Real baker's math, starter included. Check the hydration of a recipe you're following, find exactly how much water to add for a target percentage, or scale a complete sourdough recipe from a dough weight — with flour, water, starter and salt in grams.
Medium-high hydration — classic artisan sourdough range
Total flour
550 g
Total water
400 g
Flour from starter
50 g
Water from starter
50 g
📌 Hydration is water as a percentage of flour — including the flour and water inside your starter. Flours absorb differently: whole wheat and fresh-milled flour can drink 5–10 percentage points more water than white bread flour.
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What hydration actually means
Hydration is the weight of water in a dough expressed as a percentage of the weight of flour — the core of baker's percentages, where flour is always 100%. A dough with 500 g flour and 350 g water is at 350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70% hydration. Water is the main lever for crumb texture: more water means a more open, irregular crumb and a thinner, crisper crust, but also a stickier, harder-to-shape dough.
The percentage only tells the whole truth when it includes the flour and water hiding inside your starter — which is where most hand calculations go wrong.
How the starter changes the math
A starter at 100% hydration is half flour, half water by weight. In general, for a starter kept at sh% hydration:
Worked example: 500 g flour, 350 g water, 100 g starter at 100% hydration. The starter contributes 50 g flour and 50 g water, so total flour is 550 g and total water is 400 g. True hydration = 400 ÷ 550 × 100 = 72.7% — not the 70% you'd get by ignoring the starter. On stiffer starters (say 50% hydration) the gap grows, because the starter brings proportionally more flour.
Typical hydration ranges
Bread style
Hydration
Dough feel
Bagels, pretzels
55–65%
Stiff, dense, easy to shape
Sandwich loaves
60–68%
Soft but manageable
Artisan sourdough boules
70–75%
Tacky, needs folds not kneading
Ciabatta, focaccia
75–85%+
Slack, wet, advanced handling
Handling changes with the level: below ~68% you can knead on the counter; at 70–75% switch to stretch-and-folds in the bowl with wet hands; above 78% coil folds and a well-floured bench become essential, and baking in a pan (focaccia-style) is often the saner choice.
Frequently asked questions
Start at 65–70%. That dough is firm enough to shape confidently, still develops good oven spring, and forgives sloppy handling. Once your shaping and folding feel automatic, move up in 2–3 point steps toward 72–75% for a more open crumb. Jumping straight to 80% is the most common reason beginner doughs turn into unmanageable puddles.
Yes. The bran and germ in whole wheat absorb noticeably more water than white flour, so add roughly 5–10 percentage points of hydration for a dough that feels the same. A 70% white-flour dough handles about like a 75–80% whole wheat dough. Rye absorbs even more. When swapping flours in a recipe, adjust water gradually and judge by feel.
It does — a starter is just flour and water in a jar. A 100 g starter at 100% hydration contains 50 g flour and 50 g water, and both belong in the totals. This calculator splits the starter with starterFlour = starter ÷ (1 + hydration/100) and adds the parts to your flour and water before computing the percentage. Recipes that ignore the starter understate true hydration, often by 2–4 points.
Hydration percentages are not absolute — flour absorption varies a lot. A 75% dough made with strong high-protein bread flour feels workable, while the same 75% with all-purpose or a weaker European-style flour can be soup. Warm kitchens and long fermentation also loosen dough. If a recipe’s percentage fights you, drop 3–5 points and work back up as you learn your flour.
Roughly: bagels and pretzels 55–65%, everyday sandwich loaves 60–68%, classic artisan sourdough boules 70–75%, and ciabatta or focaccia 75–85% and up. Lower hydration gives a tight, even crumb and easy shaping; higher hydration gives an open, glossy crumb but demands stronger gluten and better technique.