How Many Fillets Will A Whole Fish Yield?
I recently visited a restaurant that specializes in seafood, and they do things a little differently. Their menu features whole fish from Greece and around the world, and you order it by the pound.
Once you choose your fish, the chef grills it over charcoal and prepares it to your liking—either served whole and de-boned or filleted before it reaches your plate.
Their recommendation is simple: “Plan on one pound of fish per person,” with the idea that a one-pound fish yields roughly a half-pound of cooked fillet. But as someone who cooks a lot of fish, that didn’t quite sit right with me.
From experience, I knew that not all fish yield the same amount of usable meat. Depending on the species and how they’re cleaned, some have heavier bones, thicker skin, or more waste.
That got me thinking: how much fillet are you really getting for your money? A whole trout, for example, gives you a much higher yield than a whole snapper.
So I created this calculator to help take the guesswork out. Just select the type of fish, enter the weight and price per pound, and it will show you the true cost per pound of fillet.
Fish Fillet Yields
Fish | Starting Form | Fillet Type | Approx. Yield % |
| Catfish | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 45–55% |
| Cod | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 45–50% |
| Fluke/Flounder | Whole fish | Skinless fillet | 30–40% |
| Grouper | Head-on, gutted | Skinless fillet | 40–45% |
| Halibut | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 48–52% |
| Mahi-Mahi | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 50–55% |
| Monkfish | Tail | Skinless fillet | 70–75% |
| Salmon | Head-on, gutted | Skin-on fillet | 68–72% |
| Sea Bass | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 35–40% |
| Skate | Wings | Skinless fillet | 35–40% |
| Snapper | Head-on, gutted | Skin-on fillet | 42–45% |
| Swordfish | Headless bullets | Center cut loins | 65–70% |
| Tilapia | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 35–40% |
| Trout | Whole fish | Skin-on fillet | 55–60% |
| Tuna | Headless bullets | Untrimmed loins | 60–65% |
| Wahoo | Headed and gutted | Skin-on fillet | 50–55% |
| Wild Striped Bass | Whole fish | Skin-on fillet | 35–40% |
Fish Fillet Cost Calculator
Select a Fish: Choose the type of fish from the dropdown list. Each option shows how the fish is processed and its typical fillet yield.
Enter the Weight: Type in the weight (in pounds) of the whole fish you’re buying.
Enter the Price per Pound: Input how much you’re paying per pound for the whole fish.
Click “Calculate”: The tool will show you how much usable fillet you can expect, the total cost of the fish, and the effective cost per pound of fillet.
This helps you compare real costs when buying whole fish versus fillets — and make smarter choices at the market!
Salmon – Great Yield
A salmon with its head on but gutted yields 68% – 72% skin-on fillet. If you purchase a whole salmon with the head on but gutted, the fillets cut off the body will be approximately 70% of the total weight. This means a 10-pound sockeye salmon should yield about 7 pounds of the edible fillet. That’s a lot of fish yield and a great buy.
Let’s say you pay $12 per pound for a whole salmon head-on and gutted. A 10-pound fish would cost you $120. To determine how much that would cost per pound of fillet, you would divide the $12/.75 = $17 per pound of fillet, which is the part of the fish you can eat.
This sounds good to me. That’s about what I pay for fresh salmon fillets at the market. But let’s compare this now to a fish that yields less than salmon… say, one of my favorites: fluke or flounder. Oh, salmon isn’t one of the fish you can order by the pound at the restaurant we dined at.
Fluke and Flounder – Not So Good Yield
A whole flounder only yields 30% – 40%of the skinless fillets. So, doing the math, a four-pound flounder will yield only 1.4 pounds of flounder fillet (4 lbs x .35 = 1.4 pounds). Not a very good ratio of the edible fillet to whole fish.
Right now, flounder is expensive because of the limits put on the fishermen last year. I’ve recently seen it at $25 per pound for a flounder fillet. How much would the 4-pound flounder cost me?
If you do a little reverse math, and you know the price per pound of flounder fillet is $25, and the yield is 35%, the cost of a whole flounder would be $25 x .35 = $8.75 per pound whole fish. So if the flounder weighs 4 pounds, it would cost $8.75 x 4 lbs = $35 for the whole fish. These would be retail prices. I am still determining what a fish store pays, but I need to find out.
Dover Sole – Really Gets Expensive
One of the fish varieties offered at the restaurant is Dover Sole. According to CloveGarden, a 2-pound fish yields approximately 1 pound of skin-on-filet (50%) or just 10 ounces of the skin-off fillet (about 30%). The lower yield is due to the amount of skin a Dover sole has and the weight of the skin. And remember, you don’t usually get served skin-on with this type of fish; if you did, you wouldn’t eat the skin.
If the restaurant charges $49 per pound of whole fish, you are actually paying $49/.30 = $163 per pound of actual fish served at your table.
The restaurant suggests you purchase 2 pounds of whole fish at $49 x 2lbs = $98 for two people. This will yield approximately 10 ounces of uncooked edible fish or 5 ounces per person. This seems like a small amount of fish for a lot of money, but you are getting served roasted vegetables, capers, and lemon & olive sauce on the side.
What Is a Serving of Fish?
According to the Minnesota Department of Health website, a typical serving of fish is “based on the body weight of the person eating the fish.”
I weigh around 200 pounds, and according to the Minnesota Department of Health, a serving for me would be about 10.5 ounces of uncooked fish. These 10.5 ounces of uncooked fish weigh approximately 8 ounces after being cooked. So, if you weigh just 110 pounds, a serving of fish would be around 6 ounces uncooked or 4.5 ounces cooked.
