--- title: "What It Costs to Run a Pizza Shop Every Month, Line by Line" description: "We put a dollar figure on every cost line that has a published benchmark, using a shop doing the industry's average $440,000 a year. The lines you can benchmark leave a comfortable gap. The National Restaurant Association says the typical counter-service shop keeps about 4%. The difference is the part nobody publishes." canonical_url: https://ovenscars.com/articles/pizza-shop-monthly-operating-costs/ author: "Oven Scars Editorial" publisher: "Oven Scars" section: "Operations" date_published: 2026-10-28T00:00:00.000Z date_modified: 2026-11-01T00:00:00.000Z tags: ["operating-costs", "budget", "labor", "rent"] word_count: 926 reading_time_minutes: 7 license: "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — cite as \"Oven Scars\" and link the canonical URL" --- # What It Costs to Run a Pizza Shop Every Month, Line by Line *We put a dollar figure on every cost line that has a published benchmark, using a shop doing the industry's average $440,000 a year. The lines you can benchmark leave a comfortable gap. The National Restaurant Association says the typical counter-service shop keeps about 4%. The difference is the part nobody publishes.* **Operator takeaway:** Pull your last three months of bills and fill in every line in this piece with your own average. Put food, labor and card fees against your sales as percentages, and everything else in dollars. Whatever is left after all of it, divided by sales, is your real margin. If it's under the 4% the NRA reports, start with the biggest line that's over its benchmark, not the smallest bill you can cancel. An average independent pizza shop spends about $21,600 to $27,500 a month on the bills you can benchmark, and keeps about $1,470. The average independent pizzeria takes in a little over $440,000 a year, based on PMQ's count of [44,644 independents in 2022](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-do-pizza-shops-make), as reported by Toast. That's about $36,700 a month. The National Restaurant Association's operator survey found the median limited-service restaurant kept [4.0% of sales as pre-tax income in 2024](https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/restaurant-economic-insights/analysis-commentary/new-association-report-helps-operators-gauge-their-restaurant-performance/). On that shop, that's roughly $1,470 a month. Our existing guide to [what it costs to run a pizza shop](/articles/the-real-cost-of-running-a-pizza-shop/) gives the percentages. This one turns them into dollars for that $36,700 month, line by line. It also shows how much of the bill nobody has published a benchmark for. ## The month, in dollars Every figure below is a published benchmark applied to $36,700 in monthly sales. Your shop will differ, but the point is to see where the money goes. - **Food:** at [20–30% of sales](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-do-pizza-shops-make), about $7,300 to $11,000. - **Labor:** at the [23–28% Pizza Today's operator survey reports](https://pizzatoday.com/news/2026-pizza-industry-trends-report/615558/), about $8,400 to $10,300. - **Occupancy:** rent at or under 6% of sales and total occupancy under 10%, per [Baker Tilly's benchmarks](https://info.bloomintelligence.com/hubfs/Miscellaneous%20Downloads/Restaurant%20Benchmarks.pdf), is up to $2,200 in rent and $3,700 all-in. - **Card processing:** Toast puts combined fees at [2.5% to 3.5% of each transaction](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/what-is-a-merchant-fee). If every sale is on a card, that's about $900 to $1,300. - **Repairs and maintenance:** about [1.5% of sales](https://www.fsrmagazine.com/expert-takes/how-budget-restaurant-maintenance), citing the NRA, is about $550. - **Insurance:** Insureon's restaurant customers pay [$337 a month for a business owner's policy and $118 for workers' comp](https://www.insureon.com/food-business-insurance/restaurants/cost), about $455 together. Those are small shops, most with fewer than five employees. - **POS software:** Toast's point-of-sale plan starts at [$69 a month](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-does-a-restaurant-pos-system-cost), with a $0 starter option. - **Trash:** the average restaurant dumpster runs [$178 a month](https://www.dumpsters.com/restaurant-waste-management), per Dumpsters.com. - **Music:** BMI's minimum for an eating and drinking place was [$485 for 2025](https://cdn.bmi.com/forms/licensing/gl/ede.pdf), about $40 a month. ASCAP and SESAC license separately. Add those up and the month costs about $21,600 at the low end of every range and $27,500 at the high end. That leaves $9,200 to $15,100. If the NRA is right that the typical shop keeps about $1,470, most of that gap goes to lines nobody benchmarks. **Average independent sales:** [over $440,000 a year](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-do-pizza-shops-make) (PMQ 2022 data, via Toast) · **Median pre-tax income, limited service:** [4.0% of sales](https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/restaurant-economic-insights/analysis-commentary/new-association-report-helps-operators-gauge-their-restaurant-performance/) (NRA, 2024) · **Retail asking rent:** [$24.79 per sq. ft. a year](https://www.cbre.com/insights/figures/q2-2026-us-retail-figures) (CBRE, Q2 2026) · **Median wages, May 2025:** fast food cooks [$14.85](https://www.bls.gov/OOH/food-preparation-and-serving/cooks.htm), restaurant cooks [$17.98](https://www.bls.gov/OOH/food-preparation-and-serving/cooks.htm), counter workers [$15.00](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/food-and-beverage-serving-and-related-workers.htm) (BLS) · **Card fees:** [2.5–3.5% per transaction](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/what-is-a-merchant-fee) (Toast) ## Where the gap goes Most