How do I handle card processing fees in my price?

Gross up — don't add. Divide your pre-fee price by (1 − fee%). Because the processor takes its cut as a percentage of the final sale, simply adding the fee as a flat amount under-recovers it. Grossing up protects your margin so the fee comes out of the customer's price, not your profit.

Food Truck Menu Pricing Calculator

Q: How do you price a food truck menu item?

Start with the raw plate cost (ingredients plus disposables like the clamshell, fork, and napkin). Add the labor dollars to make one serving (cook minutes ÷ 60 × your loaded hourly rate) and one item's share of monthly fixed overhead (total monthly overhead ÷ servings sold per month). That sum is your true cost. Price it so true cost is covered with a target profit cushion, then gross up for card-processing fees and round to a clean menu number. This free calculator does all of that and shows where a restaurant copy-price would under-charge you.

Q: Why can't I just copy a restaurant's menu price?

A sit-down restaurant spreads its overhead across far higher seated volume and lower per-dollar fixed costs. A food truck carries fuel, propane/generator fuel, permits, parking/spot fees, commissary rent, insurance, and truck maintenance against much lower daily volume — so each plate must absorb more overhead. Copying a restaurant price ignores that food-truck premium and quietly under-charges you on every plate.

Q: What food-cost percentage should a food truck use?

Food trucks and quick-service run leaner than sit-down restaurants — typically 25–30% food cost, with a normal range of 28–35%. The classic food-cost method sets price = ingredient cost ÷ (food-cost % ÷ 100). But that method covers only ingredients, so this tool also enforces a cost-plus floor that covers labor and overhead with a profit cushion, and uses whichever price is higher.

Q: What is prime cost and why does it matter?

Prime cost is food cost plus labor cost as a share of the menu price. A healthy target is roughly 55–65% of sales (around 60% is healthy). It's the fastest health check on a menu item: if prime cost is fine but you're still losing money, your fixed overhead per plate — the food-truck premium — is the culprit, which is exactly what this tool surfaces as its own line.

Q: Is the food truck menu pricing calculator free?

Yes — 100% free, calculated privately in your browser. Nothing is stored or sold.

Price a menu item the food-truck-correct way — ingredients + labor + per-plate overhead, not a restaurant copy-price.

The item

Menu item name

Plate (ingredient) cost / serving ($)

Target food-cost (%)

Plate cost = proteins, produce, bun, sauce and disposables (clamshell, fork, napkin, bag). Food-cost % is the share of price you want raw food to be — trucks run 25–30%.

The food-truck premium

Servings sold / month

Total monthly fixed overhead ($)

Overhead = everything you pay whether you sell 1 plate or 1,000: fuel, propane/generator, permits & licenses (prorated to a monthly figure), parking/spot fees, commissary rent, insurance, truck loan/maintenance, POS fees.

Labor & fees

Cook/prep labor (min/serving)

Fully-loaded labor rate ($/hr)

Card processing fee (% of sale)

Price rounding

Labor rate should include payroll burden (~1.15–1.25× wage). Card fee is grossed up into the price, never added flat. Rounding is the last step — it happens after the card-fee gross-up and always rounds up, so it can never undo your cost coverage.

Charge for this item

$0.00

recommended

Food Truck Menu Pricing Calculator — guide & how to use

What it does

Most owners price a menu item one of two wrong ways: they guess, or they copy a brick-and-mortar restaurant's price. Both miss the food truck's higher per-dollar overhead — fuel, permits, parking fees, the generator, vehicle wear — and mispricing one popular item by a dollar quietly erases the season's profit. This calculator stacks the three real costs of putting a plate in a customer's hand — raw ingredients, labor, and that item's share of monthly fixed overhead — then prices it so all three are covered with a profit cushion, grosses up for card fees, and rounds to your menu-board convention. Everything is calculated privately in your browser, free.

How to use it

Enter the plate (ingredient) cost per serving — including disposables — and your target food-cost %.
Enter servings sold per month and your total monthly fixed overhead. This is the food-truck step: low volume means each plate carries more overhead.
Add cook/prep minutes, your fully-loaded labor rate, your card fee, and a rounding convention.
Read the headline Charge $X.XX, the cost stack (note overhead as its own line), and the comparison against the naive copy-price.

The formula it uses

labor_cost      = (cook_min / 60) × loaded_labor_rate
overhead/plate  = monthly_overhead / servings_per_month
true_cost       = plate_cost + labor_cost + overhead/plate

food_method     = plate_cost / (food_cost% / 100)        ← classic, ingredients only
cost_plus_floor = true_cost / (1 - 0.15)                 ← covers ALL cost + 15% cushion
pre_card_price  = max(food_method, cost_plus_floor)

final_price     = pre_card_price / (1 - card_fee% / 100) ← gross-up, then round UP

The recommended price is the higher of the food-cost method and the cost-plus floor, so a low food-cost % can never set a price that fails to cover labor and overhead. The 15% is a conservative pre-tax operating cushion, not promised take-home.

