring-expense calculation: the daily café habit is the classic 'latte factor' that, redirected and invested, compounds into serious money over a decade. Brew the everyday cup at home, buy the café one as a treat, and the gap funds something bigger.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is cost per cup calculated?
Divide the price of the bag by the number of cups it makes. A $15 bag yielding 30 cups is $0.50 per cup.
How many cups does a bag of coffee make?
A standard 12 oz (340 g) bag makes about 30 cups at roughly 2 tablespoons (10 g) of ground coffee per 6 oz cup. Stronger brews or larger mugs use more and yield fewer cups, so adjust the cup count to how you actually drink it.
Does this include milk, electricity, or equipment?
No — it's the coffee only. Milk, sugar, filters, water, and the small electricity cost add a few cents per cup; equipment (a machine or grinder) is a one-time cost spread over thousands of cups, so it barely moves the per-cup figure over time.
How much do I save brewing at home?
A lot. At $0.50 a cup versus $4 to $6 at a café, replacing one café coffee a day saves roughly $1,300 a year. Over a decade, redirected and invested, that's a five-figure sum — the classic 'latte factor.'
Are expensive beans worth it per cup?
On a per-cup basis the premium is small. A $40 bag making 30 cups is about $1.33 a cup versus $0.50 for a $15 bag — under a dollar's difference per cup, and still far below café pricing. If you enjoy the better coffee, the per-cup cost is rarely the deciding factor.
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Methodology & Review
Cost per cup is the price of the coffee divided by the number of cups it yields. It counts the coffee itself only; water, electricity, milk, filters, and equipment are not included in the per-cup figure.
Written by Ugo Candido · Last updated May 22, 2026.