Candle Pricing Calculator
How to price your candles right:
1. Know your true cost. Most makers underprice because they forget something — usually their own labor, or overhead like rent, insurance, and website fees. Add up everything below, including your time. If you wouldn't work for free, don't price like you will.
2. Price wholesale first. Take your total cost and apply your profit margin to get your wholesale price. A 50% margin means doubling your cost — that's the industry standard, and it keeps you profitable on wholesale orders.
3. Let retail follow. Multiply your wholesale price by 2 to get retail. This gives stores their 50% margin, which is what they expect. If your retail price looks way off compared to similar candles, revisit your costs before you cut your margin.
4. Don't compete on price alone. A $12 candle and a $28 candle can use the same wax. The difference is branding, scent, packaging, and story. Price for the business you want, not the cheapest one on the shelf.
My Materials — saved in this browser
Your material costs are saved right here in your browser — no account, no sign-up, and nothing is sent anywhere. Enter your costs below, hit "Save my material costs," and they'll be filled in next time you visit. Other tools on this site will be able to use them too. You can also track how much you have on hand: set an on-hand amount and a warn-below level per material, and anything running low shows up right here.
Enter what you paid in bulk and how much you use per candle — the calculator figures out your per-candle cost for each material.
Selling on a marketplace? Its fees come out of your selling price before you see a cent. Pick a marketplace to prefill its usual fees — every rate is editable, because marketplaces change their fees — and your results will show net profit after fees next to your gross figures. Switch to "None" for direct sales with no marketplace fees.
Rates are starting points, not guarantees — marketplaces change their fees, so check the current schedule and edit any number. Your edits save in this browser, and editing a rate switches the marketplace choice to Custom.
Your numbers
Wholesale is priced so your profit margin hits your target after all costs. Retail is your wholesale price times the retail markup — the standard is 2x, meaning the retailer doubles your wholesale price. Always compare against similar candles in your market: if your price lands far above or below, revisit your costs or your positioning.
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