Cost to Make Pizza in 2023 (+Tips on How to Save $)

How Much Does it Cost to Make Pizza?

Are you tired of spending a fortune every time you want to enjoy a delicious pizza?

Look no further! In this post, we will reveal the exact cost to make pizza at home, giving you an affordable alternative to eating out or buying frozen pizzas.

Making pizza at home is not just about saving money, but it’s also a fun and creative activity where you can experiment with new recipes and techniques to achieve the perfect level of crunchiness and taste. Whether you’re looking for a fun activity to enjoy with your family or just want to perfect your pizza-making skills, this post has got you covered!

Keep reading to find out how you can make your own pizza with ease and at a fraction of the cost. And don’t forget to check out our article on “9 Pizza Styles You Can Make at Home” for even more inspiration!

So let’s get started!

Cost to Make Pizza at Home

Before getting to the details, let’s look at the average food costs to make pizza. Of course, a lot comes down to the ingredients you decide to put on your pizza creation. 

So, giving you a definite answer is not as easy as you may expect. 

Here are some things that you need to take into consideration when making pizza at home.

Average Cost to Make Pizza

In general, for a simple homemade margarita pizza recipe, you can spend around $2.45. 

Not to make you feel bad, but only as a reference: a couple of years ago, when inflation didn’t hit so bad, you could make your homemade pizza for almost half of this price! 

As you can see, that’s even less than the average frozen pizza.

We are talking averages here, and a lot will depend on the type of cheese and other toppings you decide to use for your pizza.

Here’s the average cost to make pizza:

As you can see, the average cost to make pizza is $2.45.

However, if a simple cheesy pizza is not exactly what you look for, consider that adding meat like sausage, pepperoni, or salami (or all of them, for a rich and tasty pizza) will cost you a couple of dollars more. 

Also, depending on how much you want to spend on the quality of your ingredients, your homemade pizzas might cost a little more or less than the average we mentioned earlier. 

Plus, don’t forget that the prices of your raw materials can change from one day to the other due to fluctuations in the market.

Of course, another factor affecting how much you’ll pay for your homemade pizza recipe creations is how you buy your ingredients. 

As you can expect, buying wholesale supplies can help you lower the cost to make pizza and save money. 

Flour, tomato paste, mozzarella cheese, olive oil, and other crucial raw materials will cost you less when buying them in bulk. 

However, we also know that how much of the ingredients you buy depends on how many pizzas you make. 

Remember that it is not worth buying more raw materials and letting them go to waste only to save a couple of dollars.

But let’s look more closely at how much it costs to make homemade pizza. 

In the following sections, we go over a breakdown of the cost to make pizza that you need to take into account when making pizzas as a way to save some money.

Cost of the Pizza Crust

We never think about it, but the crust is the crucial ingredient of a yummy homemade pizza. 

For most people, the crunchier, the better. After all, no one likes a soggy pizza. 

But how much does it cost to make a crust? 

So let’s start with the homemade pizza dough. Well, it all comes down to the price of your raw material ingredients (and how much you are willing to spend for them). 

But let’s have a closer at the cost to make pizza that will help you get a clear idea of what to expect.

For starters, your main ingredient for pizza dough has to be flour. 

Cost of Flour

With inflation, wheat prices have increased (and some expect them to increase further over the following months). 

Today, you can spend $0.24 per pound of flour. To make two 12 inches of pizza crusts or one large pizza, you’ll need 11 ounces of flour. 

A bag of 5 pounds of all-purpose flour at Walmart costs around $2.50. 

So, your 11 ounces of flour will cost you $0.40 and this makes 2 pizzas. You can get more voluminous bags to reduce costs further: the good news is that flour doesn’t spoil quickly. So the total flour cost per pizza is $0.20.

Cost of Yeast

Besides flour, you’ll also need yeast to make your homemade pizza dough rise. The cheapest option is Fleischmann’s Yeast, which you can buy in jars or packets. 

The latter option is more convenient. Today, the 3-packet standard size costs around $1.35. 

For two pizzas, you only need one package. So, the cost of yeast for two homemade pizzas at $0.45 or $0.23 per single pizza.

Cost of Olive Oil

Olive oil is another principal ingredient for your crust. We know that it is more expensive than other vegetable oils, but it will make a difference in the final taste. 

While you can spend more, you can buy a 25 fluid ounces bottle for as little as $5. 

You’ll only need two tablespoons, which means the cost of oil for two making pizzas is around $0.25 or around $0.10 for one pizza.

You probably have sugar, salt, and water at home, so maybe you won’t even have to buy them. 

However, for the sake of our calculations, let’s say that you’ll spend 0.01 dollars for each of these three ingredients.

Such calculations bring us to a total cost for two pizza crusts of $1.10. 

To know the cost for one crust, divide this price by 2: so one pizza crust costs around $0.55.

Not bad for making your own pizza dough, right?

Cost of the Pizza Toppings

Making the crust is essential, but toppings make a difference in the final taste.

Let’s say that we want to keep things simple and make a margarita. In this case, all you need is tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Cost of Sauce

You can find tomato sauces at various price ranges. 

As we mentioned, it will all come down to your preferences. If you prefer price over quality, you can spend less than $2 on a pizza sauce jar.

You can find the simplest 8 ounces jar at $0.50. You’ll need less than 4 ounces for one: so the cost is about $0.25.

Cost of Cheese

Mozzarella cheese can make the overall price skyrocket; it can quickly become the most expensive ingredient in the total cost to make pizza.  There are so many types (and different price ranges) that it depends on what you are looking for. 

