Free Excel template · Excel for home and family
Free recipe scaler template for Excel
For home cooks who need a recipe for 10 when the card says 4, or for 2 when it says 8. Type the servings the recipe makes and the number you are cooking for; every ingredient is scaled, rounded up to an amount your measuring cups can handle, and costed so you know what each serving costs. The sample is a pancake recipe; replace it with your own.
Preview and try it
This is the template's sheet, calculated by the same engine as the Cellwise app. Change any number to see the formulas react before you download.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recipe | Weekend pancakes | ||||||
| 2 | Recipe serves | 4 | ||||||
| 3 | You are cooking for | 10 | ||||||
| 4 | Scale factor | 2.5 | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||||
| 6 | Ingredient | Amount | Unit | Round to | Scaled | To measure | Cost (original) | Cost (scaled) |
| 7 | All-purpose flour | 1.5 | cups | 0.25 | 3.75 | 3.75 | 0.42 | 1.05 |
| 8 | Baking powder | 3.5 | tsp | 0.5 | 8.75 | 9 | 0.15 | 0.38 |
| 9 | Sugar | 1 | tbsp | 0.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0.04 | 0.1 |
| 10 | Salt | 0.25 | tsp | 0.25 | 0.625 | 0.75 | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| 11 | Milk | 1.25 | cups | 0.25 | 3.125 | 3.25 | 0.3 | 0.75 |
| 12 | Eggs | 1 | whole | 1 | 2.5 | 3 | 0.33 | 0.83 |
| 13 | Butter, melted | 3 | tbsp | 0.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 0.45 | 1.13 |
| 14 | ||||||||
| 15 | ||||||||
| 16 | ||||||||
| 17 | ||||||||
| 18 | Total cost of the batch | 4.27 | ||||||
| 19 | Cost per serving | 0.43 | ||||||
| 20 | Ingredients in the recipe | 7 |
How the formulas work
Work out the scale factor once
Servings you are cooking for divided by servings the recipe makes. Every ingredient uses this one cell, so changing B3 rescales the whole recipe. The IF stops a #DIV/0! error while B2 is still empty. To halve a recipe that serves 8, type 8 in B2 and 4 in B3.
Scale each ingredient
The original amount times the scale factor. $B$4 is locked with dollar signs so the formula can be filled down the list and every row still points at the same factor. The IF leaves the row blank until you type an amount, so the spare rows at the bottom stay clean.
Round up to something you can measure
Column D holds the smallest step you can measure for that ingredient: 0.25 for cups, 0.5 for tablespoons, 1 for eggs. Dividing by the step, rounding up to a whole number and multiplying back lands on the next step up. In the sample, 3.125 cups of milk becomes 3.25 and 2.5 eggs becomes 3. Leave Round to empty to keep the exact amount.
Cost per serving
Column G is what each ingredient costs in the original recipe (a rough share of the package price is fine). H scales it, H18 totals the batch, and H19 divides by the people you are feeding. Useful for party planning and for comparing a homemade dish with a takeout price.
Make it yours
- Rounding up is safest for baking, where a little extra flour or egg is easier to handle than too little. For seasoning, round down or keep the exact amount, because extra salt cannot be taken back.
- Scaling a recipe does not scale the pan or the cooking time. A double batch in the same pan is deeper and takes longer; two pans at the original depth cook in roughly the original time. Check doneness rather than trusting the clock.
- Keep one sheet per recipe: right-click the tab > Move or Copy > Create a copy, then replace the ingredients. Name each tab after the dish.
- Converting between units (for example 16 tbsp in a cup) is easier before you scale. Pick one unit per ingredient and stick to it in column C.
FAQ
How do I scale a recipe in Excel?
Divide the servings you need by the servings the recipe makes to get a scale factor, then multiply each ingredient by it with the factor cell locked, for example =B7*$B$4, and fill the formula down.
How do I round to the nearest quarter cup in Excel?
Divide by 0.25, round, and multiply back: =ROUND(E7/0.25,0)*0.25 rounds to the nearest quarter, and ROUNDUP instead of ROUND always goes up. Excel also has MROUND and CEILING.MATH, which do the same in one function.
Can I use this recipe scaler to make a recipe smaller?
Yes. Type a smaller number in "You are cooking for" and the factor drops below 1. For 2 servings from a recipe that serves 4, every amount is halved and then rounded up to a measurable step.
Functions used
IFPicks a result from a testROUNDUPRounds away from zeroROUNDRounds to digitsSUMAdds numbersCOUNTCounts numbers
Related guides
- How to round to the nearest 5, 10 or 100 in Excel
- Absolute vs relative cell references in Excel
- #DIV/0! error in Excel
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