Restaurant Startup Cost Calculator

Opening a restaurant means paying for a long list of one-time costs before the first order ever ships, then keeping enough cash behind that to survive the slow weeks after launch. This calculator adds up both halves from your own budget — nothing here is a typical or average cost, because those vary too widely by city, cuisine and space to be honest as a default.

The formula, in the open

• One-time costs = fit-out + kitchen equipment + furniture + licensing and deposits + initial stock + pre-opening wages + pre-opening marketing, added exactly as entered.
• Working-capital buffer = your monthly fixed costs once open × however many months of runway you want to hold in reserve. This is your own choice, not a rule we apply.
• Total startup cost = one-time costs + the buffer.
• Implied runway = total startup cost ÷ monthly fixed costs — the same total expressed as a number of months, so you can sanity-check the buffer months you chose against the number the whole budget works out to.

A worked example

Fit-out ₹8,00,000, kitchen equipment ₹6,00,000, furniture ₹1,50,000, licensing and deposits ₹1,00,000, opening stock ₹50,000, pre-opening wages ₹1,20,000 and marketing ₹80,000 add up to ₹19,00,000 in one-time costs. With ₹3,00,000 of monthly fixed costs once open and a 3-month buffer, the working-capital buffer is ₹9,00,000, so the total startup cost is ₹28,00,000 — about 9.3 months of fixed costs (28,00,000 ÷ 3,00,000).

What moves the number

Fit-out and kitchen equipment are usually the two largest lines and the most negotiable — a shell space with existing ventilation and plumbing can cut fit-out sharply. The buffer is the lever most first-time owners set too low: it exists precisely for the months between opening and a steady, predictable covers count, and every month of it you skip is a month you're betting revenue arrives on schedule.

Try it

Enter your own budget below. The defaults are the worked example — replace them with yours.