Pour Over Coffee Calculator

How to use this pour over coffee calculator

1. Pick your brewer. A V60, a Chemex and a Kalita Wave are not the same recipe. Each one here carries its own ratio band, grind, and target finish time, because the filter thickness and the shape of the bed genuinely change how fast water moves through the coffee.
2. Pick a technique. The balanced three-pour is the one to learn first. The two named recipes are there when you want a published method rather than a general rule.
3. Enter your dose. Or flip to water first if you're brewing to fill a specific carafe and want to know how much coffee to grind.
4. Set the strength. Mild, Balanced, or Strong moves the ratio inside the sane range for your brewer, and each button prints the exact 1:X it uses. Type your own with Custom ratio.
5. Brew off the schedule. The last column is what your scale should read when you stop pouring, so you never have to do arithmetic mid-brew. Everything recomputes as you type — there's no Calculate button — and you can copy the recipe, share a link that reopens it, or take the PDF brew card to the kitchen.

Why this pour over calculator is different

Search pour over coffee ratio and you get the same answer a dozen times: 1:16, medium-fine grind, three to four minutes. That is a correct answer to a question nobody is really asking. Knowing the ratio tells you how much coffee to grind. It does not tell you what to actually do for the three minutes you're standing over the brewer, which is where almost every bad pour over goes wrong.

• It gives you a schedule, not a number. Every pour has a target weight and a clock time, and the last column is a running total, so you're reading the scale rather than adding up in your head.
• The schedule is computed from your dose. The handful of pages that do show a pour schedule print a fixed one — bloom 50 g, then 100 g, then 100 g — no matter whether you're brewing a single mug or a full Chemex. Change the dose here and every row moves.
• Two champion recipes, actually calculated. James Hoffmann's Ultimate V60 and Tetsu Kasuya's 4:6 get quoted in prose everywhere. Here they're selectable, and the 4:6 dials are wired to the output — shift the first 40 percent toward sweetness or acidity, split the last 60 percent into two, three or four pours for strength, and watch the grams change.
• Per-brewer ratios, sourced. A Chemex band is not a V60 band, and the number Chemex itself prints on the box is far stronger than what most people actually brew. The reference table below says where each range comes from.
• The math is tested on every build. A fixture suite reproduces both published recipes to the gram, and checks across nearly a thousand brewer, technique, strength and dose combinations that the pours always sum exactly to the water total. If a rounding change ever broke that, the build fails before it ships.

How it works (the math)

The dose and water are one line of arithmetic, and it runs in both directions:

water = dose x ratio           dose = water / ratio
bloom = min( dose x bloom_multiplier, 0.20 x water )

The bloom is where the trapped carbon dioxide from roasting escapes, and until it has, water can't properly reach the coffee. Twice the coffee's weight in water is the standard; three times suits a very fresh light roast that's still gassing hard. The cap exists because at a very strong ratio, three times the dose would be most of the brew — so the tool holds the bloom at a fifth of the total and says so.

The schedule is then a model per technique. The balanced three-pour is the general rule:

0:00  bloom               -> bloom grams
0:45  pour to 60% total   -> 0.60 x water
1:30  pour to 100%        -> water

Hoffmann's Ultimate V60 is published at 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water, which is 60 g per litre or 1:16.7. Bloom with twice the coffee weight, swirl the slurry flat, pour to 60 percent between 0:45 and 1:15, finish to 100 percent by 1:45, then a gentle swirl to level the bed. Drawdown should complete around 3:30.

Kasuya's 4:6 — from the 2016 World Brewers Cup — is the only widely used technique that separates the two things you actually want to control. The water is split 40 / 60 and poured at fixed 45-second intervals. The first 40 percent goes in two pours and sets sweetness against acidity: a smaller first pour leans sweet, a larger one leans bright. The last 60 percent is split across two, three or four pours and sets strength, with three being the standard. At the canonical 20 g and 300 g, balanced and standard strength, that comes out as five identical 60 g pours.

