# Catering Budget Calculator

> Build an event catering budget from per-guest food and drink costs, staff hours, venue and rentals, service charge and tax, and see the cost per guest.

Category: Food & hospitality · Applies to: Worldwide · Last updated: 2026-10-29
Interactive calculator: https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/catering-budget-calculator

Add up the per-guest costs, staff time and fixed costs, then the service charge and tax, to get the total and the cost per guest.

Also called: Catering cost calculator, Event food budget calculator.

## Inputs
- Guests (default 100)
- Food cost per guest (default 22)
- Drinks cost per guest (default 8; optional)
- Service staff (default 6; optional)
- Hours per staff member (unit hours; default 6; optional)
- Hourly staff rate (default 20; optional)
- Venue, rentals and other fixed costs (default 1500; optional)
- Service charge on food and drinks (unit %; default 10; optional)
- Tax on the total (unit %; default 5; optional)
- Currency

## Results
- Total catering budget
- Cost per guest
- Food
- Drinks
- Staff
- Service charge
- Tax

## Formula

```
Subtotal = Guests × (Food + Drinks per guest) + Staff × Hours × Rate + Fixed + Service% × (Food + Drinks);  Total = Subtotal × (1 + Tax% ÷ 100)
```

Where:
- Food, Drinks per guest: per-head costs
- Fixed: venue hire, equipment and other costs that do not depend on guest numbers
- Service%: service charge applied to food and drinks
- Tax%: tax applied to everything

## Worked example
1. Food 100 × 22 = 2,200; drinks 100 × 8 = 800; staff 6 × 6 × 20 = 720; fixed 1,500.
2. Service 10% × 3,000 = 300, so the subtotal is 5,520.
3. Tax 5% × 5,520 = 276; total 5,796, or 57.96 per guest.

**Result:** Catering 100 guests comes to 5,796 including service and tax, about 57.96 per guest.

## What the result means

Fixed costs fall per guest as numbers rise, so a smaller event costs more per head. Keep a contingency of your own on top for late guest-count changes.

## Assumptions and limits
- Service charge applies to food and drinks only; tax applies to the whole bill.
- Some places tax food, drinks and service differently; adjust the rate or split the calculation if so.

## Questions

### Is the service charge the same as a tip?

Not always. A service charge is set by the caterer and may not go to staff; check your contract before adding a separate tip.

## Related calculators
- [Catering Portion Quantity Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/catering-portion-quantity-calculator)
- [Buffet Food Quantity Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/buffet-food-quantity-calculator)
- [Tip Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/tip-calculator)
- [Percentage Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/percentage-calculator)
- [Wedding Catering Cost Calculator](https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/wedding-catering-cost-calculator)

Source: GM¹X CalcVerse — https://calculators.geekmidst.com/calculators/catering-budget-calculator