How Long to Cold Ferment Pizza Dough (24, 48 and 72 Hours)

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 9, 2026

Most home recipes cold ferment pizza dough for 1 to 3 days. Ooni's New York-style dough gives a fridge window of 16 to 52 hours, and King Arthur says its New York dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. The length itself is flexible, as long as the yeast matches it: a 72 hour dough needs about 25% less yeast than a 48 hour one in our model. The DoughPlan planner handles 1 to 4 days and sets the yeast for the time you choose.

What a cold ferment schedule looks like

In the planner, "Cold, in the fridge" has five stages. Here is the schedule for 4 pizzas to eat on Saturday at 20:00 with 2 days in the fridge:

The 3 hours out of the fridge match Ooni's New York recipe, which takes the balls out 3 hours before cooking. King Arthur's New York recipe asks for at least 1 hour while the oven preheats.

How much yeast for 24, 48 and 72 hours

From the DoughPlan model, with 2 hours at 21 °C before the fridge and 3 hours at 21 °C after:

Notice that doubling the fridge time from 24 to 48 hours lowers the yeast by less than a third, not by half. At 4 °C the yeast is slow, so the hours at room temperature still do much of the work. In the 48 hour schedule above, the model counts only about 43% of the fermentation as happening in the fridge. More detail in how much yeast for pizza dough.

Your fridge is probably not at 4 °C

This is the biggest source of error in cold fermentation. The FDA advises keeping a fridge at 40 °F (4.4 °C) or below and checking it with an appliance thermometer, because "few refrigerator controls show actual temperatures". A fridge that runs warm ferments faster, and the temperature can differ from shelf to shelf, so measure where the dough will sit.

For the same 48 hour schedule, the model gives:

The difference between 2 °C and 8 °C is almost a factor of two. Put a thermometer where the dough will sit, leave it for a few hours, and enter that reading in the planner's "Fridge temperature" field.

Can you cold ferment pizza dough too long?

Yes, if the yeast was set for a shorter time. Yeast keeps working in the fridge, only slowly. A dough made with 24 hour yeast and left for 72 hours will be further along than you planned when it comes out. If you already made the dough and your plans change, you have two options:

• Shorten the room temperature time at the end. If the balls look puffy and soft when you take them out, bake sooner than 3 hours.
• Use the dough earlier if you can, rather than later.

If you know in advance that you want a longer ferment, choose the number of days in the planner before mixing so the yeast is right from the start. The planner stops at 4 days. If you would rather keep dough for longer, see how to freeze pizza dough. Our model is fitted to data up to about 167 hours in total, and we have not found published home recipes that go further than a few days, so we keep the range conservative.

Why the dough does not cool instantly

A ball of dough takes some hours to cool from room temperature to fridge temperature. During that time it ferments faster than the model assumes, because the model treats it as being at fridge temperature from the start. The author of the yeast table the model is fitted to notes that predictions are less reliable in the cold for this reason. Two practical consequences:

• Put the balls in individual containers or spaced out in a box, not in one big mass, so they cool faster.
• If your dough is consistently ahead of schedule, lower the yeast slightly next time or enter a slightly higher fridge temperature.

Cold ferment step by step

1. Open the planner, choose "Cold, in the fridge", the number of days and your measured fridge temperature.
2. Mix at the time the schedule gives. Weigh the yeast carefully; the amounts are small.
3. Leave the dough covered at room temperature for the 2 hour bulk fermentation.
4. Divide it into balls of the weight shown and put them in lightly oiled, covered containers.
5. Refrigerate on the shelf where you measured the temperature.
6. Take them out 3 hours before you eat, still covered.
7. Switch the oven on 1 hour before you eat. Shape, top and bake.

Want a full worked example? See the 48 hour pizza dough recipe. For dough that rose too little or too much, see pizza dough problems.

Sources

• Ooni, New York-style pizza dough (16 to 52 hours in the fridge, out 3 hours before cooking): https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/new-york-style-pizza-dough
• King Arthur Baking, New York-style pizza (up to 3 days refrigerated): https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/new-york-style-pizza-recipe
• FDA, Refrigerator Thermometers: Cold Facts about Food Safety: https://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm253954.htm
• Craig Lomen (TXCraig1), yeast quantity prediction model, pizzamaking.com: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=26831.0
• DoughPlan method and accuracy: /method/