Portion cups are the cheapest line on a packaging order and the most common cause of a refunded delivery ticket. A 2 oz cup of ranch costs about a penny with its lid. When that penny leaks into the bottom of a delivery bag, it takes a $60 wing order and a customer rating down with it. This guide covers the size-by-use map, PP vs PET, why lid pairing is the whole game, and what sauce cups actually cost per ticket on a sauce-heavy menu.
Size by use: 1 oz to 5.5 oz
Portion cups (also listed as souffle cups) run a standard size ladder. Each size has a job, and the fill rule is the same across all of them: fill to the shoulder, not the rim. Sauce that touches the lid finds its way past the seal.
| Size | Typical use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | Ketchup, hot sauce, salsa side, sample pours, salad dressing samples | Smallest common size; many operators skip it (see below) |
| 2 oz | Ranch, blue cheese, honey mustard, BBQ, ketchup for a full order | The delivery workhorse; holds 1.5 to 1.75 oz at proper fill |
| 3.25 oz | Queso, guacamole, tzatziki, dessert sauces, upsold “large” sauce | The upgrade tier for charged sauces |
| 4 oz | Salsa for a chip order, coleslaw, potato salad side, fruit cup | The small side size |
| 5.5 oz | Full side portions: mac and cheese, beans, rice, slaw for a platter | The largest standard portion cup before you move to a deli container |
On 1 oz: it exists across the market, but a large share of operations consolidate down to 2 oz as their smallest cup. The per-unit savings on 1 oz is a fraction of a cent, a 2 oz cup at half fill does the same job, and every size you drop removes a cup SKU and a lid-matching decision at the station. Our stocked line starts at 2 oz for exactly this reason. If your menu genuinely needs a 1 oz (high-volume sampling, condiment cost control at scale), we can quote it as a special order.
Above 5.5 oz you are out of portion-cup territory. An 8 oz side belongs in a deli container: the 8 oz PP deli combo with lid runs about 7 cents per set at case pricing, and the format holds up to a fork. See the Shop the catalog PP Deli Containers 4 SKUs · from $16.56 – $30.63 per case
Portion Cups: current case pricing
All 5 SKUs →| Product | Pack | Case | Per unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 oz Portion Cup — Black — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $16.75 | $0.007 | Volume quote → |
| 2 oz Portion Cup — Clear — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $16.75 | $0.007 | Volume quote → |
| 3.25 oz Portion Cup — Clear — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $23.88 | $0.010 | Volume quote → |
| 4 oz Portion Cup — Clear — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $28.50 | $0.011 | Volume quote → |
Public case pricing, freight quoted separately. Volume and contract pricing on request.
PP vs PET portion cups
Portion cups come in polypropylene (PP), PET, and legacy polystyrene (PS). The practical decision is PP vs PET.
| Property | PP | PET |
|---|---|---|
| Clarity | Hazy to clear (good, not glass-clear) | Glass-clear |
| Flex behavior | Flexes and recovers, resists cracking | Rigid; can crack or split under crush |
| Hot fill (gravy, queso, marinara) | Yes | No; deforms with hot contents |
| Cold display look | Acceptable | Best in class |
| Freezer | Serviceable (the freezer resin of the two) | Turns brittle, can crack |
| Cost | Baseline | Higher |
| Best fit | Delivery, takeout, hot and cold sauces | Cold grab-and-go display, parfaits, dessert cups |
For a delivery and takeout operation, PP wins on every axis that matters: it takes a hot sauce without deforming, it survives being pressed into a crowded bag, and it costs less. PET earns its premium only when the cup itself is on display in a cold case and clarity sells the product. This is the same clarity-vs-duty logic that drives cold cup selection; the hot vs cold cup guide walks through it for drinkware.
Our stocked portion cups are all PP, in clear across every size plus a black option at 2 oz. Black is worth a look for sauce programs: it hides staining from marinara and buffalo sauce, reads more premium in the bag, and at case pricing it costs the same as clear.
Lid fit: why mismatched brands leak
Here is what most first-time buyers get wrong: “2 oz lid” is not a standard, it is a nominal size. The actual seal depends on rim diameter, rim curl, and lid skirt geometry, all tooled per manufacturer. A lid from one brand will often sit on another brand’s cup, pass a glance test at the packing station, and then let go the first time a driver tips the bag.
The failure mode is quiet. Nobody tests a sauce cup seal before it goes in the bag; the first person to discover the mismatch is the customer. If you buy cups from one supplier and lids from another because each was a few cents cheaper per case, you have not saved money. You have bought a refund generator.
