Knowing the right temperature to bake pizza is the difference between a crispy, delicious crust and one that’s charred to bits. I’ll tell you what you need to know ahead!
What temperature do you bake pizza? You should bake pizza at 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If your oven doesn’t reach 500 degrees, then set the temperature to 475. You can even bake pizza at 350 degrees, but it will take longer.
If you’re looking for more information about pizza baking temperatures, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will also explore how long pizza should spend in the oven whether we’re talking homemade or store-bought frozen pizza.
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At What Temperature Do You Bake Pizza?
There’s more than one way to cook a pizza!
Depending on the method you most prefer, you’ll want to set the temperature dial a few different ways.
As a general rule though, the hotter you can get the temperatures when baking pizza, the better. That’s how the crust gets that nice crispness and will maybe even develop some char and bubbles.
Here are my personal recommendations.
Oven
Most people who bake pizza will rely on their conventional kitchen oven to do it.
Going back to my hotter-is-better rule for pizza, I would recommend a temperature range of 450 to 500 degrees.
As you’ll see, that’s nowhere near as hot as a pizza oven gets, but for a household oven, it’s pretty much the upper reaches of the oven’s temperature capacity.
Now, some ovens do not reach 500 degrees. If that’s the case for your oven, then I would recommend baking pizza at a consistent 475 degrees.
It will take a bit longer than if you baked at 500 but will still suffice.
Some home pizza bakers prefer temps under 400 degrees, baking at around 375.
That temperature is a little low but can be suitable in certain scenarios.
For example, if your oven notoriously burns food, then keeping the baking process low and slow will prevent that.
Anticipate that it will take longer for your pizza to bake at under 400 degrees. Be sure to check the center for any cold spots, especially if you’re baking frozen pizza.
Grill
Grilling is one of the best parts of the spring and summer seasons.
Although most people associate burgers, hot dogs, and fruit with the grill, your pizza can go on the grill as well.
The grill can naturally reach higher temperatures than your kitchen oven, which increases the likelihood of your pizza coming out with a chewy, crisp, dark, bubbly crust.
Even though the grill can far surpass oven temperatures, you still only want to grill pizza at around 500 degrees.
If you’re in a bit of a rush, you can go between 550 and 600 degrees, but I wouldn’t push it much further than that.
I’m going to talk further about pizza baking times a little later, but I wanted to mention this now.
For however long you’re used to your pizza baking in the oven, be sure to reduce that time when grilling. The pizza will finish faster on the grill.
Pizza Oven
The most dedicated pizzaiolos own a pizza oven.
This is an expensive and space-consuming investment but produces the most restaurant-quality pizzas around.
A pizza oven can reach remarkably hot temperatures of around 1,000 degrees.
Even still, you only need temperatures of 800 to 900 degrees for baking a pie.
The pizza pie’s cook time will also be the shortest since you’re working with the hottest temperatures.
What About Frozen Pizza? What Oven Temp?
As much as you enjoy making pizza from scratch, sometimes you simply don’t have the time.
That’s why you always like to have a frozen pizza on standby in the freezer, as you can feed your family fast.
Precisely how long does it take for a frozen pizza to bake in a standard oven?
I would recommend deferring to the product instructions, which should be printed on the side or the back of the frozen pizza’s box.
The general recommendation for baking frozen pizza in the oven is at a temperature range of 375 to 425 degrees.
The bake time should be printed on the frozen pizza box as well, but it usually takes anywhere from 16 to 20 minutes to bake your frozen pizza.
Thawing the pizza on the counter ahead of time will speed up the baking process, as the pizza has to spend less time defrosting in your oven.
You can also tinker with your oven settings to make a more delectable frozen pizza from the oven.
For instance, try setting the oven to convectional or bake. The pizza should bake more evenly.
That said, you may have to rotate the pizza manually about midway through the cook time to ensure one side doesn’t get more done than the other.
How Long Do You Bake Pizza?
Whether you bake your pizza at under 400 degrees or around 900 degrees will impact the pizza’s overall cook time.
Here are the recommended times for pizza baking per the temperatures discussed in the first section.
| Baking Temperature | Pizza Bake Time |
| 375 degrees | 15 to 25 minutes |
| 450 degrees | 10 to 15 minutes |
| 475 degrees | 10 to 15 minutes |
| 500 degrees | 8 to 12 minutes |
| 550 degrees | 4 to 7 minutes |
| 600 degrees | 4 to 7 minutes |
| 800 degrees | ~2 minutes |
| 900 degrees | ~2 minutes |
| Over 900 degrees | Less than 2 minutes |
Tips for Baking Pizza
To wrap up, I want to present some handy tips that will help you bake pizzas you will be proud of each and every time!
Preheat the Oven
You already know that a hotter environment suits a pizza best whether that’s a homemade or frozen pie.
When using your oven to bake pizza, don’t insert the pie onto the racks until you hear your oven beep or chime to indicate that it’s preheated.
It can take five, sometimes upwards of 10 minutes for the oven to preheat (especially if you’re pushing the oven to its upper reaches of 500 degrees), but taking this extra time is worth it.
Use a Pizza Stone
Have you found that baking pizza at home leaves the crust white and undercooked? You wonder how the pizzaiolos get their pies so dark and crispy underneath.
Well, as I’ve established, grilling or using a pizza oven produces more of that crust char.
If all you have is your oven though, you can get more char with a pizza stone.
A pizza stone is a round cooking surface that’s produced from salt, stone, or ceramic.
You insert the pizza stone in the oven while you’re preheating it and then place your pizza pan on the stone.
The purpose of a pizza stone is to retain and regulate heat. Even though your oven is only baking the pizza at 500 degrees, internally, the pizza stone may have made it hotter still.
This is how you get the darker, crispier crust without a pizza oven.
When you’re done with the pizza stone, leave it in the oven to cool. Then take it out and store it in your oven or elsewhere for later.
Rotate Your Pizza
This goes back to my point from before.
When you put a pizza in the oven, on the grill, or in a pizza oven, one side is going to be more exposed to the heating element than the other.
That side risks becoming overdone the longer you bake the pizza and can even burn if you’re not careful.
Then there’s the other side of your pie, which is woefully under-cooked.
About midway through your pizza baking time, be sure to spin your pizza around so the other side gets some love as well.
Yes, that means that when baking in a pizza oven, you cook one side for one minute and then the other side for another minute.
Bake on the Lower Middle of the Oven
Which rack is best when baking pizza, the top, bottom, or center rack?
I would recommend the center rack or the bottom rack if your oven only has two. Be sure to keep the pizza in the middle as well.
You’ll still have to turn the pizza midway through baking, but it’s getting a more even distribution of heat with this placement.
Keep the Oven Door Closed
As tempting as it is to check on your pizza in the oven every two minutes, please refrain.
If your oven has a glass door, then you can preview the pie through the glass panel.
Your oven might also feature an internal light that will let you know how done the pie is.
When you open the oven door too much, you release all that hot air, as I talked about before. The oven could lose its temperature and your pizza could come out a touch undercooked!