Steak Cook Time Calculator — How Long to Grill a Steak

Background.

Every steak-timing chart on the internet disagrees with every other one, and most of them do not say where their numbers came from. This page does exactly one thing: it reads you the cell you need out of a single published table — the Beef Checkoff's grilling guidelines, the chart printed in Confident Cooking with Beef — and tells you what temperature to pull at and how long to rest. All 45 steak rows that chart publishes are here, both of its grill columns, and both ends of its range. Nothing is averaged with another source, nothing is interpolated to a thickness it does not cover, and nothing is invented.

The chart's column heading is worth reading carefully, because it is the whole design of this page: "Approximate Total Cooking Time for Medium Rare (145°F) to Medium (160°F)". Every cell is a range, the low end is medium rare and the high end is medium. So a 1-inch boneless ribeye printed as "10 to 14" on charcoal means 10 minutes to medium rare and 14 to medium — total, not per side. The doneness dropdown here simply picks which end of that range you get, and the temperature it names is the chart's own definition, not a house style.

The grill matters more than most charts admit. Charcoal and gas are published as two separate columns and they genuinely differ: a 1-inch porterhouse is 11 minutes over charcoal and 15 on gas, while a ¾-inch bone-in ribeye is 9 minutes either way. The charcoal figures assume coals that are medium and ash-covered — roughly 30 minutes after lighting, or about four seconds on the hand-over-the-grate test — and the gas figures, the chart says in a footnote, were developed on Weber Genesis grills. A screaming-hot grill or a cold one invalidates every number on this page, which is why the method is an input rather than an assumption.

Five rows carry footnotes, and they are the interesting ones. The chart marks its thick cuts — the 1½-inch ribeyes, porterhouse, tenderloin and top sirloin — with an instruction to take the steak off early and let carry-over heat finish it: pull at 140°F for medium rare on the ** rows, 135°F on the single * row, and let it stand five minutes. That is a real, measured instruction from the source, and it is the difference between a thick steak that lands where you wanted it and one that sails past. Every other row publishes no early-pull figure at all, and this page says so in those words rather than quietly printing a zero and letting you assume carry-over does not happen. It does; the chart simply has not measured it for thin cuts.

Two scope limits belong up here rather than in an accordion. First: a time is an estimate and doneness is a temperature. The number at the top of this page tells you when to start checking with a thermometer, not when to serve. Second: the safe minimum internal temperature for a whole-muscle beef steak is 145°F, held by a rest before carving, which is also exactly where the chart's medium-rare column sits. That is why there is no rare setting in the dropdown — offering one would mean publishing a time for a temperature below that guidance. Anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised should treat 145°F as a floor rather than a preference.

The chart also carries two pieces of prose advice that this page repeats with the answer instead of burying: Round cuts — top round, bottom round, eye of round, sirloin tip — should be cooked to medium rare only, and several cuts are marked for marinating first. Both appear in the summary sentence for the rows they apply to. Reverse-sear, sous vide, cast-iron and oven finishing are all out of scope here, because this chart does not cover them and nothing else on this page is guessed.

What is steak cook time calculator?

A steak cook time calculator turns a cut, a thickness, a grill and a target doneness into a grilling time and a set of temperatures. It exists because the two variables that dominate the answer — thickness and heat source — are the two that most published advice leaves out, and because "minutes per side" is meaningless without knowing how thick the steak is.

This page is a lookup, not a model. Every minute figure it returns is a cell transcribed from the Beef Checkoff Program's grilling guidelines chart (Confident Cooking with Beef, pp. 28–29), which publishes an approximate total cooking time for each cut and thickness in two columns, charcoal and gas, as a range running from medium rare at 145°F to medium at 160°F. The pull temperatures come from the chart's own footnotes, the rest times from its footnotes and from general food-safety guidance, and the 145°F safe minimum is attached to every result. Where the chart is silent — an unpublished thickness, a doneness below 145°F, a cooking method it does not cover — this page returns an error rather than an extrapolation.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Pick the cut and thickness. Measure the steak rather than trusting the label; the difference between ¾ inch and 1½ inch is more than double the time.
2. 02Choose charcoal or gas. These are separate columns in the source and can differ by four minutes on the same steak.
3. 03Choose medium rare (145°F) or medium (160°F). This selects which end of the chart's printed range you get.
4. 04Start the clock when the steak goes on, and read the total time — it is total, not per side. Turn once at the halfway mark.
5. 05If a pull temperature below the target is shown, take the steak off there and let carry-over heat finish it. That happens on the 1½-inch rows.
6. 06Rest for at least the number of minutes shown before carving.
7. 07Check the centre with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part, away from bone and fat, before you serve. Colour is not a reliable indicator of anything.

The formula.

There is no equation here in the usual sense — the arithmetic is deliberately trivial, because the value of the page is in the transcription being right rather than in a model being clever. Three lookups and two subtractions produce every output.

