Hydration is the ratio of water weight to flour weight, expressed as a percentage — it's one of the biggest levers for crumb texture. Enter your weights in grams.
Hydration percentage is simply total water weight divided by total flour weight, multiplied by 100. It's calculated using baker's percentage, where flour is the 100% baseline. Lower hydration (around 55–65%) produces a tighter, easier-to-shape dough; higher hydration (75%+) produces a more open, airy crumb but a stickier, harder-to-handle dough.
Source: Hydration is calculated using standard baker's-percentage method (water weight ÷ flour weight), the convention used across professional and home sourdough baking.
Most beginner-friendly sourdough recipes sit around 65–70% hydration — wet enough for a good open crumb, but manageable to shape without a lot of experience handling sticky dough.
Yes. A typical starter maintained at 100% hydration is half flour and half water by weight, so both halves should be added into your total flour and total water before calculating the overall percentage.
Flour protein content, how long the dough has been mixed, and ambient humidity all affect how wet a dough feels at a given hydration — whole wheat and rye flours in particular absorb water differently than white bread flour.
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