How many customers a day does a restaurant need to break even?

The four steps

1. Add up your monthly bills. These are fixed costs: what you pay each month even if no one walks in. The SBA lists rent, salaries, property taxes, insurance and interest as examples [1]. Count scheduled staff pay, including what you need to pay yourself. For a bill you pay once a quarter or once a year, use its monthly share (divide by 3 or 12).
2. Work out your average check. This is what one guest spends, on average, before sales tax and tips. Price a typical order from your menu, such as a main dish and a drink.
3. Subtract what each guest costs you. Two costs grow with every guest: the food and drink on the plate, and the card fee on the payment. What's left is what each guest leaves you to pay the bills. Accountants call this the contribution margin [1].
4. Divide. Monthly bills ÷ what each guest leaves you = guests needed a month. Divide that by the days you're open to get guests a day. Round up, since you can't serve part of a guest.

The SBA writes the same idea as fixed costs ÷ (price − variable costs) [1].

A worked example

Step 1: monthly bills

Step 2: average check. A typical order is a $13 bowl and a $3 drink, so $16 per guest.

Step 3: what each guest leaves

The 2.6% + 15¢ is what Square charges for an in-person card payment on its free plan [5]. Your processor's rate may differ. Card fees are charged on the whole payment, including sales tax and tips, so the real fee per guest runs a few cents higher. We assumed every guest pays by card, which slightly overstates fees if some pay cash.

Step 4: divide

• Guests a month: $34,500 ÷ $10.47 = 3,295.1, so 3,296.
• Guests a day: 3,296 ÷ 26 days = 126.8, so 127 guests a day. Restaurants often call each guest served a "cover", so this is 127 covers a day.
• That's about $52,700 in sales a month (3,296 × $16 = $52,736), or about $2,030 in sales a day ($52,736 ÷ 26 = $2,028.31).

With 40 seats, 127 guests means filling every seat a little more than three times a day, across lunch and dinner. If that sounds like a lot for your street, it's a sign to look again at the rent, the staff schedule or the prices before you sign a lease.

What owners say they actually get

These are individual accounts from restaurants doing well enough to be written about, so they aren't typical.

• Cafes and diners: The Valley Grind, a coffee trailer in Greenville, California, serves roughly 60 to 70 customers a day [7]. Whippoorwill Diner in Burnside, Kentucky, could expect about 75 customers a weekday, double that on Saturdays [8].
• Counter service: Dos Toros, a New York taqueria, went from 200 customers a day to 400 in its first three months [9]. Bodega in Denver serves about 1,000 customers a day on weekends [10].
• Sit-down restaurants: Landmarc in New York, with about 100 seats, expected 100 to 110 covers a night and ended up doing 300 or 350 [11]. Valentino in Santa Monica served 8 to 10 people a night in its early days [12].

Start from your own math, and check it against your slowest days.

What changes the answer

Small changes move the count more than you might expect. Each line below changes one thing from the example and keeps the rest.

The SBA suggests adding a little extra, such as 10%, to cover costs you can't predict [1]. The math for every line is under How we did the math.

Planning an opening? Our Simple Restaurant Opening Planner is a spreadsheet for Excel or Google Sheets. See the planner

Check your guess against other restaurants

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 survey of more than 900 operators reported these medians for 2024. A median is the middle figure: half reported more, half less. The Association says they aren't targets for any one restaurant [2].

Sources: food [2], staff pay [3], occupancy [4] [6].

If your food cost guess is far below these, check your recipe costs before you trust the answer. Staff pay and rent will look high as a share of sales at break-even, because break-even is the lowest sales that still cover them.

Figures checked: Oct 2026.

What this leaves out

• Delivery-app commissions, packaging and other costs that grow with sales. If you'll sell through apps, subtract their fee from what each guest leaves you too.
• Hourly staff you add on busy days. We counted staff pay as a monthly bill. If you schedule more people as sales grow, the true count is a little higher.
• Paying back what you spent to open. Only the monthly loan payment is in the bills. Break-even means you're not losing money; it doesn't mean you've earned your investment back. For what opening costs, see our restaurant startup costs guide.
• Slow months. Run the numbers for your slowest month, not your average one.

How we did the math

Money is rounded to the cent at each step, and guest counts are rounded up to the next whole guest.

• The example: $16.00 − $4.96 − $0.57 = $10.47. $34,500 ÷ $10.47 = 3,295.1, so 3,296 a month. 3,296 ÷ 26 = 126.8, so 127 a day.
• $14 check: food $14.00 × 0.31 = $4.34. Card fee $14.00 × 0.026 = $0.36, plus $0.15 = $0.51. Left: $14.00 − $4.34 − $0.51 = $9.15. $34,500 ÷ $9.15 = 3,770.5, so 3,771 a month. 3,771 ÷ 26 = 145.04, so 146 a day.
• 35% food cost: food $16.00 × 0.35 = $5.60. Left: $16.00 − $5.60 − $0.57 = $9.83. $34,500 ÷ $9.83 = 3,509.7, so 3,510 a month. 3,510 ÷ 26 = 135 a day.
• 30 days open: 3,296 ÷ 30 = 109.9, so 110 a day.
• 10% added to the bills: $34,500 × 1.10 = $37,950. $37,950 ÷ $10.47 = 3,624.6, so 3,625 a month. 3,625 ÷ 26 = 139.4, so 140 a day.