Selling and marketing
How Much to Charge for Sourdough Bread: $12 Loaf Math
A loaf by loaf way to price sourdough so your hours and overhead are actually paid.
On this page
Try the free bake pricing calculator
Free, no signup.
Every loaf has to pay for three things before it pays you: what went into the bowl, the hours you spent on it, and the quiet costs of running a home bakery. Answering how much to charge for sourdough bread is mostly a job of adding those up honestly. The steps below keep it simple enough to do from your phone at the counter.
What to remember
- Your hours are a real cost, not a reward at the end.
- Overhead counts even when you bake at home.
- Price above your cost, then check the market.
- Rerun the numbers when flour prices move.
What does one loaf cost you to make?
Three costs sit inside every loaf. Ingredients are the flour, water, salt, and starter, plus anything you fold in. Labor is the time you spend mixing, shaping, proofing, and baking. Overhead is the slice of your monthly bills that belongs to that loaf, from your power to your shop fee.
Bakeprofit.com puts a sourdough loaf at 24 to 48 hours from start to finish. You do not need to bill every one of those hours. Track the time your hands are actually in the dough and let the waiting run in the background.
Write the hours down for one full bake, from feeding the starter to bagging the last loaf. That number is the one you will reuse every week, and it is the number most home bakers never count at all.
Run the numbers in five steps
Add up the ingredients
Price out the flour, water, salt, and starter for one loaf. Note which flour you used, because a better flour costs more per loaf.
Put a rate on your hours
Time the hands on work for a full bake and pay yourself an hourly rate you would accept from another bakery.
Spread your overhead
Add your monthly costs, such as your Brevl fee and your power bill, then divide by the loaves you bake in a month.
Add the three together
Ingredients plus labor plus overhead gives you the true cost of a single loaf.
Set a price above it
Pick a price that clears your cost and leaves a margin, then check it against what buyers near you already pay.
Do this once for your standard loaf and the result becomes your floor. Every size you sell gets its own floor, because a small loaf and a large one do not cost the same. Your first number will be rough, and that is fine. The point is to have a cost you can check.
A worked example on a ten loaf bake
Say you bake ten loaves in a week and sell them at $12 each. Ingredients come to $3.00 a loaf, which sits inside the $2.10 to $3.80 range from the same costing guide. At $20 an hour, 12 minutes of hands on work per loaf is $4.00.
Your fixed monthly cost in this example is your Brevl shop at one flat $20 a month, with no cut of your sales. At 40 loaves a month that is $0.50 a loaf. So each loaf costs $3.00 plus $4.00 plus $0.50, which is $7.50.
Sell that loaf at $12 and you keep $4.50 after every cost, ingredients, labor, and overhead included. That is a margin of about 38 percent. Across the ten loaf bake you take in $120 and keep $45.
Drop the same loaf to $8 and you keep $0.50. One quiet market day at that price wipes out the whole week of work.
What will your market actually pay?
Artisan markets charge $10 to $18 for sourdough loaves, according to bakeprofit.com. Your price needs to sit inside the range your buyers can see, or you need a clear reason for them to pay more.
Loaf size is the easiest lever you have. A smaller loaf at a lower price still clears your cost because it uses less flour and less of your time. Put the weight on the label so buyers compare like with like.
If the top of your local market sits below your cost, change the loaf rather than your pay. Drop an expensive flour, bake a smaller size, or sell halves and slices. Then read what farm stand baked goods prices look like for the rest of your table.
Explain the loaf and the price together. A card that names the flour, the weight, and the bake day gives buyers something to compare, and it makes a higher price easier to say out loud.
When you are ready to pick a table, selling bread at a farmers market covers what to bring and how to set up.
Wholesale orders change the math. When a cafe or a neighbor wants a dozen loaves a week, your labor per loaf falls because you bake in one run. Price the order from your cost and put the number in writing before you start.
Mistakes that eat your margin
The next mistake is pricing to the cheapest table at the market. Someone will always sell for less, and often they left their own hours out of the math. Price from your cost, not from their sign.
Rounding down is the quiet one. A price of $7.50 that becomes $7 because it looks tidier gives away 50 cents on every loaf, which is $20 across a 40 loaf month.
The last is never raising the price. Flour costs move and your time does not get cheaper. Check your numbers each season, change the label, and tell your regulars before the next bake. Then look at how to sell sourdough at a farmers market so the price holds up at the table.
Not writing the numbers down is its own cost. If your cost per loaf lives in your head, you cannot tell whether a bake day made money. A simple note per loaf fixes that in a few minutes.
When flour and fees change, your price should too
Rerun the math when a flour you use goes up, when a monthly cost changes, or when you add a new size. A price set once and never checked slowly turns into a loss.
Keep your recipe costs and your ingredient list in one place so the update takes minutes, not an evening. If you take orders by text, use order form wording that asks for the details you need and quote the price in the same reply.
Set a reminder for the first week of each season. Spend ten minutes on the math, write the new price on the label, then leave it alone until the next check.
Common questions
How much should I charge for a sourdough loaf at a farmers market?
Start from your true cost per loaf, then price above it. Artisan markets charge $10 to $18 for sourdough loaves, so a $7.50 loaf leaves room at $12. Check your own market first and write the size on the label so buyers compare fairly.
Do I need to pay myself an hourly rate?
Yes if you want the bake to be a business. Choose a rate you would accept from another bakery, then count only the hands on work. Waiting on the dough is not paid time, but mixing, shaping, and packing are. Write it down once and reuse it.
Should packaging be part of my price?
Packaging belongs in your cost, so count it alongside ingredients. Bags, labels, and boxes add to every loaf you hand over. If you sell at a stand, add your table fee and the bags you keep under the counter into the same overhead figure.
How often should I raise my sourdough price?
Review it when a flour you buy goes up, when a monthly cost changes, or at the start of each season. Small, regular changes are easier for customers than one big jump. Tell your regulars before the next bake day and change the label at the same time.
Is it bad to undercut the other baker at my market?
It usually is, because you cannot see what they pay themselves or what they pay for flour. Price from your own cost and let your loaf speak for itself. A low price is hard to raise later without losing the customers who came for it.
Sources
General information about pricing, not legal or tax advice. Check your state's cottage food rules before you sell.