Know what every candle costs before you pour.
One calculator, not four. The vessel says what it holds, the pour says how many candles the pot makes, the plan says what a batch of forty needs, and every candle carries its true cost and what you keep at a booth, on Etsy, or direct. Change one number and the rest rolls. Your numbers stay in your browser.
The vessel
Weigh water to the fill line and the wax it holds falls out — wax is lighter than water, about 86% as dense. The inside diameter picks the wick family.
Where these numbers come from: the wax-to-water factor and the wick families are the candle suppliers' published starting points (Lone Star Candle Supply's wicking guide; the CD, ECO and HTP series charts; Glassnow, Armatage and CandlePal on the 0.86 rule, all read Sep 3, 2026). A test burn is the only thing that confirms a wick.
The pour
Weights are by weight, not volume — put the pitcher on a scale. Fragrance load is a share of the wax, so the total pour is wax plus oil.
What one candle costs you
Materials priced as what's actually in one candle — leftover wax stays on your shelf, so it isn't charged here. Then your price, and what each channel leaves after its 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.
The numbers here are yours to check. This page does arithmetic on what you type — it cannot see your recipe, your equipment or your batch.
This is one calculator, not four.
The vessel feeds the fill. The fill and the load feed how many candles the pot pours, and what a batch of forty needs. That one candle's wax and oil feed its true cost, and the cost feeds what you keep on every channel. Change the water weight or the load and everything below rolls — the same way the app rolls when you import a recipe and adjust one number.
In your shop it is the same calculator with your rows behind it. Your shelf answers before you melt: “you can pour 28 of the 8 oz Amber & Oak with what's on the shelf — 12 more would need wax and jars,” with the numbers. The plan lands in Make with How many already filled in and the pour helper open on your wax and load. The wick that passed your burn test goes into your wick chart once, by jar size, and every pour after reads it. A web calculator cannot do any of that, because it has never seen your shelf. $19/mo for the whole back office, kept for as long as you stay. The shop stays free for cost a piece and one fair — no product cap. The tax packet, Etsy and Square, and more fairs are the $19.
The candle math makers actually ask about
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, none will tell you what you keep after Square or Etsy takes its cut, and none of them has ever seen your shelf. 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.
How much fragrance oil do I add per pound of wax?
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, or 16 oz × 0.08; one ounce per pound works out to 6.25%. 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, clogs the wick, or smokes. The calculator multiplies your whole batch for you, gives the total pour weight, and warns when you pass the max you set.
How much wax does my jar hold?
Weigh water to the fill line and take about 86% of it — wax is lighter than water, so an “8 oz” jar that holds 8.4 oz of water takes roughly 7.2 oz of wax and fragrance. The exact factor moves a little by wax, which is why it is a setting on this page rather than a number you have to trust. If the vessel's supplier lists a wax weight, that beats the arithmetic.
Which wick do I use?
Start from the inside diameter. Under two inches is votive territory; a three-inch jar sits in the mid-to-large single-wick range; past four inches the charts stop recommending one wick. Soy and a heavy fragrance load usually want one size up from the chart. Those are starting points from the wick makers' own tables, not an answer — only a test burn tells you the melt pool reaches the glass without tunneling or mushrooming. The wick that passes is the one worth keeping in your wick chart, by jar size, so the next pour in that jar never starts from the chart again.
How do I figure out what a candle costs to make?
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.
Why does the same candle net different amounts at a booth, on Etsy, and direct?
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.
What does cure time actually cost?
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.
Where does my data go?
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, so print the batch card first.) If you sign in to MadeKeeper on this device, the app leaves a copy of your shelf here so the page can say how many you can pour — that copy never leaves the device either.