The bakery pricing calculator for home bakers
Cupcakes, custom cakes, cookies, breads or pastry: see what each one really costs to make, what to charge for it, and which items earn you the most. Built for home bakers and cottage food sellers.
No sign-up. Works in your browser. Your recipes stay on your device.
Most home bakers charge too little
It is easy to price by what feels fair or by what the shop down the street charges. The problem is that baking costs hide in places you do not see at a glance.
Ingredients keep going up
Butter, eggs, chocolate and vanilla change price all the time. A price you set last year may barely cover your costs today.
The extras add up
Cake boards, boxes, cupcake liners, labels and ribbon rarely make it into the price, yet you pay for them on every order.
Custom orders are hard to quote
Every custom cake is different. Without the numbers in front of you, it is tempting to round down to win the order.
How to price baked goods
A simple method many bakeries use is food cost percentage: the share of the selling price that goes to ingredients and packaging.
Find the cost per serving
Add up what the ingredients you used cost (only the part of each package that went in), plus packaging. Divide by the number of servings in the batch.
Pick a target food cost
Bakery items commonly aim for a food cost between 25% and 35% of the price, which leaves a 65% to 75% gross margin for labor, overhead and profit.
Divide to get the price
Price = cost per serving ÷ target food cost. Then check it against your market and adjust.
A batch of 12 vanilla cupcakes
Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, vanilla and salt, plus liners, a piping bag and a display box, add up to about $9.00 for the batch, so each cupcake costs about $0.75 to make.
- Cost per cupcake
- $0.75
- Target food cost
- 30%
- Suggested price
- $0.75 ÷ 0.30 = $2.50
Selling them at $3.75 instead brings your food cost down to 20%, an 80% gross margin. PanProfit shows all of this for every recipe, automatically.
Made for the way bakers work
- Batch size in servings: cupcakes, slices, cookies or loaves
- Bakery ingredient presets (flour, butter, sugar, eggs and more) you can adjust to your own prices
- Packaging, labels, labor and delivery as separate cost lines
- Usable percentage for trim and waste, like zested lemons or hulled strawberries
- Suggested prices at 25%, 30% and 35% food cost
Spot the items that are not paying off
Your whole menu in one table, colored by margin: green for healthy bakery margins, yellow for tight ones, red for items that need a new price or a new recipe.
Planning a market day or a big order? The shopping list adds up everything you need to buy across recipes and batches.
Questions from bakers
What food cost percentage should a bakery aim for?
Many bakeries aim for 25% to 35%. Lower food cost means more room for labor, rent and profit. Premium or custom items often sit at the low end, simple everyday items closer to the high end. PanProfit colors each recipe so you can see where it lands.
Should I include my time in the price?
Yes, your time is a real cost. You can add labor as its own line in "Other Costs" for a recipe, or keep your food cost target low enough to leave room for it in the margin.
Does it work for custom cakes?
Yes. Build the cake as a recipe with its ingredients, boards, boxes and decorations, set the number of servings, and you get the real cost and suggested prices for that order.
I sell from home under cottage food rules. Can I use PanProfit?
Absolutely, that is who we built it for. Cottage food rules (what you can sell, labels, permits, sales limits) vary by state, so check your state's requirements. PanProfit helps with costs and prices, not with legal compliance.
Is it really free?
Yes, PanProfit is free during early access, with no sign-up and no limits. Your recipes are saved in your own browser, and you can back them up to a file anytime.
Price your next bake with confidence
Add your best seller first. It takes a few minutes, and you may be surprised by what it really earns.
Open the app, it's free