The fragrance-load math you already run — wax, load, fill weight — plus the column no free pour calculator gives you: true cost per candle, margin at your price, and what you actually keep at a booth, on Etsy, or selling direct. Your numbers stay in your browser.
Weights are by weight, not volume — put the pitcher on a scale.
Materials priced as what's actually in one candle — leftover wax stays on your shelf, so it isn't charged here.
Set your price and see the net per candle on each channel, after materials and that channel's fees.
madekeeper.com/candle-cost-calculator — fee rates checked July 29, 2026
Fee rates as of July 29, 2026: Square in-person 2.6% + 15¢ (Square's published pricing); Etsy $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 US payment processing (Etsy's Fees & Payments Policy). Simplified honestly: Etsy's transaction and processing fees also apply to shipping you charge, and Offsite Ads (12–15% when they bring the sale) aren't included — if those apply, your Etsy net is lower than shown. Booth uses Square's free-plan card-present rate; a booth or table fee is its own cost — this page prices the candle, and the fair profit calculator prices the day.
Want the batch to price itself?
In MadeKeeper this math runs automatically on every batch — your real wax and fragrance costs come from inventory, each pour computes its own cost per candle, and cure dates get watched so nothing sells early. See what MadeKeeper tracks for candle makers or poke around the live demo. Free during the founding pilot, $19/mo founding rate after — locked for life.
Every pour calculator on the internet will tell you how much fragrance oil to weigh out. Almost none will tell you what the candle cost you — and none will tell you what you keep after Square or Etsy takes its cut. That gap is where underpricing lives. A $14 candle that costs $3.65 in materials looks comfortable until the fees, the labor, and the booth fee each take their bite. The math below is the same math the calculator runs; do it once by hand and you'll never guess at a price again.
Fragrance load is a percentage of the wax weight, not the finished candle. One pound of wax at 8% takes 1.28 oz of oil — 16 oz × 0.08. Most soy container candles land between 6% and 10%, and your wax's spec sheet lists a maximum; push past it and the oil doesn't bind, it sweats out. The calculator multiplies your whole batch for you and gives the total pour weight.
Split one candle's fill weight into wax and fragrance — a 7.2 oz fill at 8% load is about 6.7 oz of wax and half an ounce of oil. Price those at what you paid per pound and per ounce, then add the wick, the vessel, and the label. That's materials. Your time is real too: hours on the batch, divided by the candles it made, at a rate you choose. Keep both numbers — materials-only tells you what a slow market can't take from you, with-labor tells you what the work should pay.
Fees stack differently. A card tapped through Square at your booth costs 2.6% + 15¢. An Etsy sale carries the 20¢ listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee, and 3% + 25¢ processing — roughly 10% plus 45¢, before Offsite Ads. Direct with no processor keeps the whole price. On a $14 candle the spread is about $1.78 to Etsy, 51¢ at the booth, nothing direct. Price so your worst channel still pays you.
Soy wants one to two weeks of cure before the hot throw settles in, so tonight's pour is stock you can't sell until a market two weekends out. Cure isn't a fee — it's your cash sitting on a shelf. The wax, oil, and vessels in a 24-candle batch are bought and paid for long before the first sale, which is why batch planning follows the show calendar and not the other way around.
Nowhere. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and your numbers are kept in local storage on your device, so they're still here next visit. No signup, nothing uploaded. (Clear your browser data and they go with it — print the batch card first.)