DoughPlanHow Much Yeast for Pizza Dough (by Hours and Temperature)
By Josep Mampel Marques, updated
It depends on how long the dough ferments and how warm it is. For a same-day dough of 8 hours at 21 °C, our model gives about 0.10% instant dry yeast on the flour weight, or 0.51 g for 500 g of flour. For a 2 day cold ferment in a fridge at 4 °C, it gives about 0.09%, or 0.45 g for 500 g. Longer and warmer fermentations need less; shorter and cooler ones need more.
The DoughPlan planner does this calculation for your exact times and temperatures. The tables below show typical cases.
Yeast by fermentation time
All figures come from the DoughPlan yeast model (see the method page), as a percentage of flour weight and in grams for 500 g of flour. The cold schedules are the planner's default: 2 hours at 21 °C, the fridge at 4 °C, then 3 hours at 21 °C before baking.
| Schedule | Instant dry | Instant, 500 g flour | Active dry, 500 g | Fresh, 500 g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 h at 21 °C | 0.268% | 1.34 g | 1.76 g | 4.19 g |
| 6 h at 21 °C | 0.153% | 0.76 g | 1.00 g | 2.38 g |
| 8 h at 21 °C | 0.102% | 0.51 g | 0.67 g | 1.60 g |
| 12 h at 21 °C | 0.058% | 0.29 g | 0.38 g | 0.91 g |
| 24 h at 21 °C | 0.022% | 0.11 g | 0.15 g | 0.35 g |
| 1 day in the fridge | 0.125% | 0.63 g | 0.82 g | 1.96 g |
| 2 days in the fridge | 0.089% | 0.45 g | 0.58 g | 1.39 g |
| 3 days in the fridge | 0.068% | 0.34 g | 0.44 g | 1.06 g |
| 4 days in the fridge | 0.054% | 0.27 g | 0.35 g | 0.84 g |
For 1 kg of flour, double the gram figures. For any other amount, multiply the flour weight by the percentage: 750 g of flour at 0.089% is 750 × 0.00089 = 0.67 g.
Two things in this table are worth noticing. First, the 4 hour figure is the least precise one: under 5 hours our formula is about 18% off the source table on average, against 3 to 6% for longer fermentations. Second, a day in the fridge needs more yeast than 12 hours on the counter, because yeast works very slowly at 4 °C.
Temperature changes everything
Yeast activity rises steeply with temperature. The same 8 hour same-day dough needs very different amounts depending on how warm your kitchen is:
| 8 hours at | Instant dry | Grams for 500 g flour |
|---|---|---|
| 18 °C | 0.179% | 0.89 g |
| 20 °C | 0.123% | 0.61 g |
| 22 °C | 0.085% | 0.43 g |
| 24 °C | 0.060% | 0.30 g |
| 26 °C | 0.043% | 0.21 g |
Between 18 and 26 °C the yeast changes by a factor of four. This is why one fixed "pinch of yeast" works in winter and overproofs in summer. What counts is the temperature of the dough, which depends on your water as well as your room. A cheap probe thermometer tells you more than a recipe can.
How to measure tiny amounts of yeast
Amounts under 1 g are hard to weigh on a kitchen scale that reads to the gram. Three options:
- Use a scale that reads to 0.01 g. These are small and inexpensive, and they make long fermentations much more predictable.
- Make more dough. Doubling the batch doubles the yeast, which may lift it into a range your scale can handle. Dough balls freeze well for later.
- Dilute it in water. Weigh 1 g of yeast into 100 g of the recipe water and stir until dissolved. Each 10 g of that water now carries 0.1 g of yeast. Take what you need and count that water as part of the recipe water. This is simple arithmetic, so it works with any yeast type.
Avoid teaspoons for small amounts. Red Star Yeast equates one 7 g packet of dry yeast with 2 1/4 teaspoons, about 3.1 g per teaspoon, so 0.45 g is roughly a seventh of a teaspoon. No measuring spoon does that reliably.
How our numbers compare with published recipes
- Ooni's New York-style dough uses 1.25 g of instant yeast for 872 g of flour (0.14%), about 4 hours at room temperature, then 16 to 52 hours in the fridge and 3 hours out before baking. For that schedule with 16 hours in the fridge, our model gives 0.098%; with 52 hours, 0.064%. Same order of magnitude, with Ooni on the generous side.
- King Arthur's Neapolitan-style crust uses 1/8 teaspoon of instant or active dry yeast for 232 g of flour and 12 to 24 hours at room temperature. With Red Star's 3.1 g per teaspoon, that is roughly 0.39 g, or 0.17%. Our model gives 0.022% to 0.058% at 21 °C, so King Arthur uses several times more. They also say the dough "probably won't double in size".
- The AVPN regulations for Neapolitan pizza use less yeast than our model, not more. The Neapolitan yeast guide explains why.
Published recipes differ because they define "ready" differently and are written for different kitchens. Use any of them as a starting point, then adjust after your first bake.
Instant, active dry or fresh?
Any of them works. What changes is the amount. DoughPlan uses the ratios of the yeast table its model is fitted to: active dry is 1.3125 times the instant amount and fresh yeast is 3.125 times. AVPN uses 1 g of dry yeast for 3 g of fresh, and Ooni's classic dough lists 2.7 g instant, 3.5 g active dry or 8.5 g fresh. Choose your yeast in the planner and it converts for you. The sources disagree by up to 50% on active dry, as instant vs active dry vs fresh yeast shows.
Next steps
- Get exact grams for your schedule: open the planner.
- Planning a fridge dough? Read how long to cold ferment pizza dough.
- Dough came out flat or too puffy? See pizza dough problems.
Sources
- DoughPlan method and accuracy: /method/
- Craig Lomen (TXCraig1), yeast quantity prediction model, pizzamaking.com: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=26831.0
- Ooni, New York-style pizza dough: https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/new-york-style-pizza-dough
- Ooni, classic pizza dough: https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/classic-pizza-dough
- King Arthur Baking, Neapolitan-style pizza crust: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/neapolitan-style-pizza-crust-recipe
- AVPN, International Regulations (English): https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/public/pdf/disciplinare%202008%20UK.pdf
- Red Star Yeast, yeast conversion chart: https://redstaryeast.com/yeast-conversion-chart/