The first lookup is the cell. The chart is organised by primal — Chuck, Rib, Loin, Sirloin, Round, Plate & Flank — then by cut, then by thickness, and each row prints two ranges, one for charcoal and one for gas. Take a 1½-inch bone-in ribeye on a gas grill: the cell reads 20 to 25. The second lookup is which end of the range you want. The chart's column heading defines the range as running from medium rare at 145°F to medium at 160°F, so medium rare is the 20 and medium is the 25. That gives a total grilling time of 20 minutes, and dividing by two gives roughly 10 minutes a side on the chart's assumption that you turn the steak once.

The third lookup is the footnote. That ribeye row carries the chart's ** mark, whose footnote reads: remove from the grill when the internal temperature reaches 140°F for medium rare or 155°F for medium, and let stand five minutes. So the pull temperature is 140°F, the carry-over rise is 145 − 140 = 5°F, and the rest is 5 minutes. Only five rows in the whole chart carry a footnote — the four 1½-inch ** rows and the single 1½-inch top sirloin * row, which pulls 10°F early instead of 5. Every other row publishes no early-pull temperature at all, and this page reports that honestly: the pull temperature equals the target and the carry-over rise shows as zero, with the summary sentence saying in words that the chart is silent for that thickness. A thin steak does carry over; nobody has published a number for it here, and a made-up number would be worse than an acknowledged gap.

Contrast that with an unfootnoted row. A 1-inch boneless strip steak on charcoal reads 11 to 14, so medium is 14 minutes, 7 a side, cooked to 160°F with no early pull and a 3-minute minimum rest. Same page, same logic, different published detail.

Why the method is not cosmetic: the same 1-inch porterhouse is 11 minutes over charcoal and 15 on gas — a 36% difference — while a ¾-inch bone-in ribeye is 9 minutes on either. The chart makes no attempt to explain that, and neither will this page; it reports both columns as published rather than averaging them into a single number that would be wrong for both.

Rounding: nothing is rounded, because nothing needs to be. Total minutes, target, pull and rest temperatures are integers lifted straight from the source. The only two computed values are minutes per side, which is an exact half and therefore shows a .5 on odd cells, and the carry-over rise, which is a subtraction of two integers. Both are carried in exact decimal arithmetic and rounded once at the boundary, so no intermediate rounding exists to go wrong.

One recorded conflict, resolved in the open rather than silently. Three authorities give three different rest times: USDA says at least 3 minutes, Clemson Extension's beef factsheet says 4, and this chart's footnoted rows say 5. This page reports 3 on unfootnoted rows and the chart's own 5 on footnoted rows, and says beside the result that 3 is a floor rather than a target. Resting longer is never the unsafe direction, so the shortest published figure is the honest one to publish as a minimum.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]Beef Checkoff Program (Cattlemen's Beef Board / National Cattlemen's Beef Association). "Confident Cooking with Beef — GRILLING GUIDELINES," pp. 28–29. The source of every minute figure on this page: the CHARCOAL GRILLING and GAS GRILLING columns of "Approximate Total Cooking Time for Medium Rare (145°F) to Medium (160°F) … minutes", the * footnote (remove at 135°F medium rare / 150°F medium, let stand 5 minutes), the ** footnote (140°F / 155°F, let stand 5 minutes), the note "Recommend cooking Round cuts to medium rare (145°F) doneness only," and the note "Chart guidelines were developed using Weber Genesis gas grills." Retrieved 2026-07-30; the PDF carries no printed revision date.
2. [2]Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center, factsheet "Safe Handling of Beef" — the independent check on this page's doneness mapping: "Steaks and roasts should be cooked to 145 °F (medium rare) followed by a 4 minute rest, 160 °F (medium), or 170 °F (well-done)." Its broiling and grilling guidance puts a ¾-inch steak at 4 to 5 minutes per side, i.e. 8 to 10 minutes total, which agrees with the Beef Checkoff's 7-to-11-minute ¾-inch rows. Retrieved 2026-07-30.
3. [3]Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center, factsheet "Food Safety for Outdoor Cookouts" — the source of the charcoal-readiness and marinade guidance repeated on this page: "Let charcoal get red-hot with gray ash for about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the quantity"; marinade reused from raw meat "must first bring it to a rolling boil for at least one minute"; "Cook beef, lamb, pork and veal steaks, roasts and chops to 145 °F for medium-rare with a 4-minute rest before carving or eating, or 160 °F for medium." Retrieved 2026-07-30.
4. [4]Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center, factsheet "Cooking Meat Safely" — thermometer placement and why colour is not a doneness test: the thermometer "should be placed in the thickest part of the food away from bone, fat or gristle," and "color and texture changes are not reliable indicators that all bacteria have been destroyed." Lists 145 °F for all cuts of beef, lamb, pork and veal. Retrieved 2026-07-30.
5. [5]Canada Beef, "Grilling Steak Know How" — a second national beef authority, independent of the US Beef Checkoff and operating under Health Canada's guidance, confirming the same medium-rare figure: "COOK to medium-rare 145°F (63°C) at the least," alongside the instruction to use "a digital rapid-read thermometer to know when they're done." Their per-thickness minute chart is published as a graphic and was not transcribable, so this reference corroborates the temperature rather than the times. Retrieved 2026-07-30.