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Coffee Ratio Calculator

Pick a brewing method or type in your own ratio, then enter how much coffee you have — or how much water you want to end up with — and the calculator fills in the other number.

Brewing method

Presets are common starting points — adjust the ratio for your taste.

Start from

Water

320g

≈ 320 ml · ≈ 11.3 oz

Coffee
20 g
Ratio
1:16
Water
320 g

Reading the result

A brewing ratio is written as coffee : water by weight. At 1:16, every 1 gram of ground coffee is brewed with 16 grams of water, so 20 g of coffee needs 320 g of water. Because water weighs almost exactly 1 gram per millilitre at brewing temperatures, you can read that 320 g as roughly 320 ml without losing any accuracy that matters in a kitchen.

Lower second numbers (1:15, 1:14) make a stronger, heavier cup. Higher ones (1:17, 1:18) make a lighter, more tea-like cup. None of these is the single correct ratio — they are starting points you adjust to taste.

Why weigh instead of scoop

A tablespoon or a built-in scoop holds a different weight of coffee depending on the bean, the roast, and how finely it is ground — easily a few grams either way. That is enough to move a cup from balanced to sour or bitter. A small kitchen scale removes the guesswork: weigh the coffee, weigh (or measure) the water, and the same recipe repeats every morning.

Adjusting for taste

Brew a batch at your starting ratio and taste it before changing anything else:

  • Thin, watery, or sharply sour? Use less water next time — try 1:15.
  • Heavy, harsh, or bitter? Use more water next time — try 1:17.
  • Change one thing at a time so you can tell what actually helped.

Ratio is the fastest lever, but grind size and water temperature matter too. If a cup tastes both weak and bitter at once, that is usually an extraction problem rather than a ratio problem — our guide on why coffee tastes bitter walks through the other causes.

Common starting ratios

MethodStarting ratioCommon rangeNotes
Pour over1:161:15 – 1:17A balanced everyday cup.
French press1:151:12 – 1:17Slightly stronger, since some coffee stays behind in the grounds.
AeroPress1:151:12 – 1:17Recipes vary widely; concentrate-and-dilute methods go much stronger.
Automatic drip1:171:15 – 1:18Many home machines under-extract, so a little more coffee helps.
Cold brew1:81:5 – 1:10Often brewed as a concentrate and diluted with water or milk before drinking.

Worked examples

  • 15 g of coffee, pour over at 1:16 → 240 g water.
  • 30 g of coffee, French press at 1:15 → 450 g water.
  • Making a 1-litre batch at 1:16 → 1000 ÷ 16 ≈ 62.5 g coffee.

For the reasoning behind ratios in depth, see ourpractical coffee-to-water ratio guide, and for a method-specific starting point, the French press ratio guide.

Related reading