A limitation worth stating. Every clock time here is a target, not a measurement. Your actual drawdown depends on grind size, how fast you pour, filter thickness, and how much the bed has compacted. If the brew finishes well before the target, grind finer; if it stalls past it, grind coarser. That feedback loop is the point of having a target time at all.

Pour over ratios by brewer

These are the bands the calculator uses. They start from the Specialty Coffee Association's Golden Cup standard of 55 g per litre plus or minus 10 percent, then narrow per brewer from published manufacturer and roaster guidance.

The V60 ratio band is anchored on Hario's own published 3:50 guidance, which is 1:16.7 — the same 60 g per litre Hoffmann uses. The Chemex ratio deserves a note: Chemex's own instruction is a rounded tablespoon per 5 oz cup, which works out near 1:10 and is far stronger than almost anyone actually brews. Published roaster recipes for the Chemex run from about 1:14 to 1:21, and specialty practice clusters at 1:15 to 1:16, which is where this band sits. The Chemex also takes a noticeably coarser grind and a longer total time than the others, because that thick bonded filter chokes easily.

Three worked examples

One mug on a V60

The everyday case. Fifteen grams at the balanced 1:16.7 gives you 250 g of water. Bloom with 30 g at 0:00, pour to 150 g by 0:45, finish to 250 g by 1:30, and it should be done draining by 3:00. If you're buying your first cone, our best pour over coffee makers guide covers which ones actually hold heat, and the step-by-step pour over guide walks the technique itself.

Hoffmann's Ultimate V60, at his own numbers

Select the V60 and the Hoffmann technique, enter 30 g, and the tool reproduces his published recipe exactly: 500 g of water, a 60 g bloom, 300 g on the scale by 0:45, 500 g by 1:15, finished at 3:30. This is a fixture in our test suite, so it cannot silently drift. It's a two-mug brew, and the reason to learn it is repeatability rather than peak flavour — the swirls do the work that a perfectly even pour would otherwise have to.

A full Chemex for the table

Forty-two grams into a 6-cup Chemex at roughly 1:16.7 gives 700 g of water, which is where the pulse technique earns its place. One long pour into that much coffee drops the bed temperature and stalls; instead you get a bloom and five roughly 123 g pulses at 45-second intervals, finishing near 4:45. Grind a step coarser than you would for a V60. If the brew is still crawling past five minutes, it's the grind, not the recipe — our best coffee grinders guide explains why a blade grinder makes this particular problem unfixable.

Frequently asked questions

How much coffee for pour over?

About 1 gram of coffee for every 15 to 17 grams of water, which is roughly 15 g of coffee for a standard 250 ml mug and 60 g per litre for a batch. In tablespoons that's about three level tablespoons of grounds per mug, though tablespoons are a poor way to measure coffee — a level tablespoon of grounds runs anywhere from 5 to 7 g depending on grind size and roast, which is a swing of 40 percent on a single spoon. Weigh it if you can.

What is the golden ratio for pour over coffee?

The Specialty Coffee Association's Golden Cup standard is 55 g of coffee per litre of water, plus or minus 10 percent, which is a ratio between about 1:16.7 and 1:20. In practice most specialty pour over recipes brew stronger than the middle of that band, landing at 1:15 to 1:17. Treat 1:16 as the starting point and move in half-steps: if the cup tastes thin and watery, go to 1:15; if it's heavy and muddy, go to 1:17.

What is the 15-15-15 rule for coffee?

It's a beginner's shorthand for a single-cup pour over: 15 g of coffee, 15 seconds of grinding, and 15 fluid ounces — though the third figure varies by whoever is repeating it, which is a fair signal of how loose the rule is. It gets you into roughly the right postcode for one mug and it's easy to remember. It also has nothing to say about bloom, pour timing, or your brewer, which is exactly the gap the schedule above fills.

What is the difference between a V60, a Chemex and a Kalita Wave?