If my wife and I get one serving each based on our weight, we should look for about 16.5 ounces in a total of uncooked fillets, but we only get approximately 10 ounces. Therefore, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, for me to receive a serving of fish, I alone would need to order a 2-pound Dover sole.
Stop Complaining RG
I know. I really shouldn’t be complaining. First of all, my brother-in-law picked up the tab at this restaurant. Secondly, I’m out for dinner.
I know the food will be more expensive than cooking at home, especially at a nice restaurant where we enjoyed this meal. However, I’m still sticker-shocked at the idea of paying the equivalent of $163 per pound of processed fish. Is it just me?
What If I Purchase the Dover Sole at the Fish Market?
I looked up the price of a fresh Dover Sole fillet at the Seattle Fish Company, one of the more reputable seafood markets in Seattle. They are selling it online at $7.99 per pound. This seems low to me, and there’s no way I will find it at that price in my neighborhood. So, let’s TRIPLE the price to $23.97 per pound for boneless, skin-off, ready-to-cook fillets.
It still costs $139 per pound less than at the restaurant. O.K., I’m going to complain a little, and if I want Dover Sole, I’ll make it myself.
Estimated Mark Ups By Fish Type
Fish | Retail Markup | Restaurant Markup |
| Salmon | 70–120% | 200–300% |
| Snapper (whole) | 80–120% | 250–350% |
| Mahi-Mahi | 100–150% | 250–300% |
| Monkfish (tail) | 80–100% | 200–250% |
| Cod | 100–150% | 200–300% |
| Grouper | 100–150% | 250–350% |
| Halibut | 120–180% | 300–400% |
| Tuna (bullet) | 400–800%* | 900–1300%* |
| Swordfish | 120–150% | 250–350% |
| Fluke/Flounder | 100–150% | 250–350% |
| Skate (wings) | 80–100% | 200–300% |
| Striped Bass | 100–150% | 250–350% |
| Trout | 80–120% | 200–300% |
| Tilapia | 100–150% | 200–300% |
| Sea Bass | 100–150% | 250–400% |
| Wahoo | 100–150% | 250–350% |
| Catfish | 70–120% | 200–300% |
| Chilean Sea Bass | 100–150% (retail) | 250–400%+ |
Notes:
Retail Markup = (Retail – Wholesale) ÷ Wholesale × 100%
Restaurant Markup includes not just ingredient cost but also labor, prep, plating, and waste factor.
*Tuna markups are extreme due to very low wholesale cost of unprocessed bullets vs. high-end retail/sashimi pricing.
Other Fish Yields
Let’s look at other fish yields I’ve picked up on several websites. Although the yields may differ from site to site, I’ve found that most are in the same ballpark.
So you can use the math formulas above to determine the price per pound of fillet if you have the price per pound of whole fish and yield, or the price per pound of a whole fish if you have the price per pound of fillet and the yield. Now say that three times fast.
Also, remember that the actual yields any fish offers can vary depending on the overall size of the fish, the sex of the fish, what season you are in, and the fishmonger’s skills. Larger fish tend to offer better yields.
Lower Yielding Fish
Let’s start with the lower-yielding fish yielding 30% to 50%.
Tilapia
I was really interested in this fish because it is one of the more inexpensive fish on the market. A tilapia round (whole fish not gutted) will yield 35 – 40% to skin-off fillets. At $10 per pound of boneless, skin-off fillet, tilapia is a real economical fish despite its low yields.
Red Snapper
One of the universe’s most popular types of fish, a whole red snapper, yields 42% – 45% to skin-off fillets. If you start with head-on but gutted, the yield becomes about 38% to skin-off fillets.
Higher-Yielding Fish
Then some fish yield higher than 50%, and I consider them a better value, but not necessarily a better-eating fish.
Mahi Mahi
Another very popular fish, Mahi, that has been headed and gutted yields 50% – 55% to a skin-on fillet.
Chilean Sea Bass
One of my favorite fish in the sea for eating, but incredibly expensive and way overfished, a whole Chilean Sea Bass yields 50% – 55% skin-off fillets. However, if you start with a headed and gutted Chilean sea bass, the yields go higher, to an average of 70% for skin-off fillets.
Swordfish
A wonderfully high-yielding fish, a head-off and gutted swordfish yields a whopping 65% – 70% to skin-on and bloodline left in. This is how I usually see swordfish sold at the market, with the bloodline. However, that exact swordfish yield drops to 64% when processed to skin-off and bloodline removed.
9 Responses
This is great! I’m doing a series of three Tasting Michigan History events this spring and summer. The first one is the recreation of a 1908 banquet in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The other two are 1937 and 1959. I was literally looking for fish amounts per person to go to the market and came across your blog. Thank you So Much! Great info. I love your style. I’ll be back. Ellie
what they call “dover sole” in the west coast isnt the dover sole (scientific name: solea solea) from europe
Having just returned from Salmon fishing I weighed my 2 fillets off my male silver. Each fillet weighed a little over a pound … I estimated the live wt of the salmon to be 7-8 lbs. Gutting the fish would lose no more than 1 lb and gilling it is another 1/2 lb. My 2 lbs of fillet was way less than the 75% estimate for a 5 to 5.5 lb fish. My experience says a 10 lb whole salmon might yield 4 lbs of fillets
I have a commercial fin fish license.
I get: Black Drum $1-$2 per pound whole, Flounder – $4.50 per pound whole
We get 50% skinless filet for our flounders. Good article
Great.
my experience with salmon head on gutted you get 75 percent useable meat. you get more meat depending how yu cut the fish.
Thank you James.
Great article and insightful commentary. Thanks for sharing!
I have the data to be very much useful. I am interested in forming a Fishing company in Tanzania to fish in Indian ocean. Thus, these types of data is helpful.