For a cheesy pizza, you’ll probably need as much as half a pound of cheese. To save some money, you can buy more oversized packages (as much as 5 pounds). 

On average, you can expect to spend about $1.40 for the whole milk mozzarella for one cheese pizza.

That adds up to precisely $2.20 for one homemade pizza. To that, we still have to add the electricity cost and the cost of tools you may have to purchase.

Plus, don’t forget that you don’t have to keep your pizza simple. Sometimes, a simple cheese pizza is the best! Check out our pro homemade pizza recipe.

However, adding more ingredients will inevitably increase your ingredient costs to make pizza, mainly if you go for an expensive ingredient, like seafood.

Cost of Other Pizza Toppings

Everyone loves sausage or pepperoni pizza. Depending on which one you buy, you can expect to increase ingredient costs by around one dollar (if not more, when you combine all the ingredients). 

You may also want to add some vegetables as toppings or fresh basil (if you want to make it fancier). Of course, that too will lead to a slight increase in the total pizza costs.

But what about the electricity and the tools you’ll have to purchase? Does adding such costs make homemade pizza cheaper than takeout pizza? 

Let’s dig in.

Cost of the Electricity

The amount you spend on electricity depends on the region you live in and on what appliance you decide to use. 

Using an electric oven, a wood-fired oven or a pizza stone can vary the cost. 

The final prices depend on how many watts your appliances use for kW hour and how much electricity cost where you live. 

In general, ovens use between 1000 to 5000 watts. An average modern home appliance uses about 2400 watts on medium to high heat. 

So, in general, you probably spend around $0.25 in electricity to bake a pizza at home in an electric oven.

In the alternative, you can get yourself a wood-fired, gas, or pellet pizza oven and avoid the overall electricity expense.  Pizza ovens for sure deliver, the best results, so why not try it?

Check our recommended pizza ovens for more.

Cost of Tools

Of course, this calculation wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t include the cost of tools to make a perfect homemade pizza. 

For starters, we recommend you get a pizza stone. Such a tool might help you reduce the cost of electricity and contribute to crispiness. 

You can find pizza stones for as little as $20, but you might want to get a better quality one if you know you’ll bake frequently. 

Consider it as an investment to save money in the long term.  Not to mention that you will considerably improve your pizza-making skills.

Indeed, by having the opportunity to create crispy pizzas that resemble the ones you would get at your favorite restaurant, you’ll reduce the number of times you’ll go out to a pizza restaurant. 

To reduce wasting ingredients, consider getting a dough scraper: it will help you get all the last bits of pizza dough from your cutting board. 

Plus, it can act as a slicer, which could be a life savior if you make more than one pizza at a time. The cost for such a tool is less than $10.

Another tool we recommend you get is a pizza peel. You can find cheap versions, like the one shown below.

However, we recommend that get one that will last more and will help you transfer pizza in and out of the oven with a minimal amount of mess.

Best Tools to Start Making Homemade Pizza

Related Questions

Comparing that to around $20 for pizzas at a restaurant is a considerable saving. 

Don’t forget that when eating out at a restaurant, you probably have to include a couple of drinks on the bill, maybe the cost of parking your car, and the final tip. 

So, even if an individual pizza might cost around $8 (which is hard these days), the final price can skyrocket quickly. 

You can lower the cost to make pizza and save even more money by following the tips we included in this guide. 

We mentioned some already, such as buying in bulk. Jump to the following section to learn our recommendations.

Tips to Lower the Cost to Make Pizza and Save Money

1. Buy in Bulk – For starters, try to buy your essential ingredients in bulk to make your own dough. You can use most of them for other pizza dough recipes too. So, you won’t have to worry about making pizza every day.

2. Make Your Cheese – Making Mozzarella Cheese is a very easy thing to do. With one gallon of milk, rennet, lemon juice, and a little salt you can make enough cheese for your pizzas.

Buying yeast or flour in packages is often more convenient. Plus, they tend to have a long shelf life. 

3. Freeze and Store – Other ingredients such as olive oil can be stored for years when you keep them properly. Additionally, you can freeze cheese (and buy more for less) for up to six months.

4. Join a Co-op – Alternatively, consider joining a co-op, which can help you save plenty of money. There are many different types of co-op, but the principle is simple: to help you and other members get the most out of the products they buy. 

For instance, if you buy ingredients in bulk, you can share them with the other co-op members and cut overall costs. 

Look for co-ops on local Facebook groups or Craig’s list. You may have friends in one already, so ask around!

Doing so will also minimize (or even eliminate) waste, which is never a bad idea.

5. Grow your Ingredients – If you make lots of pizza, think about growing your ingredients. 

Having tomato plants and other crops can save you the cost of buying some raw materials for your pizza. 

Also, you may want to add some herbs such as basil or oregano to your garden to make your creations even more delicious. 

Luckily, these crops are incredibly easy to grow!

The Last Slice

Making pizza at home is not only a fun activity to entertain you over the weekend.  It’s so much better than frozen pizza, for sure.

It can also help you save some money while still enjoying this yummy comfort food and sharing it with your friends and family. 

Hopefully, this essential guide helped you get a clear idea of how what is the cost to make pizza. Keep in mind that eating pizza at a pizzeria can be a different experience. 

After all, you are not paying for the food only. Eating out is also about the experience of leaving your house. 

Going out from time to time can be exciting and fun. 

However, if you like to regularly eat pizza (for instance, on a Friday night), you may save money by making it yourself.

Enjoy!

Related Posts

Newsletter

Subscribe to our Recipe of the Week newsletter and receive our partners’ latest recipes, tips, and discount offers.

Keep in Touch!

info@homemadepizzapro.com