Home & Life · Free tool
Compost Ratio Calculator
Green:brown ratio for a healthy pile. Pile health tier, what to add, do-not-add list.
Updated April 2026
Current ratio (green:brown)
1:2.0
Target: 1:3 by volume (≈30:1 C:N by mass)
Pile health
balanced
Ratio is within the healthy 1:2 to 1:4 range. Turn weekly and keep moisture like a wrung-out sponge.
Green (nitrogen)
- Grass clippings (fresh)
- Fruit & vegetable scraps
- Coffee grounds & filters
- Tea bags
- Eggshells (crushed)
- Fresh garden trimmings
- Manure (herbivore only)
- Seaweed
Brown (carbon)
- Dry fall leaves
- Shredded cardboard
- Straw & hay
- Sawdust (untreated)
- Pine needles
- Wood chips
- Shredded newspaper
- Dryer lint (natural fibers)
Do not add
- Meat, fish, bones
- Dairy products
- Oils & fats
- Diseased plants
- Pet waste (dog/cat)
- Treated wood or sawdust
- Coal/charcoal ash
- Weeds with mature seeds
How it works: Compost microbes need a carbon-to-nitrogen balance around 30:1 by mass, which translates to roughly 1:3 greens-to-browns by volume since browns are bulkier. Too much green → slimy, ammonia smell. Too much brown → pile won’t heat up.
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What it does
Pile too wet and smelly? Too dry and inactive? Target 1:3 green:brown. This shows your current balance and what to add.
Runs entirely in your browser — no upload, no account, no watermark. For more tools in this category see the full tools index.
Embed this tool on your siteShow snippetHide
Paste this snippet into any page. Loads on-demand (lazy), no tracking scripts, and sized to most dashboards. Replace the height to fit your layout.
<iframe src="https://freetoolarena.com/embed/compost-ratio-calculator" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" title="Compost Ratio Calculator" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px;max-width:720px;"></iframe>How to use it
- Enter green + brown volumes.
- Read ratio + health tier.
- Adjust to balance.
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