of it goes to costs that don't have a clean industry number. Boxes and paper are one. One Pizza Today columnist pricing a mobile pizzeria found his [soft goods ran 73 cents a pizza, on top of $1.11 in food for a 10-inch cheese](https://pizzatoday.com/news/launching-a-mobile-pizzeria-pricing-pizzas-part-11/149689/). Those are one operator's numbers, but packaging isn't a rounding error, and [your box may be about to cost more](/articles/pizza-box-duties-what-they-cost-you/). Delivery is another. DoorDash's marketplace takes [15%, 25% or 30% of each delivery order, depending on the plan, and 6% on pickup](https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/pricing). Its Drive service charges [$6.99 to $10.99 per delivery](https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/drive-on-demand) if you take the order yourself. Then add utilities, marketing, accounting, supplies and any loan payment. Energy Star says restaurants use [five to seven times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings](https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/resources-audience/small-biz/restaurants), but there's no current published dollar figure for a pizzeria's utility bill. Your own bills are the only benchmark. The lines you can benchmark leave plenty of room. The lines you can't are where the margin goes. ## Rent and wages are where the averages break At CBRE's national average asking rent of [$24.79 per square foot a year](https://www.cbre.com/insights/figures/q2-2026-us-retail-figures), a 1,500-square-foot space costs about $3,100 a month before taxes and common-area charges. On $36,700 in sales, that's about 8.5%, well over the 6% benchmark. In that space, an average-volume shop is already over. Run your numbers through the [occupancy and lease calculator](/pizzeria-playbook/occupancy-and-lease/) before you sign. Wages are moving the other way. The BLS put the median fast food cook at [$14.85 an hour and restaurant cooks at $17.98 in May 2025](https://www.bls.gov/OOH/food-preparation-and-serving/cooks.htm). The labor budget above buys about 560 to 680 hours a month at $15, before payroll taxes and before counting your own hours. In California the minimum wage rises to [$17.40 on Jan. 1](https://dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2026/2026-66.html), and Washington's goes to [$17.73](https://www.lni.wa.gov/news-events/article/26-17), so the same budget buys fewer hours. We worked through the break-even math by state in [where the labor line breaks](/articles/where-the-labor-line-breaks/). Pull your last three months of bills and fill in every line in this piece with your own average. Put food, labor and card fees against your sales as percentages, and everything else in dollars. Whatever is left after all of it, divided by sales, is your real margin. If it's under the 4% the NRA reports, start with the biggest line that's over its benchmark, not the smallest bill you can cancel. The limitation: the $440,000 average is from 2022, before two more years of food and wage increases, and the benchmarks above come from different surveys of different kinds of restaurants. Several of them, including Toast, Insureon and DoorDash, come from companies selling the service they're pricing. None of this is a pizzeria P&L. It's a starting point for checking your own. To see what that margin turns into in an owner's pocket, read [how much pizza shop owners actually make](/articles/how-much-pizza-shop-owners-make/). If you haven't opened yet, start with [what it costs to open a pizza shop](/articles/cost-to-open-a-pizza-shop/). ## Common questions ### What does it cost to run a pizza shop each month? For an average shop doing about $36,700 a month, food, labor, rent and the regular bills add up to about $21,600 to $27,500. The typical shop keeps only about $1,470. The rest disappears into things like boxes, delivery and utilities. ### How much of my sales should go to food, labor and rent? Out of every dollar of sales: food about 20 to 30 cents, labor about 23 to 28 cents, rent 6 cents or less, and all your space costs together under 10 cents. ## Sources cited - https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-do-pizza-shops-make - https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/restaurant-economic-insights/analysis-commentary/new-association-report-helps-operators-gauge-their-restaurant-performance/ - https://pizzatoday.com/news/2026-pizza-industry-trends-report/615558/ - https://info.bloomintelligence.com/hubfs/Miscellaneous%20Downloads/Restaurant%20Benchmarks.pdf - https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/what-is-a-merchant-fee - https://www.fsrmagazine.com/expert-takes/how-budget-restaurant-maintenance - https://www.insureon.com/food-business-insurance/restaurants/cost - https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/how-much-does-a-restaurant-pos-system-cost - https://www.dumpsters.com/restaurant-waste-management - https://cdn.bmi.com/forms/licensing/gl/ede.pdf - https://www.cbre.com/insights/figures/q2-2026-us-retail-figures - https://www.bls.gov/OOH/food-preparation-and-serving/cooks.htm - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/food-and-beverage-serving-and-related-workers.htm - https://pizzatoday.com/news/launching-a-mobile-pizzeria-pricing-pizzas-part-11/149689/ - https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/pricing - https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/products/drive-on-demand - https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/resources-audience/small-biz/restaurants - https://dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2026/2026-66.html - https://www.lni.wa.gov/news-events/article/26-17 --- Published by [Oven Scars](https://ovenscars.com/), news and ideas for pizzeria owners. 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