The V60 is a 60-degree cone with spiral ribs and one large hole, so flow is almost entirely down to your grind and pour — the most control and the most ways to get it wrong. The Chemex is a thick bonded filter in a glass carafe, which traps more oils and gives the cleanest, most tea-like cup, but demands a coarser grind and a longer brew. The Kalita Wave has a flat bed and three small holes that meter the flow for you, which makes it far more forgiving of an uneven pour. Same coffee, three genuinely different cups.

How long should a pour over take?

Three to three and a half minutes for a single-cup V60, including the bloom, and four to five minutes for a full Chemex. Total time is a diagnostic, not a target you should chase by pouring faster: if the water is through in under two and a half minutes, the grind is too coarse and the cup will taste sour and thin. If it's still dripping past four, the grind is too fine and you'll get bitterness and a dry finish. Adjust the grinder, not the pour, and see our grind size chart for where to move.

Related tools

• Coffee to Water Ratio Calculator — the all-method hub, when you're brewing something that isn't a pour over.
• How Many Tablespoons of Coffee Per Cup? — for when there's no scale in the kitchen: spoons and scoops, adjusted for what your grind and roast actually weigh.
• Moka Pot Ratio Calculator — the opposite problem: on a stovetop pot the basket and boiler fix the recipe, so the ratio comes out rather than going in.
• Coffee Grind Size Chart — the lever to pull when your brew finishes early or stalls past the target time.
• Coffee Water Temperature Calculator — your target brew temp, and the boiling point where you actually live.
• Interactive Coffee Flavor Wheel — put a name to what changed after you moved the ratio.
• Browse all free coffee tools by Clara →

Gear that makes a schedule worth having

A pour schedule assumes you can control two things: the weight going in, and the rate it goes in at.

• A scale and a gooseneck. These two do more for a pour over than any upgrade to the brewer itself. Without a scale the last column above is decorative; without a gooseneck spout you can't pour slowly enough to hit a target without flooding the bed.
• A burr grinder. Every timing target here is really a grind-size target in disguise. A blade grinder produces both dust and boulders at once, so the bed clogs and channels simultaneously and no schedule can save it — our best coffee grinders picks start at the cheapest burr worth owning.
• A brewer that holds heat. A cold ceramic cone steals ten degrees the moment you pour. See best pour over coffee makers, or automatic pour over machines if you'd rather a machine ran the schedule for you.
• Coffee worth the effort. Dialling a pour to the second only pays off on beans with something to say; our bean picks are where to start.

Sources & methodology

• Specialty Coffee Association — Coffee Standards — the Golden Cup brewing ratio of 55 g/L ± 10%.
• National Coffee Association — How to Brew Coffee — brew-water temperature and general ratio guidance.
• Hario — V60 brew guide — the 3:50 (1:16.7) V60 ratio anchor.
• James Hoffmann — The Ultimate V60 Technique — 30 g : 500 g, bloom, 60%, 100%, swirl.
• Philocoffea / Tetsu Kasuya — the 4:6 method — the 40 / 60 split and its two dials.

Ratios are anchored on the SCA Golden Cup standard (55 g/L ± 10%) and narrowed per brewer from published manufacturer and roaster guidance. Pour schedules reproduce the published forms of each technique; cumulative water targets are computed exactly and rounded once, with the final target pinned to the water total so a schedule can never sum to a different figure than the one shown above it. A fixture test asserts both named recipes to the gram, checks 960 brewer, technique, strength and dose combinations for schedule integrity, and covers 14 edge cases on every build. Clock times are targets; actual drawdown depends on grind, pour rate, and filter. Reviewed by Clara Bennett, CQI Q Grader. About Clara · Last reviewed August 31, 2026.

Embed this calculator on your site

Free for coffee blogs, roasters, cafés, and anyone teaching pour over — the schedule table is the part readers screenshot, and it works at any dose they enter. Required attribution is baked into the snippet: no fee, no account, no analytics attached to the embed.

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