Free tool · no account
Scale any recipe to your crowd — and get the shopping list.
Paste a recipe (or just name one). Tell us how many people. You get the recipe sized for your party, a shopping list in real store units, and buttons to buy it all — free, nothing to sign up for.
Why you can’t just multiply a recipe
The obvious way to scale a recipe — multiply every ingredient by the number of guests — is how you end up with 22 cups of flour. A cookie recipe that serves “10” doesn’t need 10× the dough for 10 people: it already makes 24 cookies, which covers 10 guests at 2–3 each. Real scaling starts from what the recipe yields and what one person actually eats at a party.
That’s the math this tool does. It reads the recipe’s own yield, applies party portions (a side dish stretches further on a buffet; desserts run about 1½ pieces a head), and scales from there.
The recipe is in cups. The store sells cartons.
Scaling the ingredients is half the job. The other half is the store: a recipe calls for 1½ cups of cream, and no shelf sells that. The scaler keeps cooking measures in the recipe steps and writes the shopping list in retail units — a 16 oz carton, a 24 oz jar, 3 lb of ziti — sized to cover what the scaled recipe needs. Every item gets store buttons, so the list you’re holding is also the list you can order.
How it works
- Paste the recipe — the whole thing, ingredients and all. Or just name it (“Giada’s carbonara”, “NYT fish tacos”) and we’ll reconstruct it. Several recipes at once is fine — each is scaled and the shopping lists merge.
- Tell us the headcount — 6 or 60.
- Cook from the result — scaled ingredients, the steps, a checkable shopping list in store units, and where to buy each item. Print it, share it, or build a prep schedule from it.
What it won’t do
It won’t silently rewrite your recipe. What you paste is treated as yours — the scaler changes quantities, never the dish. If a dietary note conflicts with your recipe, it warns you and lets you decide; it never edits your food behind your back.
Scaling a whole party, not just one dish?
The scaler is one door into Dinner Caddy. If you’re planning the full spread, the party planner builds a complete menu around your headcount and occasion, folds in your own recipes, and handles the potluck signup board — same shopping list and prep schedule underneath.
Quick answers
How do I scale a recipe for a crowd?
Do not just multiply by the guest count. Work from what the recipe yields and what one person actually eats at a party: a cookie recipe that makes 24 covers about 10 guests at 2–3 cookies each, so 20 guests needs roughly two batches, never ten. Dinner Caddy’s recipe scaler does this yield-based math automatically.
Is the recipe scaler free?
Yes. Free, no account, no trial. Paste a recipe, enter your headcount, and you get the scaled recipe plus a shopping list.
Can I scale more than one recipe at a time?
Yes. Paste several recipes in one go and each comes back scaled, with one combined shopping list that merges shared staples.
What is the difference between recipe measures and a shopping list?
A recipe says 1 cup of cream; a store sells a 16 oz carton. The scaler keeps cooking measures in the recipe steps and converts the shopping list to retail units — cartons, jars, pounds — sized to cover what the recipe needs.
Do I need to type the recipe in?
No. Paste the whole thing, or just name it — like a well-known cookbook or site recipe — and it will be reconstructed and scaled.
Scale a recipe now
Paste it, name your headcount, done. Free — and no account, not at the start, not at the end.
Scale my recipe →