Worked example

A loaded burger with $3.00 plate cost, a 30% target food cost, 2,000 servings/month against $6,000 monthly overhead, 3 minutes of cook labor at a $20/hr loaded rate, a 3% card fee, rounded up to .95:

Labor = (3 ÷ 60) × $20 = $1.00; overhead/plate = $6,000 ÷ 2,000 = $3.00.
True cost = $3.00 + $1.00 + $3.00 = $7.00.
Food-cost method = $3.00 ÷ 0.30 = $10.00; cost-plus floor = $7.00 ÷ 0.85 = $8.24. Higher = $10.00.
Gross up for the 3% card fee: $10.00 ÷ 0.97 = $10.31, rounded up to $10.95.
The naive food-cost copy-price ignores the $3.00 overhead and $1.00 labor — copying a restaurant's $10 price would under-cover the $4.00 of cost a truck carries per plate.
At $10.95 you keep roughly $3.62 gross profit per plate, contributing about $7,200/month at this volume.

Benchmarks for context

Metric	Healthy range
Food cost (QSR / fast-casual)	25–30% (normal 28–35%)
Prime cost (food + labor)	55–65% of sales (~60% healthy)
QSR labor	25–30% of sales
Card processing (mobile/flat-rate)	~2.6–3.5% of sale
Truck monthly operating overhead	$5,000–$15,000

Trucks often run leaner labor but heavier fixed overhead per dollar of sales than brick-and-mortar — which is exactly why copying a restaurant price under-charges.

Common mistakes this tool prevents

Copying a sit-down restaurant's price — they spread overhead across higher seated volume, so their price under-charges a truck.
Pricing on ingredient cost alone and forgetting labor + per-plate overhead — the quiet season-killer.
Adding the card fee flat instead of grossing up — flat-adding under-recovers the fee.
Forgetting disposables (clamshell, fork, napkin, bag, cup) — on a truck these hit every order, $0.30–$0.80/plate.
Entering annual permit/insurance into a monthly field (12× overstatement) — prorate first.
Rounding the price down to a clean number, silently dropping below cost — this tool always rounds up.

Accuracy & disclaimers

This is an estimating / educational tool, not accounting or tax advice. It produces a defensible starting price, not a guaranteed-profit price.
Overhead is spread evenly: monthly overhead ÷ total monthly servings. Price one item at a time against your total monthly volume; don't sum overhead across items — that double-counts it.
Permits and licenses are usually annual or one-time — prorate to a monthly figure before entering (e.g. a $2,400/yr permit = $200/mo).
The fully-loaded labor rate should already include employer payroll burden (~15–25% over base wage).
The 3% card default reflects typical mobile/flat-rate processors — enter your actual effective rate.
The 15% profit cushion is a conservative pre-tax operating buffer, not promised take-home — adjust to your goal by setting a leaner or richer food-cost %.
Set volume conservatively: optimistic servings make overhead-per-plate look tiny and the price look competitive, then slow days erase the margin.

Frequently asked questions

How do you price a food truck menu item?

Start with raw plate cost (ingredients + disposables), add labor (cook minutes ÷ 60 × loaded rate) and one plate's share of monthly overhead (overhead ÷ monthly servings). That's true cost. Price so true cost is covered with a profit cushion, gross up for card fees, and round up to a clean number.

Why can't I just copy a restaurant's menu price?

Restaurants spread overhead across higher seated volume with lower per-dollar fixed costs. A truck carries fuel, permits, parking, generator, and maintenance against lower daily volume, so each plate absorbs more overhead. Copying a restaurant price ignores that premium and under-charges every plate.

What food-cost percentage should a food truck use?

Trucks and QSR run leaner — 25–30%, normal range 28–35%. The classic method sets price = ingredient cost ÷ (food-cost % ÷ 100), but that covers only ingredients, so this tool also enforces a cost-plus floor covering labor and overhead and uses whichever is higher.

How do I handle card processing fees?

Gross up — divide the pre-fee price by (1 − fee%). The processor takes its cut from the final sale, so adding the fee as a flat amount under-recovers it. Grossing up keeps the fee out of your profit.

What is prime cost and why does it matter?

Prime cost is food + labor as a share of price; a healthy target is ~55–65% (around 60%). If prime cost looks fine but you're still losing money, fixed overhead per plate — the food-truck premium — is the cause, which this tool surfaces as its own line.

Is the food truck menu pricing calculator free?

Yes — 100% free, calculated in your browser. Nothing is stored or sold.

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