Menu price increase calculator
Copy your menu text in from anywhere, pick a percentage and a rounding rule, and get every new price in a table you can copy. Nothing is uploaded; the math runs in your browser.
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The math, and where rounding bites
New price = old price × (1 + increase ÷ 100), then rounded up to the ending you chose.
Rounding is where a 5 percent increase quietly becomes something else. Sometimes that is the point and sometimes it is a mistake, so the table shows the real change on every line. Cheap items move the most: a $9 affogato raised 8 percent becomes $10 on the whole-dollar rule, which is 11 percent.
| Item | Exact | Whole $ | .50 | .95 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oysters, 18 +5% | 18.90 | 19 | 19 | 18.95 |
| Smash burger, 16 +6% | 16.96 | 17 | 17 | 17.95 |
| Affogato, 9 +8% | 9.72 | 10 | 10 | 9.95 |
Rounding rules of thumb
Common conventions in the trade, not measured results. Your room and your guests are the real test.
- 1
Whole dollars
Reads as a restaurant. Plenty of sit-down menus print whole numbers with no dollar sign, and it is the easiest rule to keep consistent.
- 2
.50 steps
Good for cafés and counters, where a lot of items live under ten dollars and a full dollar of rounding is a big percentage.
- 3
.95 endings
Reads as retail. Fine for a counter or a grab-and-go case, odd on a tasting menu. On small increases it can round up by nearly a dollar.
- 4
No rounding
Exact to the cent. Useful for checking the math or for a spreadsheet, rarely what you want printed.
Raising prices because costs moved? Start from the plate: the menu item price calculator works a price out from plate cost and a target food cost.
For the reasoning behind the numbers, read menu pricing strategy. When the new prices are set, how to update menu prices without reprinting lists every place they need to change, and price updates in Gaslamp shows the thirty-second version.
Price increases, straight answers
- How do I raise menu prices by a percentage?
- Multiply each price by one plus the increase. A 5 percent increase on an $18 dish is 18 × 1.05 = $18.90. Then round to an ending that looks like a menu price; this calculator rounds up, so no price ends up below the increase you chose.
- Should menu prices be rounded up?
- Menus usually round, and rounding up protects the margin you are raising prices to recover. Watch the .95 rule on small increases: $16.96 rounds up to $17.95, which is closer to a 12 percent increase than a 6 percent one. The Change column shows the real number for every item.
- What menu formats does the calculator read?
- One item per line with the price at the end (Burger 16, Burger ..... 16, Burger $16.00), or the price after the name followed by a dash and a description. Short lines without a price are read as section headings. A line with two prices is read by the last one.
- Is my menu saved or uploaded?
- No. The math runs in your browser and the menu text never leaves the page. Refresh and it is gone.
- Can Gaslamp put the new prices on my printed menu?
- Gaslamp holds your menu and makes both the print-ready PDF and the QR menu from it. Change a price once: the menu behind your QR code follows about thirty seconds after you save, and the next PDF you print has it.
- How much does it cost?
- Start with a 30-day free trial, no credit card needed. Then it is $19 a month, or $190 a year (2 months free). No setup fee. Cancel anytime. The trial includes one published live menu with QR codes. PDF downloads and additional menus start when you pick a plan.
Put the new prices on your menu in Gaslamp. Then never cross one out again.
No card needed · then $19/mo or $190/yr · cancel anytime