Craft Pricing Calculator (Handmade Candles, Soap, Crochet and Resin)

1. Enter your materials cost per item, your labor hours and labor rate, and your overhead per item. Together these are your unit cost.
2. Set the wholesale and retail multipliers (both default to 2) and a target margin for the second method. Change them to match your craft.
3. Enter your own marketplace fee and any flat fee from your platform. Read the two prices, the implied margin and the real profit after fees.

What each result tells you:

The labor rate, fee and flat-fee figures loaded here are examples, not market rates. Replace them with your own before you rely on the result.

Craft pricing is deciding what to charge for a handmade item so the price covers your costs, pays for your time and leaves a profit. It is a form of cost-plus pricing: you add up what one item costs to make, then add a markup to reach a selling price.

Most handmade sellers price two ways at once. A wholesale price is what a shop pays to buy your work and resell it. A retail price is what a customer pays you directly. This calculator shows both, because a price that only works at retail can leave nothing for wholesale.

It suits candles, soap, crochet and knitwear, resin, jewelry, ceramics and most small handmade goods. The guide on how to price a product covers the same idea for any product, not only crafts.

The tool first builds your unit cost, then applies two independent pricing methods and nets out your fees.

1. Unit cost. Materials plus your time plus overhead for one item.
2. Multiplier retail. Cost times your two multipliers. The 2x2 (4x cost) rule is a common handmade convention, not a rule that fits every product.
3. Margin retail. The price that leaves your target margin. Shown beside the multiplier price so you can compare.
4. Fees. Your marketplace percentage and flat fee come off the retail price to show what you actually keep.

The multiplier convention is widely taught in handmade-selling guides as a starting point. Treat it as a floor to sanity-check, not a final answer, and always test it against the margin you need.

A maker pours a candle. Materials are 6.00 (wax, wick, fragrance, jar, label). Labor is 0.5 hour at a 15 per hour rate, which is 7.50. Overhead per candle is 1.50.

Meaning: the 4x multiplier retail of 60.00 is a 300 percent markup, which is a 75 percent margin. The 60 percent margin method asks for only 37.50, so the multiplier price is the more ambitious of the two. After a 6.5 percent plus 0.20 fee the maker keeps 55.90 and 40.90 profit, a 73.2 percent net margin. The fee numbers here are an example only; enter your platform's real fee.

Markup and margin both measure profit, but against different bases, and confusing them is the most common pricing error.

On the example candle, a retail of 60.00 on a 15.00 cost is a 45.00 profit. As a markup that is 45 / 15 = 300 percent. As a margin it is 45 / 60 = 75 percent. Same price, two very different-looking numbers.

So the classic 4x-cost handmade price is a 75 percent margin. Use the markup calculator to convert a single price, and read margin vs markup for the full explanation. This tool shows both for your multiplier retail so the link is always in front of you.

The two methods answer different questions. The multiplier method asks "what is the usual handmade price for this cost?" The margin method asks "what price leaves the profit share I need?"

Neither is "correct." The multiplier price is a market-habit anchor; the margin price is a maths-first floor. When the margin price is far below the multiplier price, you have headroom. When it is above, the multiplier is too thin for your goal and should rise. Always compare both against what similar items actually sell for.

The Value of Your Time

Labor is usually the biggest and most under-counted cost. Count curing checks, cleanup and packing, not just the hands-on making minute, and pay yourself a real hourly rate.

Overhead per Item

Tools, rent, utilities, software and failed batches are real costs. Spread them across the number of items you realistically sell, not the number you make.

Marketplace Fees

A percentage fee plus a flat listing or transaction fee can quietly take a tenth of your price. Enter your platform's current figures from its own fee page; this tool bakes in none.

Wholesale Room

If you ever want shops to stock your work, your retail must be high enough that half of it (a 2x wholesale) still covers cost and profit. Pricing only for retail blocks wholesale later.

Craft-Specific Material Math

Dial in materials first with the candle wax calculator, the soap lye calculator or, for printed makes, the 3D printing price calculator, then bring the per-item cost here.

Starting a New Product

Use the multiplier method for a fast first price, then check it against the margin method and real listings before you launch.

Selling on a Marketplace

Work margin-first. Decide the profit you need, add your fees, and make sure the price still sits in the range buyers accept.

Offering Wholesale

Lead with the wholesale price. Confirm that wholesale covers cost and a profit, and that double it is a retail buyers will pay.

Reviewing an Existing Line

Re-enter today's material costs and fees. Rising supply prices often leave an old price below the margin you think you are earning.

1. Charging for Materials Only

A price that covers wax and a jar but not your time is a hobby, not a business. Always include labor and overhead.

2. Mixing Up Markup and Margin

A 50 percent markup is only a 33 percent margin. Know which one a guide or buyer means before you match it.

3. Ignoring Fees Until Payout

The retail price is not what you keep. Net out the marketplace percentage and flat fee first.

4. Pricing with No Wholesale Room

If retail is barely above cost, there is nothing left to give a shop. You then cannot grow through stockists.

5. Copying a Competitor's Price

Their costs, batch size and time are not yours. Use their price as a sanity check, not as your formula.

The arithmetic is exact. The result is only as good as the costs, time and fees you enter, and the multiplier convention is a habit, not a standard.

Add your materials, your time (hours x your rate) and overhead to get a unit cost, then multiply by about 2 for wholesale and 2 again for retail, or set a target margin. Always net out your marketplace fees.

It is a common handmade convention: wholesale is roughly twice your cost and retail is roughly twice wholesale, so retail is about four times cost. It is a starting point, not a law, and both multipliers are editable here.

A 4x-cost retail is a 300 percent markup, which is a 75 percent margin. Whether that is right depends on your market, your fees and what buyers will pay.

Markup divides profit by cost; margin divides the same profit by price. A 100 percent markup is a 50 percent margin. This tool shows both for your retail price.

Yes. Unpaid time is still a cost. Pick an hourly rate you are willing to work for and include it, or you are subsidising every sale.

Enter your platform's current percentage fee and any flat listing or transaction fee in the fee fields. We bake in no platform's rate, so use the figures from your marketplace's own fee page.

Because fees come off the top. The net-after-fees and profit-per-unit results show what you actually keep once the marketplace percentage and flat fee are removed.

Multiply your unit cost by your wholesale multiplier (2 by default). Check that this price still covers cost and a profit, since a shop will roughly double it for retail.

Yes. The cost-plus method is the same for any handmade item. Work out the per-item material cost first, with a craft-specific tool if you have one, then price it here.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers. Anything you choose to Save stays in this browser only.

• Margin vs markup: definitions and how to convert between them (MultiCalculators explainer).
• How to price a product: cost-plus pricing step by step (MultiCalculators guide).
• Pricing your product or service: cost-plus and marketplace basics for small businesses (U.S. Small Business Administration, read 2026-10-05).