Two rules:
- Buy cups and lids from the same line, from the same supplier. Matched tooling is the entire product.
- Re-verify fit on the first case whenever either SKU changes. A substitution on either side of the pairing, even “equivalent” per the spec sheet, is a new fit that needs a shake test: snap the lid, hold the cup upside down, shake it twice.
Our lid lineup makes the pairing hard to get wrong: two lid SKUs cover all five cups. The 2 oz cups take their own lid, and a single common lid fits the 3.25, 4, and 5.5 oz cups because those three share one rim diameter. One packing station, two lid stacks, no chart on the wall.
Portion Cup Lids: current case pricing
All 2 SKUs →| Product | Pack | Case | Per unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portion Cup Lid — 2oz — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $13.06 | $0.005 | Volume quote → |
| Portion Cup Lid — 3.25/4/5.5oz — 2500ct | 25/100pk | $18.88 | $0.008 | Volume quote → |
Public case pricing, freight quoted separately. Volume and contract pricing on request.
The delivery sauce-spill problem
Third-party delivery raised the stakes on sauce cups. In the dining room, a leaky cup is a napkin. In a DoorDash or Uber Eats bag, it is a partial refund, a one-star rating that the platform averages into your storefront, and a support ticket. The container order matters here too (a leaking entree is the same failure at larger scale; the hinged clamshell guide covers seal behavior at container size), but sauce cups fail more often because there are more of them per bag and they get packed last, on top, sideways.
The fixes are procedural, not product upgrades:
- Fill to the shoulder. Overfilling is the number one leak cause. If the portion looks small in a 2 oz cup, sell a 3.25 oz portion instead of overfilling the 2 oz.
- Seal the full perimeter. Train the press as a rim trace, not a center push. The center clicks first and lies about it.
- Pack upright, pack last, pack tight. Cups riding on top of a hot clamshell get steam-softened seals and tip during the drive. A corner of the bag, upright, wedged by the napkin bundle, survives.
- Bag sauces with the cutlery, not the food. If you run kits, the sauce cup rides in the same pocket as the wrapped cutlery or kit, away from heat.
Cost per ticket: the wing math
Sauce cups feel free until you multiply. At current case pricing, here is the real per-unit cost of a sealed sauce, using case price divided by the 2,500-count pack:
| Pairing | Cup | Lid | Sealed cost each |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 oz cup + 2 oz lid | $0.0067 | $0.0052 | about 1.2 cents |
| 3.25 oz cup + common lid | $0.0096 | $0.0076 | about 1.7 cents |
| 4 oz cup + common lid | $0.0114 | $0.0076 | about 1.9 cents |
| 5.5 oz cup + common lid | $0.0127 | $0.0076 | about 2.0 cents |
Now run a wings-and-tenders menu at 250 delivery tickets a day, averaging two sauces per ticket (one included ranch, one wet sauce on the side). That is 500 sealed 2 oz cups a day, about $5.95 in packaging, roughly $2,170 a year. Meaningful, but the decision it should drive is not “find a cheaper cup.” At around a penny per unit, a cheaper unmatched cup that leaks once per hundred bags costs more in refunds than the entire cup budget.
The decision it should drive is pricing. If extra sauce is a free request, every “add 3 ranch” ticket triples your cup count for zero revenue. Charge 50 to 75 cents for extra sauce and the packaging cost per sauce is covered roughly 40 times over; the sauce itself, not the cup, becomes the only real cost. Sauce-heavy menus that meter free sauces (one per 6 wings is a common rule) and charge past that are making a packaging decision and a margin decision at the same time.
Ordering notes
- Order cups and lids in matched case ratios. One lid case per cup case keeps the stacks even; the count is 2,500 on both sides of the pairing. Lids do not run out silently on a different schedule than cups.
- Two lid SKUs, five cup SKUs. Remember the split: the 2 oz lid only fits the 2 oz cups; the common lid covers 3.25 through 5.5 oz. Label the shelf accordingly.
- Sleeves are your par unit. Cases break into 25 sleeves of 100. Count sleeves, not cases, when setting station pars: a wing operation might stage 5 sleeves of 2 oz per shift.
- Storage is trivial. A case of 2,500 nested cups is roughly the cube of one clamshell case. When in doubt, add a case.
Portion cups are a solved problem when the pairing is right: pick 2 oz as your workhorse, add 3.25 or 4 oz if you charge for premium sauces, stay in PP for anything leaving the building, and never split cup and lid purchases across brands. Everything after that is fill discipline at the station.